Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-06-10

n KNOW clergyman who once
y threatened to have a special row Of
DeAts on a raised platform placed fac.
4 Ing the pews in his church with their
z k6ck to the chancel. He said they
were to be called ''the seats Of the
seornful.' and II they we're too few he
would add more.
I asked him how he could get any
ct his congregation 10 occupy them. and
Z he said: They will be for the men
and women who sit in Judgment OF
other folk. II will be understood that
they qualify for those seats as soon
as they judge any one else.
l knew that he was solacing himself
hy this play of fancy. but I knew also
that In his heart he wished that he
might do that very thing. so to humor
him ! asked him what he meant by
Judging. And | gathered that what
he meant was an attitude OF the mind
OF one human toward another OF moral
condemnation based on only a partial
knowledge Of the facts. He held to 1t
that no human being can know all the
facts Of another human being. and
only specially placed persons like judges
in court Of law can acquire enough
facts to warrant legal condemnation.
which is not the same thing as
only Judge Of all men has the reQui-
site knowledge to pronounce that great
and final judgment. For God only
can know to what degree the sins OF
the fathers. back 10 the third and fourth
generations. are responsible for the sins
of the children.
r REMEMBER not long ago there
j were enthusiastic souls who used to
rebel against God who visited the
sins of tho fathers on the children.
as though. having set the human race
going along tho lines of evolution and
given man a knowledge Of the laws Of
nature and the inevitable results Of his
own acts. God and not man was blame.
worthy for the committing Of acts with
inevitable results. But since those days.
when people preferred a miracle maker
to creator. we have got more used
70 accepting the fact that II IL not
God who IS cruel 10 unborn children;
,t is the father or the mother who
has handicapped them from the start
by burdening them with weaknesses OF
mind and frailties of body and embryo
desires and predictions that threaten
the very life Of the soul.
We understand that now. when We
20 with a sick person to physician.
ne never UPGlnS any Hl'Tt with Ju-l
the person before him. He goes back
10 the parents and grandparents And
what the family history does not record.
he puts the N-ray to finding out. One
may hide a tant in his blood. blot
on his escutrheon. from his nearest
friend. but his dentist will know II
and take precautions. All OF which is
only another way Of saying that. be-
sides being himself. man il also his
ancestors Which is why. | suppose.
to Judge him from a moral standpoint
to the extent Of saying how worthy or
how unworthy he Is Of keeping company
with the followers nf Christ is to 60
beyond the functions Of ordinary human
beings and arrogate power that men
do not possess.
A FTER all. it is relief not 10 have
n to pass a moral Judgment. To fol.
low the way Of Christ one can avoid
evil and condemn evil and yet neither
avoid evil men nor condemn them to
outer darkness.
Over and over again He was terrible
in His implacahle indignation against
even the evils which His followers con
doned but He shocked His dav and
generation. even His best friends. BY
csnsorting with publicans and sinners.
A publican in that day was man
who for his own gain worked for the
political parties which had enSlaved
the country and which were unpatr!-
otto and vena'. He usually was con-
tractor who feathered his nest in two
ways. first off the people from whom
he gathered taxes for the Roman Gov
ernment. and second IF the Roman
Government by false. or a. all events
scarcely DNapf