River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1910-04-14
Judging Righteous
Judgment
By BISHOP SAMUEL FALLOWS
d. D., L. L. d.

Judge not that we be not Judged
Matt. IL.
In the command, Judge not lest ye
be judged" Jesus does not mean that
We are not to form a judgment at all
upon persons or their actions. That
would be an abnegation of reason and
common sense. We must form an in
telligent opinion of the conduct of
others or progress would be impos-
sibIe in business, in literature, in art,
or in society in general. A careful,
considerate, mature judgment is not
ruled out by the command, Judge
not"
1t does not mean that we are not
to Judge ourselves, for this is an i'm
perative duty. The famous maxim,
Know myself" was claimed as an in
spiration from heaven itself Such
knowledge can come only from self
examination and dispassionate judg-
nlent of our own natures.
The reference, then, positively
viewed, is a plain forbidding of
harsh, censorious, uncharitable judg
ment Of one another. 1t is a peremp-
tory disapproval or bitter denuncia-
tiCn, or prematurely formed state
ment, and of the hastily performed
action consequent upon the minds
precipitate decision. 1t cuts up by
the root any tacit or avowed claim to
personal infallibility we may have
been entertaining or putting forth con-
corning our views. It shows us that
we cannot place ourselves justly in
poa1tion where we can assert that
everybody differing from us is of ne
cessity in the wrong, either in thought
or in action.
1t has been said with great show
Of truth that men have not only many
of the physical features of the lower
animals in their own faces, but also
the characteristics of these, their poor
relations. 1t is a sure sign Of the Turk
ing or open depravity of human nature
that such multitudes seek out the
weaknesses, the foibles, the failings of
their fellow-men. There is no con-
Sideration of the motives which may
have led men to do that for which
they are SO severely denounced, no
weighing and balancing the arguments
by which they may have been led
to their decision; no putting of ones
self in their place, and looking at
things from their point of view, and
no regard paid to the temptation or
the difficulty which may have been
before them.
It was the constant violation of this
ever-pressing command of Christ which
made the poet cry out: Cruel and
cold is the judgment of man." but by
and by will the deed and the plan be
judged by the motive which lieth be-
low.
That gentle-hearted, yet lion-hearted,
Caroline Fry, who won her way by fol-
lowing her Saviour's precept and ex-
ample to the better nature of the lost
ones of earth, has told us to consider
the dangers and the sorrows that lie
in the path of all to their eternal
home; to think of their secret pangs,
their untold agonies, their hidden
wrongs. Then will the heart grow
soft with pity toward our kind. How
can 1 tell what the censured person
suffers? That fault will cost dear
enough without my aid. So we shall
fear by a harsh word to add to that
which is too much already, as one
would shrink from putting his finger
into fresh wound"
We are not to forget, in considering
this Injunction of Christ, that it is
very probable that the faults or the
conduct in general, and in particular,
OF others, are never presented to our
innernost selves without distortion or
exaggeration, or, to say the least, with
out a strong coloring from the media
of our own moods, whims, peculiari-
ties, conditions, or feelings.
-Four things" said Socrates, be
long to the judge-to hear courteous
ly, to answer wisely, to consider sober
ly, and to decide impartially."
The spirit that our divine Lord
breathed and exemplified must be our
spirit, if we must obey his voice and
be in deed and truth Christians. He
said: 81 came not to judge the world"
It is the same term used in the Judge
not" of his sermon on the mount; as
LQOuSQ he udU SdIu. L, WHO might
Justly have come in a hostile, I'M
friendly spirit, came not thus to judge
the world" Again he declared: God
sent not his Son into the world to con-
denim the world" 1t is the same word
as judge No, blessed be his name,
not to Judge, not to condemn the world,
did he come, but that the world
through him might be saved. Harsh
ness, bitterness, denunciation never
save. The spirit of kindness, of sym
pathy, of forgiveness, of charity, the
outwelling love that beareth all
things, endureth all things, hopeth all
things, and that never faileth," this is
the spirit of Christ and Christianity,
and this is the only spirit in which
Christians are to judge their fellow