The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery Collected and Revised by the Author |
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JUDGE NOT. |
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 | The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery |  |
JUDGE NOT.
“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what
judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with
what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to
you again.”—Matt. vii. 1.
Eye of the Lord! in whose omniscient ray
Our motives play,
Like motes in sunbeams, each distinctly bare,
Can sinners dare
Rash judgment o'er that secret heart to strain,
Where Thou dost reign
Our motives play,
Like motes in sunbeams, each distinctly bare,
Can sinners dare
Rash judgment o'er that secret heart to strain,
Where Thou dost reign
Alone,—from Whom no buried thoughts are hid?
Men are forbid
To scan a brother with censorious eye;
Or sternly cry,
“Let me the mote from out thy vision draw,”
As though they saw
Men are forbid
To scan a brother with censorious eye;
Or sternly cry,
“Let me the mote from out thy vision draw,”
As though they saw
With holy clearness of unclouded view
The pure and true:
While in their eye-glance dwells one sinful beam
Men little deem,
How all who virtue love, will strive to be
From sin set free.
The pure and true:
While in their eye-glance dwells one sinful beam
Men little deem,
How all who virtue love, will strive to be
From sin set free.
A flagging will, a feeble mind
To Glory dead and Wisdom blind;
A neutral cowardice of heart
That shrinks from taking noble part,
When Christ, and Church and Creed demand
The prowess true of heart and hand,—
Lord! not for these Thy words assign
The guerdon Faith believes divine,
When Thou dost bid each duteous mind
Abstain from judging mortal kind.
To Glory dead and Wisdom blind;
A neutral cowardice of heart
That shrinks from taking noble part,
When Christ, and Church and Creed demand
The prowess true of heart and hand,—
Lord! not for these Thy words assign
The guerdon Faith believes divine,
When Thou dost bid each duteous mind
Abstain from judging mortal kind.
The truth must e'er the falsehood fight,
While wrong pursues the hated right;
And they are craven to the Cross
Who quail for dread of earthly loss;
Or else, because the coward Will
Recoils from rude oppressive ill,
Refrain from branding sin and crime;
And so caress the vassal time
That vice and virtue, false and true
Become the heart's chameleon hue!
While wrong pursues the hated right;
And they are craven to the Cross
Who quail for dread of earthly loss;
Or else, because the coward Will
Recoils from rude oppressive ill,
136
And so caress the vassal time
That vice and virtue, false and true
Become the heart's chameleon hue!
Avaunt! such antinomian Ease,
Whose gospel is self-will to please.
But, come ye Inspirations given
Fresh from the heart of Christ in heaven!
Mild Charity, and modest Thought,
And Meekness with Devotion fraught;
With radiant Candour, rich in love,
And motherly, as born above,
Which, mindful of Redemption's plan,
Embraces universal man.
Whose gospel is self-will to please.
But, come ye Inspirations given
Fresh from the heart of Christ in heaven!
Mild Charity, and modest Thought,
And Meekness with Devotion fraught;
With radiant Candour, rich in love,
And motherly, as born above,
Which, mindful of Redemption's plan,
Embraces universal man.
The perfect Judge is God alone;
And he usurps His legal Throne
Who rashly dares to pierce and scan
Those spirit-fibres of the man—
Motives! which are of acts the soul,
And subject to Divine Control:
By man unprobed, in all their change
They move within His mental range,
By Whom is mark'd the embryo sin,
Ere yet 'tis born the soul within.
And he usurps His legal Throne
Who rashly dares to pierce and scan
Those spirit-fibres of the man—
Motives! which are of acts the soul,
And subject to Divine Control:
By man unprobed, in all their change
They move within His mental range,
By Whom is mark'd the embryo sin,
Ere yet 'tis born the soul within.
But e'en when action, motive, thought
Are into clear exposure brought,
And all which meets our human gaze
Harrows the soul with stern amaze,
Man must not wield the judge's rod,
Or make himself the bar of God.
Love in that light, oh! let there be
By which our hearts a brother see;
Since, blind and partial are we, when
Hurt feelings try our fellow-men.
Are into clear exposure brought,
And all which meets our human gaze
Harrows the soul with stern amaze,
Man must not wield the judge's rod,
Or make himself the bar of God.
Love in that light, oh! let there be
By which our hearts a brother see;
Since, blind and partial are we, when
Hurt feelings try our fellow-men.
Be merciful! for sinners all
Are they, who Christ their glory call;
Such Minds can weep where others frown,
To see how soon we wander down
Those sad descents of worldly sin
Which tempt without, and try within.—
The holy are the humble, too;
Rather in silence will they rue
The faults and failings brethren show,
Nor be the first a stone to throw.
Are they, who Christ their glory call;
Such Minds can weep where others frown,
To see how soon we wander down
Those sad descents of worldly sin
Which tempt without, and try within.—
The holy are the humble, too;
Rather in silence will they rue
The faults and failings brethren show,
Nor be the first a stone to throw.
Their sin we view; but not the strife
Or writhings of that inward-life
Where passion, conscience, and desire
In some convulsive mood conspire:
Nor can we measure with just mind
How circumstance with choice combined;
Or mad temptation, swift and wild,
Tore like a fiend the heart defiled;
Or, how resistance unto prayer
Fought with the Crime which conquer'd there.
Or writhings of that inward-life
Where passion, conscience, and desire
In some convulsive mood conspire:
Nor can we measure with just mind
How circumstance with choice combined;
Or mad temptation, swift and wild,
Tore like a fiend the heart defiled;
Or, how resistance unto prayer
Fought with the Crime which conquer'd there.
O God! before Whose perfect eye
Are cloud-stains on the crystal sky,
Were we but judged by those degrees
By which malign Suspicion sees
A brother in his conduct fail,—
E'en martyrs would the Judgment wail.
Rather, through love's kind error, be
Victim of fond credulity,
Than like some cold and cutting blast
Which near the frozen Sea hath past,
Breathe o'er thy brother words that wring
The soul with unvoiced suffering.
Are cloud-stains on the crystal sky,
Were we but judged by those degrees
By which malign Suspicion sees
A brother in his conduct fail,—
E'en martyrs would the Judgment wail.
Rather, through love's kind error, be
Victim of fond credulity,
Than like some cold and cutting blast
Which near the frozen Sea hath past,
Breathe o'er thy brother words that wring
The soul with unvoiced suffering.
Come then, celestial Archetype for all,
To Thee we call;
And ere the bolt of Censure can descend
On foe, or friend,
Oh, introvert the spirit's eye, to scan
Our inward man.
To Thee we call;
And ere the bolt of Censure can descend
On foe, or friend,
Oh, introvert the spirit's eye, to scan
Our inward man.
For thus, what boundless error should we see
In us to be!
The arm reversed would then no censure throw
On friend, or foe;
But, as dark evils which deserve a stone,
Would brand our own.
In us to be!
The arm reversed would then no censure throw
On friend, or foe;
But, as dark evils which deserve a stone,
Would brand our own.
| The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery | |