U I have read somewhere of a young musician listening to the first rendering of his first great composition. He stood up above the orchestra, and as he watched how the music which was the child of his own soul stirred and swayed the hearts of the listening multitude, a strange new emotion swept over his own heart : and yet through all he kept his eye fixed on one who sat there amidst the throng, the face of one who was a past master in the art in which he himself was but a beginner; and every change in the master's face meant more to him than the thunders and plaudits of the crowd.1
K The governor of a Crown Colony may attach some importance to colonial opinion, but he reports home; and it is what the people in Downing Street will say that he thinks about. We have to report home; and it is the King whom we serve to whom we have to give an account.2
1 G. Jacksou. a A. Maclaren.
Judging Prematurely,
159
Literature.
Adams (J. C), The Leisure of God, 143.
Church (R. W.), Village Sermons, i. 8.
Colenso (J. W.), Natal Sermons, i. 72.
Dale (R. W.), Weekday Sermons, 38.
Gray (W. A.), Laws and Landmarks of the Spiritual Life, 41.
Home (W.), Religious Life and Thought, 86.
Hort (F. J. A.), Village Sermons in Outline, 217.
Howatt (J. R.), The Children's Angel, 67.
Johnson (H.), From Love to Praise, 165.
Knight (J. J.), Sermons in Brief, 46.
Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., ii. 19.
Liddon (H. P.), Advent in St. Paul's, 551.
Lightfoot (J. B.), Sermons in St. PauVs Cathedral, 193.
Lilley (A. L.), The Soul of St. Paul, 179.
Neale (J. M.), Sermons in Sackville College Chapel, ii. 177.
Parker (J.), Studies in Texts, i. 173.
Sauter (B.), The Sunday Epistles, 30.
Skrine (J. H.), The Heart's Counsel, 8.
Stevenson (J. F.), God and a Future Life, 55.
Whitworth (W. A.), Christian Thought on Present Day Questions, 200.
Christian World Pulpit, xliv. 257 (Harries) ; lxxiv. 410 (Henson).
Church of England Pulpit, li. 93 (Udny) ; lix. 112 (Jackson).
Churchman's Pulpit : Third Sunday in Advent : i. 482 (Crosse), 483
(Mulchahey), 485 (Farquhar), 488 (Shipman), 490 (Johnson). Contemporary Pulpit, 2nd Ser., ii. 193 (Church).
Judging Prematurely.
Judge nothing before the time.— i Cor. iv. 5.
1. The time of which the Apostle speaks is, of course, the Advent of the Lord. " Judge nothing," he says, " before the time, until the Lord come." He is thinking of his own character and work, which certain Corinthian teachers have been endeavouring to asperse. And what he declares is that in questions pertaining to his personal sincerity he admitted the authority of no earthly tribunal, he did not even rely on the verdict of conscience, he made his appeal to Christ. It was for Christ's approval that he worked here ; it was Christ's vindication that he expected here- after. When the end came, so he implies, the Corinthians would know what manner of man he had been — pure in motive, upright in conduct, faithful in witness. Meanwhile, if anything in his conduct and methods seemed perplexing, they were to avoid all harsh and uncharitable opinions, possess their souls in patience, and wait for the full and final explanation — "when the Lord comes."
2. Now, what is the exact force and import of the precept ? Is it meant that we are to form and express no judgment what- ever upon human conduct, upon anything that we see and hear of in the world around us ? This cannot possibly be meant, and for more reasons than one.
(1) The first reason is that, if we think at all, many judgments, of the mind if not of the lips, are inevitable. What is the process that is going on with every human being, every day from morning to night? Is it not something of this kind? Observation is perpetually collecting facts and bringing them under the notice of reason. Keason sits at home, at the centre of the soul, holding in her hands a twofold rule of law — the law of truth and the law i cor. — 11
i62 JUDGING PREMATURELY
of right. As observation comes in from its excursions, laden with its stock of news, and penetrates thus laden into the chamber of reason, reason judges each particular : by the law of right, if it be a question of conduct ; by the law of truth, if it be a question of faith or opinion. In a very great number of cases the laws of truth and right, as held by the individual reason, are very imperfect laws indeed ; still reason does the best she can with them, and goes on sitting in her own court, judging and revising judgments from morning until night. Probably two- thirds of the sentences we utter, when closely examined, turn out to be judgments of some kind ; and if our mental or moral natures are healthy, judgments of some kind issue from us as naturally as flour does from a working corn-mill.
How can it be otherwise ? God has given to every man a law or sense of right. As a consequence, every action done by others produces upon us a certain impression, which, when we put it into words, is a judgment. When we hear of a monstrous fraud, of a great act of profligacy, or of a great act of cruelty, we are affected in one way ; when we hear of some self-sacrificing or generous deed, of some conspicuous instance of devotion to duty, we are affected in another : we condemn or we approve as the case may be. Woe to us, if we do not thus condemn or approve ; for this would mean that our moral nature was drugged or dead.