Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1902-08-15

Judge not, that We be not judged"
After Massillon, the great court
preacher Of France, had finished one
of his sermons, Louis XIV. summoned
him to his side and said: "Massillon,
how is it you impress me as you do?
l have heard many great orators
preach. They nearly always please
me. But when you preach, instead Of
being pleased with you / am always
with myself. l always
feel that l want to be a better man
MS well as a better king" well"
the great preacher, THE
only way 1 can account for it. your
majesty, is because am always
preaching against myself. When
am about to make up a sermon, say
to myself, 'MassillOn. what Is the sin
which you have hardest work TO battle
todayY And when preach against
my own sins generally find that there
nre similar sins in other hearts which
am also preaching against" If there
Is any truth in the words which Mas
sillon spoke to Louis XIV. this sermon
will carry a message to every pew.
OF all sins there is none more easy
for speaker as well as hearer to fall
into than the sin of hypercriticism.
The sin of censorious criticism is al
most universal because one is apt TO
commit it at first uncOnsciOusly and
without generalization or forethought.
If a party Of young people are tOgeth-
or, 1t is not hard to find fault with the
minister. and the doctor. and the dress
maker. and the neighbours wife and
child and house and all that he has.
1t is not difficult to lay the reputation
of an absent member upon the dlssect-
Ing table of traducement and cut and
hack it into pieces with cruel. sharp,
merciless tongues. 1t is not always a
dlsagreeable opportunity TO repeat the
ISLANDERS and the vilifcatiOns and the
defamations and the wholesale con-
formations which have been circulated
about the neighborhOOd in reference to
other peoples characters.
Now, my text is a divine protest
against the hasty and the unjust judg-
ments with which we condemn our fel-
low men. 1t is Il divine protest to
bring men and women to the realiZa-
ton of the awful damage they are do
ing themselves, as well as others, by
the pernicious habit Of censOrious crit
icism. 1t is protest to prove that
though we can honor men and love
men and praise men and help men, yet
we must not hate men or deride meI
or condemn men. Condemnation is {
divine prerOgatiye. Condemnation j!
thunderbolt which will shatter every
human hand that tries to grasp it anC
to hurl it. Condemnation IL o poison
Gus fang which viii destroy our owl
lives as well rs lacerate aud instill thu
fatal poison into their flesh.
Sin of Hypocrisy.
Personally we should not condemn
men. because, having imperfectiOns il
ourselves, we have no right to eXpec
and demand perfection in others. If w
were holy, perhaps we might have
right to expect other people to be holy
II we were pure minded, we nigh
have a right to expect other people t
be pure minded. II we loved the Lor,
our God with all our heart and sou
and mind and strength; If we wer
perfect husbands and perfect wives
perfect parents and perfect children
perfect in our love for our fellow mel
we might expect others TO be perfec
But what right has the kettle to con
plain about the pot being unclean
What right has the raven to eroak b.
cause her young have wings rs blae
as the night? What right has til
Phnrisee to stand up and condemn til
, poor publican, who stood afar of an
beat his breast. moaning, God be me
ciful to me, a sinner" when the PhaI
. see himself was so sinful that he Wa
like whited sepulcher (which iRdee
appeared beautiful outward, but wa
within full of dead mems bones and a
. unclean?" And what right have 20
o hearer. to sAy your neighbor is
bad man or a bad woman and shou
be condemned when you yourself hay
!. an evil eye and have not yet, by Il
= grace of God, plucked 1t ont? WhG
you yourself have an evil hand or fO
> and have not yet amputated It? WhC
you yourself have an evil tongue
speak or an evil ear to listen again
the deeds Of your neighbOrs?
What would you think of a dissolu
Judge condemning a prisoner at t
bar for the same sins of which he hill
= self was tiagrantly guilty2 Why, SUI
, q hypocFltical and unjust judge won
\, be submerged under q tidal wave
y popular scorn. Such a dishonest jud
er would be treated as merciIessly as "
q that judge who in the darkest days
d, ROme's infamies undertook to senteI
some cOnSpiratOrs to death while
himself was one of the cOnspirato
He would be dragged from the Ju
> cIaI bench And yet this sin Of c.
demning others when we ourselves 1
guilty of sin is o hnbit which can
Y. laid at many Il door. We superciliO
ly demand perfection in others wi
we ourselves are imperfect.
= Judge Not.
To illustrate the truth that the m
el we ourselves have gone astray
ov more we arc apt to condemn sh
I'm comings in others. ! would read fl
ate leaf out Of the book Of memory.
les remember many years ago Lac
ses character was being assgiled on a b
fe's porch. A member Of the party
ms that time denounced the absent woI