God's faithful working in me...

[b]Judging[/b]

Why do we condemn those with whom we disagree? Why is it so difficult to accept a brother or sister who seems different? Or believes differently? Why can't we love them?

[i]"Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful, disputations." Romans 14:1[/i]

[i]Judge: Forming a negative mental opinion, about someone else who does something you would not do yourself[/i] - God commands us not to do this of our brethren!

[i]"But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God." Romans 14:1-12[/i]

We shall each stand before the Bema Seat of Christ and give account of ourselves. This judging spirit will probably be far more grievous in the eyes of Christ than that which we judged in our brother or sister.

[i]"Take this for a general rule: spend your zeal in those things wherein you and all the people of God are agreed and do not dispute matters that are doubtful." - Matthew Henry

"We make ourselves our brethren's Masters and do in effect usurp the throne of God, when we take upon us thus to judge them, especially to judge their thoughts and intentions, which are out of our view, to judge their persons and state, concerning which it is hard to conclude by those few indications which fall within our cognizance." - Matthew Henry

"In judging and censuring our brethren, we meddle with that which does not belong to us. We have work enough to do at home, and if we must needs be judging, let us exercise our faculty upon our own heart and ways." - Matthew Henry

"Christ is the gain we aim at, living and dying. We live to glorify Him in all the actions and affairs of life...Christ is the centre, in which all the lines of life and death do meet. This is true Christianity which makes Christ all in all." - Matthew Henry

"Now if Christ paid so dearly for His dominion over souls and consciences, and has such a just and undisputed right to exercise dominion, we must not so much as seem to invade it, or entrench upon it, by judging the conscience of our brethren, and arraigning them at our bar." Matthew Henry

"A believing regard to the judgment of the great day would silence all these rash judgments." Matthew Henry

"...He that is strict in judging himself and abasing himself will not be apt to judge and despise his brother." Matthew Henry

"Those are most pleasing to God that are best pleased with Him." Matthew Henry

"Acceptance of God is to be desired and aimed at in the first place, because, sooner or later, God will bring all the world to be of His mind." Matthew Henry[/i]

When you see a brother or sister failing in an area in which God has worked in your life, don't judge them as being failures but rather in humility thank God for what He has done in your life, express grateful praise to Him, then humbly ask Him to work in that brother or sister and lead them in the way of truth. Cause for humility: Why should God reveal a certain truth to you? For what reason are you worthy of all the mercies He has given you? Should it not put us in the dust that God has worked thus in our lives?!!

[i]"Lord, help us always to assume the good in a brother or sister." Prayer of a Christian

"Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God." Psalm 50:19, 20, 23[/i]

Instead of slandering a brother, offer praise to God for what He is doing in that brother or sister's life. Then God will be glorified. We must leave the perfecting process in God's Hands.

[i]"Thus let us endeavour to make the name of God glorious and renowned. If God seek our good, let us seek His glory. If He make all things tend to our edification, let us make all things tend to His exaltation." Thomas Watson

"Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Phil. 1:6

"The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands." Psalm 138:8

"Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." Jude 24-25[/i]

The above thoughts and quotes come from the Lord's working and revealing these things to me. The Matthew Henry quotes are from his commentary on Romans 14.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple weeks ago the Lord was revealing to me a very critical and judgmental spirit in me toward my brothers and sisters in Christ. It just broke me to realize there was such pride in me, and that I would treat my fellow brothers and sisters with such unkindness; even if they do not know of my thoughts about them, it is a grief to the body of Christ that I would do this. And it is a reproach to my Father, because just as He is working in me, so He is working in His other children. And to criticize a brother or sister in Christ is criticizing God's very work in their lives! Oh! To be critical of the working of God, that is so serious. The Lord has been so gracious to me in revealing this to me. With His grace and help I am seeking to love my brothers and sisters and accept them where they're at. How needy I am! And, how I praise God for His perfecting process in not only me but also in my brothers and sisters in the Lord. Praise God for His faithfulness! I would ask my brothers and sisters to pray for me that God would work in me a spirit of love and humility toward the body of Christ. I can testify that He is already doing this, and in revealing these things to me He has been changing my heart.

These last couple weeks as I have prepared and prayed for the upcoming conferences I will be attending God has really been working on me and peeling back the layers and showing me the need in my own life. It is good to set aside times of prayer and self-examination of our own lives as we prepare for the upcoming revival conference. It’s amazing what God reveals to us if we will only humbly come before Him and make ourselves available for the searching light of His Holy Spirit.

I do realize that there is to be a proper spirit of judging in the body of Christ toward sin that is manifested by professing Christians. [url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=19141&forum=34]This article[/url] is an excellent example on that type of judging. But how often do we overlook these big sins because we fear to offend someone, yet have no difficulty whatsoever nitpicking, slandering, and tearing down the character of a brother or sister who is seeking God? I confess, my natural, fleshly tendency has been to do the latter…but with God’s grace and help I am determined not to do this.

[i]I didn’t undertake this study for the sake of SI, it was for me, and to retain this lesson that God is teaching me that I might review it and not forget His gracious workings. But I wanted to share it here for others who are earnestly seeking God to go deeper with Him and live lives that are pleasing and glorifying to Him.[/i]

Blessings,

~Joy

None of us need judge the brother/sister personally.
[u] condemn or judge [/u].
John 8:11
11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I [u]condemn[/u] thee: go, and sin no more.
KJV

condemn: katakrino (kat-ak-ree'-no); from NT:2596 and NT:2919; to judge against, i.e. sentence:
KJV - condemn, damn.
(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.)

"But why dost thou[u] judge[/u] thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God."
Romans 14:1-12

to Judge NT:2919
krino (kree'-no); properly, to distinguish, i.e. decide (mentally or judicially); by implication, to try, condemn, punish:
KJV - avenge, conclude, condemn, damn, decree, determine, esteem, judge, go to (sue at the) law, ordain, call in question, sentence to, think.
(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.)

Webster definitions:
noun: public officer authorized to hear and decide cases in a court of law; a magistrate charged with the administration of justice.

noun:an administrative head of Israel in the period between the death of Joshua and the accession to the throne by Saul.

noun:to hear evidence or legal arguments in (a case) in order to pass judgment; adjudicate; try: The Supreme Court is judging that case.

[b]verb:[/b]to form a judgment or opinion of; decide upon critically: You can't judge a book by its cover.

Even though I believe condemning and judging is the definitions given above in the Greek-Hebrew Defintions and not used in the websters verb usage, I am not to condemn or judge anyone who defines it differently, by the defintions above. According to the Hebrew and Greek defintions I have no desire to. The one and only true Judge will do that. But I only have a desire to love them and try to give truth the best I can.
In His Love
moe_mac

edit: Each thing that we believe or speak or post to be God's truth, also applies to ourselves as well. If we read a post or hear a WORD spoken and we believe that person is judging by what they write, say or post in reply.(Are we ourselves judging that brother/sister)? We would be if we used the verb webster dictionary definition. Judging is much more than giving what we believe to be truth. We will be judged by God on whether we are correct or not in what we speak or post.
Let God judge right!

Thank you to each of one of you who have responded. How grateful I am for the love and patience of the saints!

Brother Ron, thank you for sharing those tidbits from 'If'. Oh that book, I find myself responding in two ways to it (and really to all truth that is shared), one I will read briefly over it and go on because I don't want to stop and admit how short I am of really knowing Calvary Love, or number two, I will really stop and let the words soak in, I will ask myself, even as the disciples asked themselves when Jesus said one of them would betray them, those haunting sorrowful words of [i]"Is it I?"[/i] (Mark 14:18-19), "Could these words be true in my life?"

IF, I have not the patience of my Savior with soul who grows slowly; if I know little of travail (a sharp and painful thing) till Christ be fully formed in them,
then I know nothing of Calvary love.

[i]The patience of my Savior...[/i] Is not that which is missing in me? His love, His patience? His longsuffering?

It's so staggering to think of this 'usurping of the throne of God' in censuring and judging our brethren...this pride, devious pride that slips in so subtly, [i]"Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.
By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil."[/i]

As I was reading through Joshua I came upon the passage about the eastern tribes and the little misunderstanding which occurred when they errected an altar as a memorial to the Lord. It's a very insightful passage on misjudging others when all we see are their actions and not their inward motives. Oh, the passage is in Joshua 22. :)

Matthew Henry had some good things on it. I'm only pulling out a few quotes from his wonderful notes.

[i]First, In every thing we do in religion, it highly concerns us to approve ourselves to God in our integrity therein, remembering that he knows the heart. Secondly, When we fall under the censures of men, it is very comfortable to be able with a humble confidence to appeal to God concerning our sincerity.

"But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self.
4 For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.
5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God." 1 Cor. 4:3-5

...Though the record on high, and the witness in our bosoms, are principally to be made sure for us, yet there is a satisfaction besides which we owe to our brethren who doubt concerning our integrity, and which we should be ready to give with meekness and fear. If our sincerity be known to God, we should study likewise to let others know it by its fruits, especially those who, though they mistake us, yet show a zeal for the glory of God, as the ten tribes here did.
....

We have here the good issue of this controversy, which, if there had not been on both sides a disposition to peace, as there was on both sides a zeal for God, might have been of ill consequence; for quarrels about religion, for want of wisdom and love, often prove the most fierce and most difficult to be accommodated. But these contending parties, when the matter was fairly stated and argued, were so happy as to understand one another very well, and so the difference was presently compromised.

...But a little want of consideration and good manners should be excused and overlooked in those who, we have reason to think, mean honestly.

...Much less did they go about to fish for evidence to make out their charge, because they had once exhibited it, but were glad to have their mistake rectified, and were not at all ashamed to own it. Proud and peevish spirits, when they have passed an unjust censure upon their brethren, though ever so much convincing evidence be brought of the injustice of it, will stand to it, and can by no means be persuaded to retract it.

[/i]

"...And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him,

[b]Follow me.[/b]

Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?

Peter seeing him saith to Jesus,

[b]Lord, and what shall this man do?[/b]

Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come,

[b]what is that to thee?

Follow thou me."[/b]

John 21:19-22

[i]Lord, help me to leave others in Your Hands, and focus on following You. You are able to take care of them and give them the instructions that they need to hear. Help me to be faithful to the instructions You give me to do.[/i]

Roniya:

Why do we condemn those with whom we disagree? Why is it so difficult to accept a brother or sister who seems different? Or believes differently? Why can't we love them?

We will be known by our love for each other.

Thank you for this meaningful thread.

[url=http://www.rbc.org/utmost/index.php?month=07&day=30][b]The Teaching of Disillusionment by Oswald Chambers[/url]

[i]Jesus did not commit Himself to them . . . , for He knew what was in man[/i] [/b]
—John 2:24-25

"Disillusionment means having no more misconceptions, false impressions, and false judgments in life; it means being free from these deceptions. However, though no longer deceived, our experience of disillusionment may actually leave us cynical and overly critical in our judgment of others. But the disillusionment that comes from God brings us to the point where we see people as they really are, yet without any cynicism or any stinging and bitter criticism. Many of the things in life that inflict the greatest injury, grief, or pain, stem from the fact that we suffer from illusions. We are not true to one another as facts, seeing each other as we really are; we are only true to our misconceived ideas of one another. According to our thinking, everything is either delightful and good, or it is evil, malicious, and cowardly.

Refusing to be disillusioned is the cause of much of the suffering of human life. And this is how that suffering happens— if we love someone, but do not love God, we demand total perfection and righteousness from that person, and when we do not get it, we become cruel and vindictive; yet we are demanding of a human being, something which he or she cannot possibly give.
There is only one Being who can completely satisfy to the absolute depth of the hurting human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Lord is so obviously uncompromising with regard to every human relationship because He knows that every relationship that is not based on faithfulness to Himself, will end in disaster. Our Lord trusted no one, and never placed His faith in people, yet He was never suspicious or bitter.
Our Lord’s confidence in God and in what God’s grace could do for anyone, was so perfect that He never despaired, never giving up hope for any person.
If our trust is placed in human beings, we will end up despairing of everyone."

Thank you, brother Chris, for sharing these things...

ChrisJD wrote:

We so often do not see clearly and there are many things not revealed to us. But we act like we see clearly, and know so much. Or we behave so inwardly, in the life of our thoughts. And God sees them all. We must always be fighting to take those thoughts, which are evil, and contrary to the knowledge of Christ, to take them captive.

Yes, brother, yes...the galling pride of our own hearts to [i]presume[/i] that our limited knowledge is sufficient excuse to judge another person,

[i]"We make ourselves our brethren's Masters and do in effect usurp the throne of God, when we take upon us thus to judge them, especially to judge their thoughts and intentions, which are out of our view, to judge their persons and state, concerning which it is hard to conclude by those few indications which fall within our cognizance." - Matthew Henry[/i]

And I may hold my tongue in expressing something unkind or critical of a brother or sister, but oh, if the thought is even there what a grief to God, and compromise it is! We must indeed take [i]every[/i] thought captive...

"And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked."

- Isaiah chapter 11 verses 1-4(KJV)

I just read that passage and this little bit stuck out,

[i]And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD:[/i]

In the fear of the Lord...

[i]"Fear is used to express a filial passion. In a good man, the fear of God is a holy awe or reverance of God and His laws, which springs from a just view and real love of the Divine Character, [b]leading the subjects of it to hate and shun everything that can offend such a holy Being,[/b] and inclining them to aim at perfect obedience. This is filial love." - Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary[/i]

[i]Do I have the fear of the Lord in my thoughts? Particularily in how I think of others?[/i]

Instead of smiting our brothers and sisters with the heavy rod of our thoughts, we ought to think with love, and pity, and compassion towards them. Does a man beat down his friends who are already fallen upon the ground? What kind of friendship is that? Who loves a man that is struggling up a mountain by beating him as he goes.

Oh, how do we love our brethren? Why are we so quick to tear down instead of build up? Do we have such a light consideration of how the Father looks upon our treatment of His children that we could stoop this low; even if no man knows of those thoughts, God does.

Forgive us Father. Help us.

Amen. And put Your holy fear in our hearts.

[i]And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city. And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth.

And Jesus knowing their thoughts said,

[b]Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?[/b]

Matthew 9:1-4[/i]

[i]Excerpt from Matthew Henry's commentary on this passage:[/i]

1. He charged them with it. Though they did but say it within themselves, he knew their thoughts. [b]Note, Our Lord Jesus has the perfect knowledge of all that we say within ourselves. Thoughts are secret and sudden, yet naked and open before Christ, the eternal Word (Heb. iv. 12, 13), and he understands them afar off, Ps. cxxxix.[/b]

2. He could say to them (which no mere man could), Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? [b]Note, There is a great deal of evil in sinful thoughts, which is very offensive to the Lord Jesus. He being the Sovereign of the heart, sinful thoughts invade his right, and disturb his possession; therefore he takes notice of them, and is much displeased with them. In them lies the root of bitterness, Gen. vi. 5. The sins that begin and end in the heart, and go no further, are as dangerous as any other.[/b]

[i]"There is a great deal of evil in sinful thoughts, which is very offensive to the Lord Jesus."[/i]

God continues to work and chip away the unbecoming pieces of censoriousness from me by bringing along articles such as this one:

[b]A CENSORIOUS (CRITICAL/SEVERE) SPIRIT[/b]
By: G. D. Watson

[b]Censoriousness is composed of self-conceit and severity; a self-conceit that we are superior to others, and are entitled to some sort of lordship over them; and then a severity of judging others by the outward letter of righteousness instead of by the Spirit.[/b] There are other people besides Christians who are censorious, but it does not look so conspicuous in their lives, for it is the very nature of religion to make a streak of badness look more ugly. Censoriousness has a special facility of fastening itself on a religious person, and on persons professing a great deal of religion, and its very intensity is in proportion to the intensity of religious zeal, and seems to find its greenest pastures in those who profess the perfection of love. It is a parasite which, like the mistletoe, fastens itself on the tree of religion, and seeks to spread itself until it claims to be the tree and, in fact, if not killed off, will succeed in killing the tree which, indeed, it often does. There seem to be certain weaknesses, and ugly, disagreeable infirmities, latent in the soul that nothing ever develops till it becomes religious, and sometimes the more intense the religion the more glaring are these infirmities.

Censoriousness is not grace, but it assumes the profession of grace, and oftentimes of great sanctity, and it seems to develop in some characters only when they are really under the operations of grace, as an iceberg throws off a heavy fog when it comes near the Gulf Stream. [b]One thing is certain, that many professors of very high grace are very censorious, and they never were very censorious until some time after their declaration of entire yielding to God. Perhaps we can never understand the metaphysics of it, but we know it is [u]a delusion of Satan to get religious people to mistake censoriousness for sanctity.[/b][/u] One of the remedies against it is a clear understanding of what it is.

1. [b]A censorious person sets himself up as a standard of religious experience, or practice, by which to judge all others.[/b] He has almost a boundless confidence in the superiority of his own character. He never admits that he has been backslidden in heart or life; he stoutly defends some ugly things in his disposition or conduct with the plea that they proceeded from the highest righteousness. His anger is clothed with the pretty title of righteous indignation. His stinginess is softened into holy economy. His harsh words are under the sweet cognomen of being true to other people's souls. [b]He lives under the one supreme thought that he came into the world for no other purpose than to set people right.[/b] If he was not always reproving somebody, or pitching into something, he would think himself false to his calling.

His opinion concerning any church, or any association of Christian workers, or any preacher, or evangelist, or writer, or book, is already made up in advance, and labeled like so many bottles of poison on the shelves of his judgment, and he is not going to change his opinion concerning any of these things, and does not want any further light, but knows enough already to settle him in his views. [b]How many thousands of times have we denounced, or severely judged others, not so much because they were displeasing God, but because they were displeasing to us; not because they were in reality breaking the Word of God, but because they were breaking our notions and offending our artificial taste.[/b] Oh, it is a miserable view of life, to turn ourselves into wooden yardsticks, and metallic scales, by which to weigh and measure our fellow Christians, and then to do this under the profession of holiness.

2. [b]A censorious person persuades himself that he has a special religious calling to correct others, and especially to correct them with severe methods, and that this is the greatest proof of his righteousness.[/b] If it were not for the religion that is in the censorious soul, and that it has a special vocation from God, it would lose all its seriousness and be a comical joke; but the censorious man thinks his salvation depends on the vinegar in his nature.

There are two sides to religious self-conceit; one is where the soul mostly contemplates its own superiority; this produces the peacock professor; and the other side is where the soul mostly contemplates the defects of others; this produces the bull dog professor. The censorious man belongs to the latter class, for while spiritual vanity is a part of his make-up, yet spiritual inquisition and severity with others constitutes the major part of his life.

[b]There are many who think that mere power to detect evil is a proof of holiness, and that growth in grace shows itself by an increasing aptness to ferret out the weaknesses and shortcomings of others. [/b]Now, it is a fact that the practice of detecting the defects of others will soon reach a point of almost scientific accuracy.

The world is full of evil, and Christians have many defects, though they be not actually committing sin; and [b]even fully sanctified Christians have weaknesses of manner, and taste, and conversation, and ways of doing things that look to a [u]critical eye as if something bad were behind it,[/u] and the well-practiced eye of a censorious spirit will, in most cases, diagnose a subject with great skill.[/b] When he finds he has hit his game so accurately, it is only another proof to him of his superior holiness. And so he lives on hunting his game, and resembles a hunting dog that is so passionately fond of the chase that he fails to take time to eat, and keeps himself a living skeleton because all his strength is spent in the pursuit of game. Who ever knew a censorious person to be genial in company, or a lover of little children, or sweet and amiable in his private life!

It is said that fortune tellers start out with a knack of reading natural character, and by some practice they soon find that a few general principles- such as a love affair, or some money, or a dark suspicion, or a dream of ambition- apply to most lives, and so they often tell things with amazing accuracy until, in some cases, the devil actually gets them to believe that they are prophets sure enough. [b]So the censorious person practices his gift of ferreting out the evils of others until he loses all his love, mistakes a sharp eye to be a pure heart and, with the help of one of Satan's messengers, comes to think he is an ordained prophet of God, only instead of telling good fortunes he is always telling bad misfortunes. Hence these censorious people, with great calmness of decision, will consign their fellow Christians to hell for any trifling thing that does not agree with them.[/b]

3. A censorious spirit is never fruitful in saving or perfecting souls in grace, and fortunately if it grows on a person it becomes so offensive as not to reproduce its own self, and so often hinders others from becoming censorious. [b]Persons who are gifted with the discerning of spirits are very seldom useful; in fact, never so, except in those cases where they have been crucified so thoroughly as to be utterly humble and loving, as was the case with Bramwell.[/b]

I have met several persons who had an extraordinary gift of discerning people, whose lives were almost utterly fruitless; and I have met a few who, [b]like Bramwell, while having deep discernment, were deeply ballasted with[u] meekness and charity.[/u][/b] But discernment by itself is like a razor in the hands of a lunatic. [u]The sharper the instruments, the greater need of brain in the surgeon that handles them; and power to detect sin needs fathomless humility and boundless love to render it useful.[/u] A censorious man is one who lives in his head instead of his heart. We can never keep our hearts warm except by living in them. A creature that should be nothing but an enormous eye, without a breast or heart, would be a monster; and a censorious person lives in his eye and lets his heart out to freeze. [b]Truth of itself can never bear fruit.

It is only when truth is heated with love that it has the power of reproduction.[/b]

Censorious people think they bear fruit because they make such a stir, and if they can cause others distress, or vexation, or bring on a quarrel, or a sharp debate, or brow-beat some timid soul till he weeps, they think that is fruit.

Fecundity, that is the fountain of fruit bearing, lies in the heart and is destroyed by censoriousness. [b]As a rule, a censorious person has some glaring and serious inconsistency in his own life, and while he represents the path of holiness as very hard to others, he makes it exceedingly easy for himself.[/b]

There is nothing more cheap than a rigorous theology, and nothing more costly than to let our love crucify our judgments, and always run out beyond our discernment. A censorious spirit is a mule in the moral species, an adept at kicking, but having no fecundity.

4. [b]A censorious person is always uneasy at the large-hearted mercy or grace of a holy soul.[/b] He seems distressed lest some people should slip through the gates into Heaven that he thinks ought to go to Hell. Whenever he mentions having mercy or grace for others, he generally prefaces it with, "I believe in charity, but not in sentimentalism, or letting people off too easy." [b]Nothing so shocks a censorious spirit as coming in contact with a great ocean-hearted love that makes allowances for people, and looks on the hopeful side. [/b]There is a sort of mania for religious severity, which is developed by the practice of censoriousness. It is said that butchers, after a while, grow nervous, and morose, and develop a tendency to suicide, from the habitual slaughter of cattle and the sight of so much blood. [b]The case is similar with a censorious person; if he is not tempted to commit literal suicide, he does kill himself spiritually.

Severity, even though accompanied with many gifts and some charitable grace, will soon wear its welcome out, make enemies where there is no need to, cripples weak believers by binding on them artificial burdens, disgusts quiet, sensible people, keeps itself in constant hot water, and then imagines itself a heroic martyr.[/b]

In many cases censorious people at last get broken down and mellowed into a little love just before they die. It is not a rare occurrence that people prophesy the death of some professing Christians by this symptom of mellowness and love that at last breaks through the crust of their harsh lives, and proves that divine grace was strong enough to live hidden in their souls through years of frostiness of disposition. [b]Oh, what a loss, to wake up at last and find that years have been thrown away in censorious, self-righteous fretting over the defects of others, instead of pouring the soul out in a constant stream of humble kindness and fruitful love for others! Even sulphuric acid cannot hurt pure gold, but a censorious spirit will terribly eat away the crown of rewards that is being prepared for many a brow.[/b]

A censorious preacher, in presenting Christ on the cross, will magnify the iron nails far more than the blessed person of Jesus. Some people talk as if there were nothing about crucifixion except the nails, whereas it is the living, loving heart that consents to be nailed, which is the only thing worth our attention. [b]Severe people talk much of crucifixion, but the deepest crucifixion possible on earth is to agree persistently to have our whole nature turned into love. To make a censorious person forever relinquish all his severity toward all people, and at all times, and in all ways, would be the deepest crucifixion and would involve the most painful death to self possible in this life. So, after all, nothing kills us to sin and self but divine love.[/b]