The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1900-02-15
JUDGE NOT.
A Sermon Which Every Person
May Read With Profit.

R-v. G. Ernest Smith preached
very practical sermon last Sunday
on the subject of the "Judg.
ing of Others" from Romans XIV:10:
"But why dost thou Judge thy broth
err? or why dost thou set at nought thy
brother? for we shall all stand before
the Judgment seat of Christi
The speaker alluded to the scene of
Shakespeare's play, brought out by
the high school literary society on last
Friday evening.
The following were some of the
thoughts of the sermon:
"Shakespeare was a discerner of the
hearts and thoughts of men. He was
not a homiletical teacher, he did not
generalize, he does not weigh his char
>acters for us in the moral scales-he
passed them before us with no COM
ment. He is, however, always rever.
entail, his thought is always pure, his
conscience is the Christian conscience.
His serious plays, however characters
appear in them, always leave the i'm
preston of the inevitable evil conse-
quences of wrong doing and the woeful
outworkings of an evil heart. Antonio
would make the Jew a Christian by
force, this. was the ecclesiasticism OF
the time. Contrary to this Shakes
peare was far before his age in inter-
pretine the true spirit of Christianity
1t is seen here where Portia appeals to
the finest feelings of the human heart
'sMercy' Therefore Jew, though
justice be thy plea, consider this, that
in the course of justice none of us
should see salvation; We do pray for
MERCY"
The assassin with the blood of a hui
man being upon his soul trembles when
he hears the knocking at the gate. The
faithless Hamlet, the intellectual prodi-
gy and the spiritual orphan has at
last a mind full of INDIGESTION, a heart
full of misery.
Paul in this text was trying to settle
a quarrel that was going on between
some narrow and undiscerning people
who differed in opinion. over matters
of duty. Each individual was engaged
in the doubtful business of determin-
ing whether person who did not
think as he did about the importance
of some ceremonies could be the friend
of God.
The Judge who is able to determine
the merit of all human conduct Paul
told them had not yet been born-that
every man stood alone before Gods
Judgment. Doubtless if we knew more
about human hearts we should be more
tolerant. 1t is unfortunate for one to
know of only one kind of a man and
that one exactly like himself. The ir-
regular movements of some human
planets when seen under higher light
may be due to their moving in an other
orbit and around a center to us un.
known. We remember of the proud
and cynical stole who fell asleep Won
dering how providence could tolerate
"a class of men on earth so far beneath
his social rank and moral worth. In
his dream he saw the lame begger, who
waited at his gate for aims, had anti.
cipated him at the gates of heaven,
and in garments all glorions in light
and beauty had been appointed to ush-
err him into the presence of God.
If we will do rightly by others we
must have reverence for human life.
In other words we must love the souls
of men, irrespective Of their outward
peculiarities. Jesus was a master
here. He reverenced men as men. A
human soul was human soul to him.
No type or kind of man is left out of
his great provisional scheme. He
chose his apostles with a view, no
doubt, to their variety and differences.
Jesus recognized the rights that inhere
in individual life. He saw in the soul
of any and every man noble and in
finite capacity.
1t is the small and the narrow mind
which is intolerant. Jesus praised a
heather official, took the part of an
outcast woman against her would be
murderers-rebuked aPharisee for do
ing right in VIZ ong way, stayed over
night in the house of a dishonest pub
lie officer, reasoned with an unreaso on
able doctor of the law, fellowshipped