w a long lecture, endeavoring to prove
that science was better than religion. He did not give him a long
address on geology; what could that do for him? What the poor man
needed was sympathy and help. So the first thing the good Samaritan
did was to pour oil into his wounds. How many wounded men there are in
our midst who have need of the oil of pity and sympathy. A good many
Christians seem always to carry about with them a bottle of vinegar,
which they bring out on all occasions.

The Samaritan might have said to the man: "Why did you not stay at
Jerusalem? What business had you to come down this road, any way,
giving all this trouble?" So people will sometimes say to a young man
who has come to the city and got into trouble: "Why did you ever leave
your home and come to this wicked city?" They begin to scold and
upbraid. You are never going to reach men and do them good in that
way; or by putting yourself on a high platform; you have to come down
to them and enter into their sorrows and troubles. See how this
Samaritan "came to where he was," and instead of lecturing him, poured
the healing oil into his wounds.

You observe there are twelve things mentioned in the narrative that
the Samaritan did. We can dismiss in a word all that the priest and
the Levite did--they did _nothing_.

(1.) He "came to where he was."

(2.) He "saw him;" he did not, like the priest, pass by on the other
side.

(3.) He "had compassion on him." If we would be successful winners of
souls we, too, must be moved with compassion for the lost and the
perishing. We must sympathize with men in their sorrows and troubles,
if we would hope to gain their affections and to do them good.

(4.) He "went to him." The Levite went _toward_ him, but we are told
that he, as well as the priest, "passed by on the other side."

(5.) He "bound up his wounds." Perhaps he had to tear up his own
garments in order to bind them up.

(6.) He poured in oil and gave some wine to the fainting man.

(7.) He "set him on his own beast." Do you not think that this poor
Jew must have looked with gratitude and tenderness on the Samaritan,
as he was placed on the beast, while his deliverer walked by his side?
All the prejudice in his heart must have disappeared long before they
got to the end of their journey.

(8.) He "brought him to an inn."

(9.) He "took care of him." I was greatly touched at hearing of a
Christian worker in one of the districts in London wher