Article October 21, 1911 Issue

CRITICISM

MARTHA SEAVER

Jesus, the master Metaphysician, was also the master critic. He knew the Principle of the Science of Life better than any other; he was fully competent to criticize, yet he said, "I judge no man, and yet if I judge, my judgment is true;" and he added, "Ye judge after the flesh." Here, then, Jesus pointed out the mistaken way of criticism and gave us the correct method. We judge "after the flesh" when no mortal concept can be a standard for just judgment. Jesus judged no man—he knew man to be perfect, needing no judgment; and that "judgment is true" because it shows the nothingness of the man who seems to be flesh with all its errors. This was his Father's business, and he was so busy about it that he had no time or thought to magnify anything but the Lord. Can we say as much? His strict attention to the Father's business restored to the widowed mother her only son, and brought reform to the sinning in the judgment, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. Can we expect to heal and restore when our criticism approaches so perilously near to condemnation as to make a reality of the error?

Jesus' criticism was truly "just judgment" and not, like that of mortals, "according to the appearance." His was powerful to heal, while that which is based on fleshly evidence often inflicts a needless wound by trespassing upon the divine right of self-government. When we understand man as Jesus understood him, perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect, we too shall find it unnecessary to judge him, and this "correct view" (Science and Health, p. 477) will heal the sick even as it did in Jesus' experience. Let us then use Jesus' rule for criticism and no longer break the bruised reed and quench the smoking flax, but "send forth judgment unto victory."

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