happiness. What about them? I wonder if Jesus did not have them in mind--all of them, the wrong-headed and the right-intentioned--when He said, "Judge not."
How can I judge? I do not know another's circumstances, I do not know his habits, physical, mental, or spiritual. I do not know whether the apparent sinner is all wrong, or the apparent saint all right. I know I am neither, and that perhaps they are both somewhat like me.
I see people who work hard and accomplish nothing worth while. I see people who seem to loaf and yet achieve. But how do I know that the hard worker doesn't defeat himself by his thinking, and that the loafer's real work is done in his thought. I cannot judge either of them with any accuracy of course, so how can I judge the advice they may give me?
But the most dangerous critic I have among other people is the one who challenges me with "Physician, heal thyself." When I am not successful in solving all my own problems, when there are still obvious defects in my way of living, when I go directly contrary in practice to what I preach, then this critic finds me vulnerable indeed.
But should I mind? Is he injuring me? Isn't he really helping me--helping me to see how I might be a much better person than I am, how I might have a much finer experience than I am having, how I might rise to greater heights? His criticism may sound destructive, but if I see it as constructive I shall simply gain by it--perhaps, immeasurably.
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