ood Jew would be shown caring for a wounded Samaritan. Jesus gives
it a smashing effectiveness by reversing the role and showing the hated
Samaritan as the heroic lover of his kind. To get the situation we must
remember the historic enmity between the Jews and the half-breed aliens
who had stolen their land and their religion while they were exiled. If we
substitute Spaniard and Moor, Kurd and Armenian, Serb and Bulgar, we may
get the tension.

_Who are our American Samaritans?_

Third Day: Raising the Standards

We must live up to what we know is right, and we must expand the area of
ethical obligation to take in even men of alien race and hostile religion.
But beyond that, we need a conscious advance in the ethical standards
themselves. Jesus worked out this principle with perfect clearness in a
part of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:17-48. He states the need, and
then shows in six cases how such an advance would work out. We shall take
these up in their order. Matthew has introduced scattered sayings of Jesus
which serve as corollaries, but which do not bear directly on the real
course of the argument; for instance, Matthew 5:23-26; 29-30. In our
quotations in this and the following days we shall confine ourselves to
the main line of thought in order to concentrate attention on that.

Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came
not to destroy, but to fulfil.... For I say unto you, that except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of
heaven.--Matt. 5:17, 20.

Apparently conservative Jews soon felt the spiritual freedom and force in
the teachings of Jesus. He seemed to them to be attacking the sacred Law,
the foundation of morality and religion. Jesus mentions the charge but
denies it. His purpose was not destructive but constructive. He demanded
not less righteousness but more. The lines of right living needed to be
prolonged. The traditional standards were no longer adequate. A man might
obey them and yet not be a good man. The scribes and Pharisees were the
model church members of Judaism and experts in piety, yet they were not
qualified to enter the Kingdom of God.

_Are we also good people who are not good enough?_

Fourth Day: The Sins of Hate

Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not
kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in d