Precept & Practice – MAY 13 – Think and let Think

The second characteristic of the inspired Pauline method was, ‘to think and to let think’;  always to remember that as we do not like others to restrain our liberty, so we should take care lest we ourselves restrain the liberty of others.   Let them take their way unconcerned, as we desire, uncondemned, to take our own.   ‘Let us not, therefore, judge one another any more.’   It is an unprofitable and self-deceiving habit the habit of constituting ourselves the judges of other people’s conduct and ceremonies.

Opinions about the ways and actions of others we can scarcely help forming;  experience and history would be alike impossible if we learned nothing from the world of human beings in which we live, and we could learn nothing unless we formed opinions.

Opinions of one another, therefore, we are obliged to form.   No intelligent and observant person, however Christian and charitable, either can or ought to avoid forming opinions. Opinions are the basis of experience.   But judgments are of a quite different nature.   An opinion is consistent with charity, and is simply the guide of my own conduct;  a judgment is generally inconsistent with charity, and is a sentence upon the conduct of another.   Opinion is the prerogative of man;  judgment is the prerogative of God. 

Bishop Diggle (Sermons for Daily Life)

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From the Introduction to Precept and Practice

The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.

The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;-  with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;-  with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.

CONSTANCE  M. WHISHAW