The tongue can no man tame.
'Giving of characters' also takes up a large part of our everyday
conversation. We cannot well help characterising, describing, and
estimating one another. But, as far as possible, when we see the
conversation again approaching that dangerous subject, we should call to
mind our past remorse; we should suppose our absent neighbour present; we
should imagine him in our place and ourselves in his place, and so turn
the rising talk into another channel. For, the truth is, few of us are
able to do justice to our neighbour when we begin to discuss and describe
him. Generosity in our talk is far easier for us than justice. It was
this incessant giving of characters that our Lord had in His eye when He
said in His Sermon on the Mount, Judge not. But our Lord might as well
never have uttered that warning word for all the attention we give it.
For we go on judging one another and sentencing one another as if we were
entirely and in all things blameless ourselves, and as if God had set us
up in our blamelessness in His seat of judgment over all our fellows.
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