A. E. PLACE by A. E. PLACE

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jul 23, 1914

A. E. PLACE

By A. E. PLACE

“Judge Not”—No. 2

A. E. PLACE

A FRIEND once wrote me the following sentence, “God is far above our petty differings.” This is a truth of which we should be very thankful. But notwithstanding the fact that he is far above these things, he feels for us in all our weaknesses, and he “is touched with the feeling.” Yet how very small must appear to him many of our “differings” which to us seem of considerable moment.

“Petty differings!” Petted differings! O, how we have petted them, and pitied ourselves when we should have said, “Get thee behind me, Satan”! But these differings, however small, will finally become like the little land between the sources of the Amazon and the Orinoco Rivers. The one letter O divided the Eastern and Western churches. One claimed that the body of Christ was “homousian;” that is, the same substance with the Father. The other side claimed that the body of Christ was “homoousian;” that is, of like substance, etc.

The historian Bancroft tells us that the Peloponnesian War resulted from a strife about an oracle. So the peace of thousands of homes has been destroyed because one cries, “It was a rat!” while the other cries, “I say it was a mouse!”

Many of the differings of both friend and foe, if analyzed, would give but one precipitate—“petty.” Petty slights, petty hurts, petty feelings, petty differings,—all these are bases for judgment and condemnation. I often wonder if it was “petty differings” back in Paul’s day which led him to say, or write, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, . . . but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

Are we children, or are we men and women in Christ Jesus? If we are children, let us earnestly pray to become men and women.

For the past few years, I have been studying man’s nature and characteristics (and woman’s, too, for that matter) more than ever before, and especially have I tried to study my own, and I have reached the conclusion that we are all much alike. Some of us are for Paul, and some for Apollos. Paulites condemn Apollosites, and vice versa, but God says “both are carnal.” Paul may plant, Apollos may water, but God giveth the increase. So he who planteth is nothing, and he who watereth is nothing, but God who giveth the increase. No man living is anything in the sight of God, only as he is, or will be, connected with God. If we do not have God with us and in us in the planting or the watering, we are nothing, and our planting or watering is nothing. Christ establishes this truth by the statement, “Without me ye can do nothing.”

Let us now emphasize the truth that if God be with us and in us, or to the extent this is so, we shall not and cannot condemn or judge our fellow men. God manifest in the flesh of Jesus, said, “If any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.”

This not only shows Christ’s attitude on the question of judging, but shows that he saw that if he came to judge the world, he could not save the world. Thus we see that criticizing and judging tend to destroy men, but not to save

them. Therefore, the great question for us each to decide for himself is, Am I a savior to this world, or am I a destroyer? Am I in God’s hands a savior, or is my life destroying or hindering his great, merciful work?

San Jose, Cal.