AS another year rounds out and we enter the penumbra of the Christian world's greatest festal event, what a splendid and altogether fitting thing it would be if, in loving remembrance of their Master, all professed Christians were to put into practical effect that spirit of compassion and kindliness which he showed toward men,—if they were to quit criticizing and condemning their fellows, and leave them to the judgment of God.
The poor woman who was taken in her sin had no word, of excuse, and silently conceded that there was nothing to be said in extenuation of her fault. She stood condemned both by the law of men and the law of God. All this the Master knew full well, and yet he said to her, "Neither do I condemn thee." He could leave her to the corrective companionship of conscience, and to the government and guidance of divine Love, and the practical significance of this Christlike attitude and approach toward the sick and sinning upon our part, is expressed by Mrs. Eddy when she says: "If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one visit, and the disease will vanish into its native nothingness like dew before the morning sunshine" (Science and Health, p. 365)
In few respects, perchance, have Christian people followed the Master at so great a distance as in this. The Christmastide does indeed awaken a more unselfish thought toward the shut-in and the incarcerated; prisons and hospitals and the haunts of the poor are visited, and many a worthy deed is done in Christ's name; but this impulse is altogether too brief and superficial even to veneer the sad fact that the history of Christianity has been in large part a narrative of strifes and persecutions, which have grown in every instance from seed sown and nourished by the spirit of criticism, a readiness to pass judgment upon the convictions and conduct of others, which is quite as contrary to the spirit of the Master in its seemingly innocent beginnings as in its cruel and degrading endings.
