Our Lord does here actually commit to the Church――as on an earlier occasion to St. Peter as the chief and representative apostle――not the right, but the duty, to bind and to loose: that is, to pass judgements as to what is right and what is wrong, what is to be permitted and what is not to be permitted, in the Christian society. Again, after His resurrection He gives to His apostles the power and the duty to apply these judgements to persons, to absolve and to retain sins.[76] Thus the Church, and each of its members, is not indeed to be censorious in temper, or to make the worst of people; but, when occasion requires, is to maintain the moral standard. So it is that St. Paul expressly tells the Corinthian Church that, as a Christian society, they are to judge, not those that are without, but those that are within their own body: and he severely condemns them because they had let pass, or tolerated, a serious moral offence without discriminating judgement being passed upon it.[77] It is the same where doctrine is concerned. The New Testament continually warns Christians that they are to have standards of judgement; to test all things, and hold fast that which is right;[78] to test the spirits whether they be of God.[79] And if any teacher come with a doctrine calculated to subvert the principles which lie at the basis of the Christian life, St. Paul and St. John alike recommend an attitude towards him which cannot exactly be described as tolerance. “As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man preacheth unto you any gospel other than that which ye received, let him be anathema.” “If any one cometh unto you, and bringeth not this teaching, receive him not into your house, and give him no greeting: for he that giveth him greeting partaketh in his evil works.”[80] These injunctions are given in view of cases where fundamental matters of principle are at stake. About minor matters St. Paul adopts a tone of the widest toleration.[81] There is then a duty of judgement: while on the other hand our Lord condemns the critical and censorious temper. Is it not true that a candid conscience finds very little difficulty in distinguishing the duty of judgement from the sin of censoriousness and criticism? And is it not the case that those who have the lowest and vaguest standards of what is true and right, are yet very often the most critical in judgement of other people? We are then to be anxious to make the best of others: and our Lord here again recognizes that law which we have so often heard from His lips, that God deals with us as we deal with our fellow-men. “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you.”