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Oxford Sermons Preached Before the University (1879)
Oxford Sermons Preached Before the University - 1879 Author:Edwin Abbott Abbott Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CRITICISM AND WORSHIP. Judge not, that ye be not judged.—St. Matthew vn. 1. I am nothing if not critical, says the most diabolical character ever conceived... more » by human imagination; and it is this critical spirit that Christ seems here to prohibit; warning us, not surely against occasionally criticising, or occasionally judging, or occasionally condemning, but, as it would seem, against living in the critical spirit. Of course the ideal criticism or judgment is not here contemplated. The judgment of God, which discerns the motives of men, passing on each man such a self- executing sentence of approval or condemnation as is best for each—this is true mercy, as well as true judgment. But the judgment here contemplated is different. Man's imperfect judgment implies, for the most part, first, a fixed law ; second, an attention to actions rather than motives; third, an isolation of the judge from those who are judged. Now Christ recognises no law, but a spirit; He takes cognisance not of action, but of motive; lastly, He forbids isolation. Therefore, in each of these threepoints the ordinary attitude of judging is opposed to the attitude enjoined by Christ on His disciples. Let us consider, first of all, very briefly, this habit of criticising or judging; and then the necessity of casting away this habit of mind when we would approach Jesus of Nazareth. The critical spirit is the opposite of the filial spirit; and, as the filial spirit is the foundation of the kingdom of God, so is the critical spirit of the kingdom of the Devil. The same Law of Retribution which opens art and science and nature, both animate and inanimate, to all who approach them in the spirit of a child, closes art and science and nature against all who approach in the attitude of a superior critic. The child o...« less