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!

I have no doubt that this gentle, loving admonition, this calling of the
higher and the better to the front, set into oper