This post is part two of a series of blog posts I’m doing on George H. Morrison’s piece, “The Intolerance of Jesus”.
To read the rest of the series–
- Part One–The Intolerance of Jesus
- Part Three–Christ Died Because of His Intolerance
- Part Four–Sharing the Allegiance
Intolerance Must Be Knowledgeable
Of course there is an intolerance so cold and hard that it must always be alien from the Master’s Spirit. All that is best in us condemns the temper which lacks the redeeming touch of comprehension. When the poet Shelley was a lad still in his teens, he fell violently in love with his cousin Harriet Grove. Shelley was a sceptic even then, and on account of his scepticism his cousin was removed from him. And those of you who have read his letters of that period will remember how they throb with the great hope that he might live to do battle with intolerance. Now Shelley was a poet, with all a poet’s ardour, yet I think that most young men have had that feeling. Nor is it one of those feelings that pass away with youth; it generally strengthens with the tale of years. “One has only to grow old,” says Goethe, “to become tolerant.” As life advances, if we live it well, we commonly grow less rigid in our judgment. By all we have seen and suffered, all we have tried and failed in, our sympathies grow broader with the years. We learn how precious is the grace of charity; how near akin may be the fiercest combatants; how great is the allowance we must make for those of whose hidden life we know so little. – George H. Morrison 1866 – 1928
That last line “those of whose hidden life we know so little”, really is the crux of it. Our rat-race society doesn’t lend itself to knowing our fellow man. I wonder if part of the problem isn’t that we just don’t really know our brother or sister sitting next to us in church. Sometimes we only see them once or twice a week for a couple hours. We have no idea what their life is like outside of the church building. I know for myself I am very hesitant to bring up, or point out some sin, for fear of being seen as a hater. Even if it is someone I do know well, I have to make myself, remembering the admonition of James–
My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. James 5:19-20
I am first to admit that I don’t really want to hold others accountable—because the other side of that coin is them holding me accountable. I feel like we miss out on a lot of loving and caring and healing, when we hold ourselves back, not wanting others to see our messy life, or we don’t want to get involved with their messy lives. But, most importantly we must always come from a place of charity–and also a place of knowledge.
On a lighter note…I’m not sure if any one has noticed that It looks like I didn’t use spell check. I started to, but then realized that not only have the meaning of words changed, we also spell words differently than when this written – early 1900’s. I’m still trying to read ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ in the original vernacular of the day! Randy has issues with spelling, he says he doesn’t believe in the dictionary, saying that before Webster, everyone just spelled words how they thought the word sounded, not caring if it was spelled like anybody else.
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