saved from a good They fancy they

facts of a case,

But we are misled even more seriously by the difficulty of understanding others. It is simply impossible for us duly to appreciate the thoughts and feelings of those who are very differently constituted from ourselves. Try as we may, we shall never see things as they appear from an opposite point of view. We shall never be completely successful in ascertaining the condition of another's mind and heart. If men would only remember this, they would be deal of religious intolerance. are passing judgment on the when in reality they are but criticising their own distorted view of the facts. Beliefs and practices mean more to those who adopt them, than they can ever mean to those who are opposed to them. But this is so difficult to grasp. Broad Churchmen look upon Low Churchmen as fanatics, if not fools; and the latter return the compliment by regarding Broad Churchmen as infidels, if not atheists. And even when they do not go so far as this, each is apt to regard the other as a sort of mental or spiritual monstrosity, which it is surprising Providence should have permitted to exist. The impossibility of understanding, or sympathising with, those who greatly differ from ourselves, is strikingly illustrated in a poem called

"Hilda," by Dr Walter Smith, from which I

extract the following verses :

"Twain are they sundered each from each,
Though oft together they are brought;
Discoursing in a common speech,

Yet having scarce a common thought.
The same sun warmed them all their days;
They breathe one air of life serene ;
Yet moving in their several ways,
They walk with a whole world between.

I think they never meet without
Some sharp encounter of their wits;
And neither hints a faith or doubt
The other does not take to bits.
For what the one regards with awe,
The other holds a creed outworn;
And what this boasts as perfect law,

That turns to laughter with his scorn.

Thus on their several ways they go,
And neither other comprehends;
Yet it was God who made them so,
And they do serve His several ends.
That seeks for light to walk in it,

And this for God to live in Him;
One questions with a searching wit,

The other trusts where all is dim."

Now if these two persons judge one another, their verdicts will most certainly be incorrect. The first will say that the second is impiously sceptical. The second will assert that the first is blasphemously credulous.

And yet perhaps,

in the sight of God, each may be doing the best he can to seek and to hold the truth.

We see, then, do we not, that Christ's injunction is pre-eminently reasonable? The facts upon which a moral judgment should be based, are for the most part unknown to us, or known only in a distorted and untruthful form. And even if we were perfectly acquainted with the facts, we should be prevented, by the very constitution of our nature, from estimating them with the slightest approach to accuracy. In these days of spectroscopic analysis, you can obtain far more certain knowledge about the composition of the most distant planet, than you can ever hope to obtain in regard to the moral worth of your nearest friend. What would you say of any one who asserted that he knew the exact value of all the land upon the earth's surface, when he did not know the extent of that surface, and was thoroughly acquainted only with a few square miles of it? The attempt to pass a moral judgment upon a fellow-creature is not a whit less impertinent, not a whit less absurd. A man's moral worth can be correctly and completely estimated by God alone. Therefore, "judge not."

271

The Greatness of Man.

"When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? For" (or rather but) "Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory · and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet." -PSALM viii. 3-6.

OVER

VER the professor's chair in the metaphysics class-room in the University of Edinburgh (where it was once my happiness to study) is inscribed the maxim, first uttered by Phavorinus:—

"On earth, there is nothing great but man;

In man, there is nothing great but mind."

True

That maxim is the lesson of our text. greatness consists, not in weight and extension, but in intellectual power and moral worth. When the Psalmist looked up to the heavens, he was at first overwhelmed with a sense of his own littleness. The sun, moon, and stars ap

peared to him so majestic, that he said, "Lord, what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" Man seemed, in comparison, insignificant and unworthy of the divine regard. But, on second thoughts, David perceived that this was an entire misconception of the matter, and that man could not be inferior to the heavens; for God had, in point of fact, made him only a little lower than the angels—than the Elohim, is the word in the Hebrew. This term, in the Elohistic portion of the Pentateuch, is applied to the Almighty instead of the term Jehovah. God had made man, we may therefore read, a little lower than Himself; had crowned him with glory and honour; had given him dominion over the works of His hands; and had put all things under his feet So far from being insignificant in comparison with the heavens, man is of infinitely more value than they.

1

This is a lesson which constantly needs to be repeated. Many fall into the Psalmist's mistake, but comparatively few escape from it as satisfactorily as he did. You remember Bildad argues 1 as if human beings were altogether contemptible when compared with the heavenly host. 1 Job. xxv. 5, 6.

Even