say to us, "We have
buried our husband, the bread-winner, how can we feed and educate and
clothe the children? How can we struggle on through a hard world?" To
them I say--Listen for the footsteps of Jesus, the Good Samaritan. The
same love which comforted the widow of Nain will comfort you. The same
Hands which wiped away her tears will dry your eyes. Only believe, and
turn to the Good Samaritan. Some have been beaten in the battle of
life, and are nearly heart-broken. I have tried so hard to get
work--they say, but there seems no room in the world for me,
disappointment has been my meat and drink day and night. Ah! my
brothers, have you not been trusting to the Priest and the Levite,
rather than to the Good Samaritan? The world has passed you by, but
Jesus will not. He will bind up your broken heart, and show you that
there is room in God's world for all who will do their duty. But there
is another lesson for us to learn. If Jesus does so much for us, we
ought to help each other. "Go thou and do likewise." The common,
popular idea of religion, is utter selfishness. We are taught that the
great end and aim of religion is to get our soul saved, as cheaply as
possible sometimes. Now this teaching is utterly wrong. It leads us
to think only of ourselves, it makes us go to Church from a wrong
motive--that we may get good. True religion teaches us to be good
Samaritans, to do all to the glory of God, to love Him with all our
heart and strength, and our neighbour as ourself. "Pure religion and
undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless
and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the
world." The great lesson of the parable is this, that every man is our
neighbour when he needs help, and we can give it. The Jews, as we
know, had no dealings with the Samaritans, and our Lord's story showed
how that middle wall of partition should be broken down. The Good
Samaritan did not stay to question the fallen traveller about his
religious views, or his political principles--he saw him in trouble,
and he helped him. May we all go and do likewise. We Christians are
all too ready to build up a wall of separation between ourselves and
our brethren. One of these walls is that of religious difference. We
disagree about some point of doctrine or ritual, and allow the
disagreement to embitter our feelings, and to shut out our sympathy.
Politics form another wall of separat