Judge not thy Brother

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 17, 1875

Judge not thy Brother.

MAN'S guilty heart judges of his fellow men by his own weakness and folly, and from this springs much of the “they say,” which has dimmed the eye and bowed the head of the innocent. Man's depravity sinks him in the scale of respect; therefore, men and women often suspect evil in others, for they know their judgment would be right in their own case, were they circumstanced as their victims.

“Be not ready to condemn The wrongs thy brother may have done, Ere you too harshly censure him: Of human faults, say, ‘I have none!’”

Who is able to look into the heart of man and discern all its thoughts, feelings, and emotions? Who can tell the struggle of that young heart which has fought and buffeted with the threatening waves of life, which are often seemed ready to engulf it in its cold embrace? What a beautiful mark for the venomous shaft of slander, with what quick perceptions they string their bows and take their sight for their fiendish purpose, and how sure their work! 'Tis not the accusation that admits of defense, or the arrow that flies at noon-day that is most to be dreaded; 'tis the cold, inscrutable glance, the curled lip, the chilled and altered manner. These try the strength of woman's fortitude, and gnaw with slow but certain tooth the cable that holds the anchor of fidelity.