SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10407, 3 April 1897, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

I,uke x. 25-87. [BY THE REV. JOHN' JI'XEILL.]

Who is my neighbour! v. 2J. A certain Samaritan, as lie joii'iieyeil, came where He was; ami when lie saw him, lie had compassion on him, etc., v. 3".

Wilis we take up this parable we feel a difficulty, don't we? We have bten taught ever since we can remember anything to

Cast oar dea.lly doinc down Down at Jesus' feet.

We have been taught that eternal life is the " gift of God," and that, if we get it at all, it is simply because we have put out the hand of faith and received it. And all thia is true. What then does the parable mean? I was going along the street one day when I saw a picture in -a shop window, showing me the face of a prominent leader on one side of politics j but after 1 had passed I happened to look back, and there was the face of a leader who belonged to the other side. Now, 1 look on this parable in the same way. If we put the lawyer's question in the lawyer's spirit, if we make our appeal to the law, and try to be saved on that line, then here is what we are to do. Try it; try it tor tour-andtwenty hours, and you will come back to Christ, not to say, " Tell me anything more to do, and I'll do it." but to cry, " What must Ido to be saved ?" And when you come with that question and in that spirit, when you realise that you are not somebody who has only by some extra deed to put the topstone on a great pile of gooddoing, but that you are

THE WOUNDED, BUTCHERED MAN on the roadside, then the parable turni round. The good Samaritan becomes the Lord Jesus Christ; and you find throughout the parable the pure Gospel. " Behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted Him, saying,' Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"' The whole drift of the story leads us to the conclusion that this man was not openly and honestly sincere. The new Rabbi had made some name and fame for Himself, and so the lawyer stood up—l will not say savagely critical—but with a. calm, cold - blooded, speculative interest in Christ and His mission. He only wanted to know Christ's opinion on the subject that be might quote it abroad—" Oh, I put a question to Him the other day, and got I to the bottom of His teaching; there's nothing in Him!" '• What shall I do to inherit eternal life? . Just because he used the word "do," our Lord replied, " What is written in the law ! How readest thou?" " Aud he, answering, said, ' Thou shalt love tho Lord thy God with all thy heart, aud with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. , " How capitally he knew the letter ot the law ! " And Jesus said unto him, ' Thou hast answered risht: this do, and thou shalt live.'" Instead of putting Christ in the corner, the lawyer himself was put in a corner, do you see? And a lawyer especially never likes that. He felt that the smile was being turned against him, and so, "willing to justify himself," not wishing to be treated in this ABC fashion, he said :

"WHO IS MY N'EIGHBOOR?"

He came with a great question on eternal life, and he is brought down to this. " Who is my neighbour?' 1 It is a pitiful question. A blush should have come on the man's faco that would uot have gone away for a month —to have to ask, not " Who is God "—that is the question of questions—but " Who is my neighbour?" However, out of this rambling talk of his let us be thankful there came one of the most divine and one of the most human parables in all Christ's teaching. "Who is my neighbour?" Listen. "A certain mau went down from Jerusalem to Jericho"—a road as dangerous now, as it was then—"and fell among thieves which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead."

Now, wo have taken in the first scene of this roadside drama? If we have, surely we must be struck with the great need this world presents for neighbours and lor neighbourliness, for men and women who will go out beyond their natural selfishuess and stay-at-home-ness to those within their ken who are dying for want of a warm heart and a helping hand. Those who are needing help are all around us. Lazarus is lying at our gate, or ringing our door bell. Open your eyes and open your ears, and you will see sights and hear sounds which will soon test whether you love your neighbour or not, us, according to your splendid creed, you profess to do.

" And by chance there came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 1 And so also a Levite.

HERE IS THE SECOND SCENE, and how truly the picture fits the actual experience of everyday life! Christ, of course, is not ironical as we are ironical; He is not sarcastic in our bitter way; but, if you will allow me to make this explanation, then this story is ironical and sarcastic all through. I never had any great notion of hein» a bishop, or a priest, or a Presbyterian minister, in the merely ecclesiastical sense of the word, and when I see the hell, the absolute hell, that is in this priest's heart, I have less notion of it than ever. It is too true that, not only under the Old Testament dispensation, but also under the New, you have this kind of man produced—a man who ought from his very calling to be a peculiarly tender man, swift to run over at the eyes, and over at the tongue, and over at the hand in the help of those who are sick and wounded and ready to die. The dry rot of the ministry to-day, the one thing against which we ordained menwhether we be ministers or elders or deacons -have to strive, is that officialism which drives all naturalness and all divinity out of us, which makes us hard-hearted, pitiless un-Christhke, un-manlike. Brethren, pray for us, especially in these somewhat bewildering times wnen the priest is being aped, when men of my own cloth are anxious to put oti the word " minister," because it is not sacerdotal enough, because it means servant.

To this priest of the parable I say: "Go on, priest; I never thought much of you, aud I think less of you to-day thau ever. Hurry away down to Jericho; your work is done at the Temple, and your cronies are waitin° for you; away you go, and be luxurious, and"fat, and lazy, and back to the Temple in the morning! No wonder that God Almighty was against the whole system as it then was, and that in a few short years He took priest and Temple and all, aud obliberated them for ever and ever!

The Levite, maybe, is not so bad. The priest was a great man and the Levite was a little man. The one was too bis for hie'place. and the other was too small. The one was so big, so swelled up with pride, that he could not stay to have anything to do with this man; and the toddlingLevite-the man who split the sticks up at the Temple, and all that kind of thing-the little, little, little soul came up, and he, too, passed by on the other side. Alas, alas! there was no pity in either of them! " Bat a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he waa; and when he saw him he had compassion on him, ,.

SCENE THKEE : ESTER THE GOOD SA3IAPJt A 5 Let us hope the scene ia still as true tl nature as the others are. ' "He had compassion on him." He had most deplorable creed. A nißgledy-pimUl sort of thins was the Samarium creed » strange mixture of God, nan. and the deriL But don't judge a man exclusively by hji creed auy more than by his coat, or you miv make lamentable and ludicrous miitaket Here Is a man who, whatever bis special tenets are, lias a heart to leel for the woes of one as far out of the natural line of hU sympathies us Zulus aud Hottentots are out ol outs; for " tlie Jews have no dealing with the Samaritan*." "He had compassion on him. 3 Ah, that is where a sruat deal of our so-called charitv breaks down. We give a big subscription to some charitable scheme, because the sheet is going into the next terrace, ami So-and-so will see how much we B ive. Only leave a thousand pounds to this or that or the other ' tiiiac, aud, though your heart was as hard as the stone on the street, you will get your name blazed abroad. My brother, it goti for nothing; you must have this Samaritan's tender, pitying, compassionate heart. Kotivje, further, the thoroughness of the trouble he took. "I cauna be fashed!" (or" troubled'') is very often at the bottom of our Scotch creed. But this man tore op strips of whatever came first, very likely hi* own clothes : he poured in oil and wine j he set him on his own beast, steadying him with one hand aud urging ou the auhnal with the other. THERE IS A POINT HERE. He did not «et up on tue beast alone with the man. A peat deal ot your kiudueas and mine is oyerioadiui: some other body. Oh we'll be kind—but uot to the horse, getting somebody else to he the vehicle of our kindness, and making him bear the stres3 of this so-called charitable concern. Not so thr Samaritan, he " set him nn his own beas and brought him to an inn." And even then he left two pence, two days' wages, sayim " Take care of him, and whatsoever thoi spendest more, when I come again I will re. pay thee." Now, please observe that all this does not mean that eternal life is to be had for twt hours' trouble and iourteenpence, cash down. What it does mean is that we are to make room in our system of faith for life and love. Faith has come to be too much a conventional word in our iky, that means that we shall get to heaven without playing the Good Samaritan. - It is a heresy tu suppose that, if we can only juggle the correct, phrase when we are here, we shall manage to get in at heaven'j gate. Christ Himself has told us that in the great day.

HE WILL JDDUE CS BV COXDCCT.

" Inasmuch as ye did it not." There is no getting out of it. It is not simply " Whatdc I believe?' but "How, how is my belief telling upon my heart, and upon my life, towards God and man f " Which now of these tnree, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among thieves ? And ho said, ' He that showed mercy on him,' Then said Jesus unto him,' Go, aud do thou likewise.' " And now I must not play the part of the priest and the Levitc even while I am denouncing them. I must not pass by some pooi froaning wretched sinner, who has bees sorely " birked" by the devil, the world and the flesh, and who is crying out in his help lessness, " Oh, there is nothing of the lawje't in me; lam the wounded, butchered man on the roadside."

Lift m> your head, my brother. The Gospel means that there has come down from the New Jerusalem the Son of God ! He died to save sinners such as you. He is laying His broad kind band on your shoulder; He ii shaking you with gentle violence; He it looking into your glazing eye, and saying, " Wilt thou be made whole r Only look to Him, and you will find that all this parable will be worked out from now until the morning when lie comes again.

CAST THY BURDEN ON THE LORD, Oh, cast thy burden on the Lord, And rest thy weary foul in Him; His presence makes the darkness light. What matter though in shades of nigtit Earth's fleeting joya grow dim J Oh, cast thy burden on the Lord, He knows the weakness of thy frame, Take heart! He sits upon the throne, All secret things to Him are known, Though man misjudge thine aim. Oh, cast thy burdens on the Lord, Tell Him thy grief, yea tell Him all, " Tempted in all poinW like as we," May who can sympathise as He ? Fear not on Hin: to call. Oh, cast thy burden on the Lord, He will not fail or faithless be. Though all around thy soul give way His love will be thy strength and stay To all eternity. Oh, cast thy burden on the Lord ! Though to thy sight so poor and dim A tangled web thy life may seem, Far, far above thy highest dream The place is clear t<> Him. J cut H. Watjo.t.