our fellow-men in this way 1 Could we bear to have the same bright light of abstract truth turned upon us? Have we no evils and sins of our own, which, if the Divine justice were to call us to account for, as rigorously as we are ready to call our fellow-men to account for theirs, would bring down fearful condemnation on our heads? "Cast first the beam out of thine own eye," said the Savior, "and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote from thy brother's eye." It is well that we have a more lenient as well as a wiser Judge of our actions, than weak man, or we should all fare hardly enough. Happily, there is One, who knows all the palliating circumstances connected with our disordered condition; who knows how we came into it in the first place — sometimes through no fault of our own; and who knows, furthermore, what efforts we have used against the evil, and who has seen us, perchance, though often falling, yet rising again and striving to do better. Our All wise Judge can alone be perfectly just, as well as good, because He alone knows and can make allowance for all our weaknesses, our unavoidable errors, the defective nature of the instruments we have to work with, and the difficulty of the task to be accomplished. Whereas harsh and ignorant man looks only at the general appearance, the mere surface of things; and if that looks wrong, he is ready, forgetting his own sins, to pronounce upon it a sweeping condemnation. This is neither mercy nor justice; and it was in view of this uncharitable tendency on the part of man, that the Divine Savior gave the command, "Judge not, that ye be not judged."
