JUDGING by John Sterling

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 13, 1900

JUDGING

By John Sterling

We do not know our closest friends, Their ways we've ne'er divined, For we know not the inner thought That animates the mind.

We often say what we would do If we were So-and-so, But who can tell how he would act With mind he can not know?

And yet we judge those whom we see About us every day; Nor are we fully satisfied Unless they think our way.

We long to tell them what to do, Precisely how to live, Just how to handle their affairs, Exactly what to give.

We wonder why they will do this, And never will do that; Appointing to ourselves a place As private autocrat.

Oh, “judge not that ye be not judged.” How often have we heard This saying of the Master-mind! But do we heed the word?

Instead of looking at the mote That's in another's eye, Suppose we clear away the beam That in our own doth lie.

For when the beam is all removed, Perhaps, then, it may seem The little mote we saw so plain Was our reflected beam.

—John Sterling.