Right judgment
The Feast of Tabernacles.
(The Gospel History, Section 77)
Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you doeth the law? Why seek ye to kill me? The multitude answered, Thou hast a devil: who seeketh to kill thee? Jesus answered and said unto them, I did one work, and ye all marvel. For this cause hath Moses given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers); and on the sabbath ye circumcise a man. If a man receiveth circumcision on the sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken; are ye wroth with me, because I made a man every whit whole on the sabbath? Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgement.
Right judgment
(The Saviour of the World, Vol V Book II Poem XIII)
Priests. Ye have the law of Moses: hear Him not!
What room in your lives for any other law?
By the Law of our Fathers shall we live and die,
And—death to him who scorns it!
The Lord. Ye do well
To deal out death to one who breaks the law;—
“Thou shalt not kill,” is written; wherefore, then,
Go ye about to kill Me? Is this the law?
Confusion seized the Rulers; was it known
To Him, their plot to kill Him? Who had told?
Never a word they answer. But the crowd,
The multitude of pilgrims come to the Feast,
Ignorant of the private counsels of the Jews,
Of secret movements guiding State affairs,
Respecting, too, their rulers,—raise the cry;—
The Crowd. Who goes about to kill Thee? delusion,
Far-fetched and monstrous, hath got hold of Thee!
Tak’st Thou our Rulers for assassins, then?
Thou hast a devil who makes believe a lie;
Nay, fight against possession, see the truth!
Mild with the multitude, He made reply:—
The Lord. Nay, understand, My friends, what thing ye cry!
These say, I break the law; for the law’s sake,
My death they compass. How break I the law?
Ye saw Me to make whole an impotent man:
“It was the Sabbath,” say you; what of that?
To make a man whole every whit, is’t worse
Than to wound, that one may circumcise, his flesh,
When both be on the Sabbath? Unlearned, ye—
(Tender the Master’s tones and pitiful,
As of one who would upgather in his arm
A little helpless child exposed to wrong)—
And they, the rulers, mock you as untaught,
A swinish multitude: they’d think for you,
And bid, Go here, or, there, Do this, or, that,—
And never heed your cry of “Wherefore, then?”
My friends, not this the part your Father set
For each of you: not thus may ye hand o’er
Your proper function; to each man I say,—
A task is set for thee, none else can do;
A task, not of set labour with thy hands,
But of true thinking with the mind thou hast:
Ye shall not judge by the appearances of things,
Nor let persuade, by specious arguments,
Your learnéd men, who know to make good, ill.
Take heed to what I tell you;—each of you
Hath lodged within him power to discern the right;
Judge righteous judgment; considered in that light,
Which an honest man finds thrown on problem dark
When he seeks to know the truth, all becomes clear:
Examine yourselves, and see if I be true,
Ere, intemperate, ye cry, “He hath a devil!”
St. John vii. 19-24.
St. John v. 1-15.
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