act towar<l them, these rules are imperfect. They leave l!Omething to be desired and to be attnined. II. T11E INSl'IRATION WE NEED TO YULP'IL IT. This great precept of Christ is n0t to be translnted into action like any ordinary military or municipal regulation. We must gain some inspiration from our Lord himself if we are to keep this great com- mandment. And we must be prompted by three things. 1. An earnest desire to follow Christ's own example. 2. A strong purpose of heart to do his holy will, that we mny please nntl honour him. 3. A kind and Christian interest in our neighbours; a grncious pity for those whom he pitied, and for whom he suffered and died; a warm interest in their welfare; a firm faith that they can be raised a.nd renewed aud refined; a holy love for all those who love him.-C. Ver. 31.-Human judgment. These words must be taken with discrimination; they must be applied in the exercise of our natural intelligence, distinguishing between things that differ. We must observe- !. THE TRUTH WHICH LIES OUTSIDE THE THOUGHT OP' CHRIST. Our Lord could not possibly have meant to condemn the exercise of the individual judgment on men or things. By so doing, indeed, he would have condemned himself; for did he not say, "Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right"? And almost in the same breath he intimates that men are to be judged by their actions as is a tree by its fruit (ver. 44). We are commanded by the Apostle Paul to" pro•1e all things, and to hold fast that which is good;" and John exhorts us to "try the spirits whether they are of God." Things must be judged by us; new doctrines, new institutions, new methods of worship and of work, come up for our support or ocr condemnation, and we must judge them, by reason, by consci51nce, by Scripture, that we mny know what course we are to pursue. Men must be judged by us also. ,ve ha"e to decide whether we will give them our coufidence, our fnendship; whether we will admit them into the family circle, into the society, into the Church. To decline to jndge men is to neglect one of the most serious duties and most wei_ghty obligations of our life. And knowing all that we do7i:oow from Jesus Christ what men and things should be, having learnetl of him the essential value of reverence, of purity, of rectitnde, of charity, we are in a. position to "judge righteous judgment," as he has desired us to do. II. THE SINFUL ERROR WHICH CHRIST CONDEMNS. The judging and the condemning which our Lord here forbids are those of a wrong and guilty order. They are, at least, threefold. I. Hasty judgment; coming to unfavourable conclusions on slight and insufficient evidence; not giving to the inculpated neighbour any fair opportunity of explaining the occurrence; not waiting to think or to learn what has to be taken into account on the other side. 2. Uncharitable fudgment, and therefore unjust judgment; for we are never so unjust as when we are uncharitable-as when we ascribe the lower motive, the ignobler purpose, the impure desire, to our neighbour. All uncharitableness is sin in the sight of Jesus Christ; and when the want of a kindly charity leads us to misjudge and so to wrong our brother, we fall un,ler the condemnation of this his word, and under his own rersonal displeasure. 3. Harsh condemnation ; taking a tone and using a language which are unnecessarily severe, which tend to crush ra:her than to reform, which daunt the spirit instead of inciting it to better things; condemnation which is not after the manner of him who "bath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities," who" will not always chide, neither doth he keep his anger for ever;" condemnation which would be disallowed by him who rebuked his disciples when they rebuked those mothers who were bringing their children to his feet, and who forbade these disciples to forbid any one doing good in his name, even though he" followed not" with them. Ill. TnE PENALTY WE l'AY FOR OUB TilANSGRE~SlON. If we wrongly judge and wrongly condemn, we ahall suffer for our mistake, for our sin. I. God will condemn us for our injustice, or our undue and inconsiderate severity. 2. \Ve shall have, some day, to reproach our~elves. Bnt the most marked penalty will be found elsewhere. 3. Our fellow-men will treat us with the severity we impose on thorn. It is the universal habit among men to take up the attitude toward any neighbour which he assumes toward them. Townrd the merciful we are merciful, even as our Father is; toward the ~vore we are se·,ere. Again and ngain does the fact present itself to our lf-0 THE GOSPEL ACCOROTNG TO S1'. LUKE. [en. vt. l-41l,
observation that the men who have been relentloss in their punishment of others have been held fast to ~he letter of the bond in the day of their own shortcoming; they who sho_\\" 110 mC"rcy "111 find n~ne when they need it for their own soul, llut if we judge lemeuily and condemn sparingly, we shall find for ourselves that men are just unto the just and generous unto the geuerous.-0,