Why, the very fact that a fellow-man and a brother has this or that fault, error, undesirable or objectionable characteristic, is of itself the very reason he needs all the more of charity, of love, of kindly help and aid, than is needed by the one more fully developed, and hence more free from these.  All the more reason is there why the best in him should be recognized and ever called to the front.

The wise man is he who, when he desires to rid a room of darkness or gloom, does not attempt to drive it out directly, but who throws open the doors and the windows, that the room may be flooded with the golden sunlight; for in its presence darkness and gloom cannot remain.  So the way to help a fellow-man and a brother to the higher and better life is not by ever prating upon and holding up to view his errors, his faults, his shortcomings, any more than in the case of children, but by recognizing and ever calling forth the higher, the nobler, the divine, the God-like, by opening the doors and the windows of his own soul, and thus bringing about a spiritual perception, that he may the more carefully listen to the inner voice, that he may the more carefully follow “the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”  For in the exact proportion that the interior perception comes will the outer life and conduct accord with it,—­so far, and no farther.

Where in all the world’s history is to be found a more beautiful or valuable incident than this?  A group of men, self-centred, self-assertive, have found a poor woman who, in her blindness and weakness, has committed an error, the same one that they, in all probability, have committed not once, but many times; for the rule is that they are first to condemn who are-most at fault themselves.  They bring her to the Master, they tell him that she has committed a sin,—­ay, more, that she has been taken in the very act,—­and ask what shall be done with her, informing him that, in accordance with the olden laws, such a one should be stoned.

But, quicker than thought, that great incarnation of spiritual power and insight reads their motives; and, after allowing them to give full expression to their accusations, he turns, and calmly says, “He among you that is without sin, let him cast the first stone.”  So saying, he stoops down, as if he is writing in the sand.  The accusers, feeling the keen and just rebuke, in the mean time sneak out, until not one remains.  The Master, after all have gone, turns to the woman, his sister, and kindly and gently says, “And where are thine accusers? doth no man condemn thee?” “No man, Lord.” “And neither do I condemn thee:  go thou, and sin no more.”  Oh, the beauty, the soul pathos!  Oh, the royal-hearted brother!  Oh, the invaluable lesson to us all!