Or pass from qualities of character to modes of presenting
1 Dante, Paradiso, xiii., tr. by Wright.
i CORINTHIANS iv. 5 165
truth, and the attitude towards these. The young are often enamoured of the showy — the showy in religious testimony, the showy in religious teaching. What draws them and holds them is often the element of novelty, the ingenious in thought, the rhetorical in language, the exciting in appeal. And yet, in look- ing down on the quiet and homely — plain, sober truth, plainly and soberly preached — they are judging before the time.
If When Dr. Wayland was president of Brown University, and professor of moral science, his eldest son, who was a senior, in reciting to him one day, drew from his father, by a question, the expression of a certain opinion. " The esteemed author of this book," said the young man, holding up his father's text-book on moral science which the class was using, "holds a different opinion." " The author of that book, my son," said Dr. Wayland quietly, "knows more now than he did ten years ago." The teacher of any science who does not know more now than he did ten years ago, who never finds occasion to modify and qualify and reshape his utterances, is probably a cheap and poor sort of teacher.1
(2) But again, judge nothing before the time, in view of possible changes in the matters to be judged. These changes may be real and great. There are, for instance, the changes that are incident to a natural progress, from the partial to the perfect, from the provisional to the final, from the rudimentary stage to the developed, from the dust and confusion of the beginning to the faultlessness of the ending. Hence the commonplace, so often quoted and so often exemplified, that the public should not see half-done work.
If I know a place of worship, the interior of which exhibits an amount of comfort, completeness, and beauty beyond the aspect of most, and certainly in advance of its own original con- dition. Yet in the first confusion, when old arrangements were disturbed, levels altered, and pews removed, one visitor after another entered the church, and the verdict of each was unfavour- able: "The work should never have been begun. The building should never have been touched. The result will be failure and disfigurement." So the grumblers went on, till, to avoid a general panic, as well as to secure peace for the actual work, those in charge had to lock the door. The fault-finding was all premature, as the fault-finders themselves acknowledged. Things
1 Washington Gladden, Where does the Sky Begin, 66.
1 66 JUDGING PREMATURELY
fell into place and order and harmony; panel matched with panel, colour blended with colour, and the satisfactoriness of the final result justified the disorder and inconvenience of the temporary means.1
If When an artist has projected a great picture, when he has completed all his studies, conceived his plan, and decided upon his methods, he proceeds to make his preliminary sketches. He roughly draws his various figures, in such postures and with such general expression as he means them to have in the canvas where he will finally place them. They are roughly done at first, and, taken by themselves, suggest no adequate notion of what the general composition will be. Perhaps he even paints each sketch with some elaboration. But even then it would be impossible to make a fair estimate of any of these carefully studied figures, or pronounce upon their colouring; because in the mind of the artist every one of these details has a definite relation to every other, and neither face nor figure, outline nor colouring, can be understood, except as it is thought of in connection with all the rest. So the real value of all these separate particulars cannot be estimated alone. But when the artist begins to draw them in together, when he groups these sketches on one surface, when he blends the colours, and combines them in relation to the lights and shadows of the picture, then one may begin to see, and not till then, all that the studies contained. They can be interpreted only by their final combination, their place in the finished picture.2
(3) Judge nothing before the time, in view of possible changes in surrounding circumstances. Changes may yet reveal the use of the object in question — evince the need of it, prove the value of it, and make you thankful it was ever provided. Till then, however puzzling the thing may be, be patient, be watchful, and do not judge unfavourably before the time.
^f There are certain religious definitions, certain theological formulas, the meaning and value of which are by no means very clear at first. They are so dry, so abstract, so rigid, so formal in character, so antiquated in phrase, that they seem at times a simple clog on the memory, mere dead -weight on the mind. " How useless such lore ! " you say. " Surely the time might be better occupied, the faculties might be better exercised, than in memorizing and storing such arid material as this!" But in speaking thus, you may be judging before the time. Truth
1 W. A. Cray- s J. C. Adams.
i CORINTHIANS iv. 5 167
summed up and expressed in fixed and formal dogma may lie in the mind and the memory, unappealed to and unused, so long as there is nothing to disturb. But let circumstances change. Let the sky be dark with the clouds of religious doubt, let the air be agitated with the winds of religious controversy, let the path- way be blocked with the drifts of religious error, and then comes the use of such statements as these, making the road plain, keeping the road open, for those who can put them to use, while those who have no such provision are left to wander amidst the mists and the quagmires of fanaticism, fickleness, and doctrinal mistake.1