Judging Our Neighbors’ Afflictions
By Joseph Addison
WE cannot be guilty of a greater act of uncharitableness than to interpret the afflictions which befall our neighbors as punishments and judgments. It aggravates the evil to him who suffers when he looks upon himself as the mark of divine vengeance, and abates the compassion of those toward him who regard him in so dreadful a light. This humor of turning misfortune into a judgment proceeds from a wrong notion of religion, which in its own nature produces good will toward men, and puts the mildest construction upon every accident that befalls them. In this case, therefore, it is not religion that sours a man's temper, but it is his temper that sours his religion.—Addison.