The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-02
By Charles Wagner
Judge Not

cells that were called "oubllettes." Once in them, the voice could no longer he beard by men. Those who put you there doubtless went out hunting, on their pleasures, smiled at their wife and children; perhaps they were dead, but their sentence killed you, even after their death and continued to ex terminate you far from the noise of the world, far from other men, in oblivion, under the dust. When we think of that, sometimes it seems to us as though we were buried alive in some dungeon. and we experience a feeling of suffocation, as though stiflng in a closed tomb. But. have you ever thought that there are some oubliettes that still exist? Those oubliettes are in our hearts. There are many hearts in which unhappy creatures. who will never again see the light of day, are locked up by old grudges. and walled up behind angry. unforgiving passions Think of that! Will we always be the same merciless murderers?
 The Gospel is contemplating, bold; it raises mountains: it does not doubt of the future; fear is unknown to 1t: 1t wishes to deliver us from everything is that of fear by the spirit of trust But there is a fear that the Gospel teaches us, that 1t proclaims. that it inoculates. a fear that the Gospel would wish to put into all souls-and that is the fear of doing harm to others, the fear of making a mistake, when judg ing ones fellow men.
 Now, we are generally afraid of many things which we ought not to dread; but on that formidable point we are intrepid
 ,I,, going up to the temple, with his heart bound with the tripe cuirass of It's own justice; nothing renders one more unjust than to be too sure of ones own justice. | can see him; he is there; He stands before God. The knowledge that he is under a gaze that allows of no sin does not trouble him. He Is so blind that the light does not dazzle him, but he sees clearly Into the wretch ednesS of his fellow men; his contempt has wide-open eyes, if his repentance has closed them. Then he prays and thanks God that he Is not an unjust man. He says it in his own words, amongst the sins of which he feels him self exempt, amongst the uncleanliness | that has no place on his spotless and pure body. T thank thee, O God" the | Pharisee says, that I am not unjust, and as he renders thanks for not be- | ing unjust. he commits the most in human, the most cruel. the most re- volting of all njustices toward the poor man who stands trembling and asham-
 cd by his side.
 Pause before this immortal object
 lesson, and then go and judge. pass
 sentence, make 1t your business to con
 dcmn. No, there is but one Judge: | Let me not fall into the hands of men,
 but in your Fatherly hands, o God. let
 me fall"
 If we cannot for the love of others
 make up our mind to leave off this habit of judging, let us do so for our 1 own sake. Every false judgment In
 our minds is a step toward death. False | judgment is. in the mind, what bad | banknote is in a safe, or a leaden coin | in a purse, The moral fortune of a
 man is seriously compromised by the
 great number of false bills in the cof-
 fers of his heart, in the shape of false | Judgments upon men. cases and insti- | tutions.
 l Why do we nourish our soul with | doubtful Judgments? Why go forward
 in the world with our steps constantly hampered by all that we have done | that is incompetent or wrong or hypoc- rtical in Judging our fellow men? We do not see clearly. Our judgments of all about us become a thick forest. which arrests our onward progress, which conceals the sum above heads. In time, we bury ourselves beneath