Judging Others

William George Jordan wrote:

There is but one quality necessary for the perfect understanding of character, one quality that, if [a] man have it, he may dare to judge--that is, omniscience. Most people study character as a proofreader pores over a great poem: his ears are dulled to the majesty and music of the lines, his eyes are darkened to the magic imagination of the genius of the author; that proofreader is busy watching for an inverted comma, a misspacing, or a wrong font letter. He has an eye trained for the imperfections, the weaknesses. . . .
We do not need to judge nearly so much as we think we do. This is the age of snap judgments. . . . [We need] the courage to say, "I don't know. I am waiting further evidence. I must hear both sides of the question.   It is this suspended judgment that is the supreme form of charity.

"The Supreme Charity of the World," The Kingship of Self-Control (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Revell, n.d.), pp. 27­30;