The Judge's Verdict Alone to Be Regarded

“// is no matter what sianders-by say of the rimner so the judge of the race doth appi’ove of his ru?mi?igy Yet we all make too much of the approval or disapproval of our fellow-men, who are, after all, only the spectators, and not the umpires, of the race. What folly this is! What injuries it inflicts! We are elevated by human opinion if it be favourable to us, and this betrays us into the weakness of pride; which weakness soon shows itself in faint-heartedness, when that unstable opinion veers round, and blows a cold blast of fault-finding. If we were steadily “looking unto Jesus,” this wculd not happen, and our running would be more regular and less disturbed. Be it our endeavour to live above men, in the conscious presence of God. Who and what are men that we should live upon the breath of their nostrils? Their judgment is a small matter; the judgment of God is all in all.

Lord, thou hast said, “Walk before me, and be thou perfect,” and from this I learn that I cannot hope for perfection unless I set thee always before me, and rate thine approval at an infinitely higher price than the judgment of those about me. Enable me to say with thy servant David, “I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.”