doubtful character. Zacchaeus was almost beside himself to
think that the Master should have recognised and spoken to him. He set
before his guest everything that his house afforded. Jesus said:
"These things are good. But I want the most precious thing you
possess."

"What is that, sir?" asked Zacchaeus in terror, for he thought he had
given of his best. "Everything I possess is yours."

Then Jesus grasped his hand, looked at him lovingly, and said:
"Zacchaeus, give me your heart!"

The man became His follower.

One day He was dining with a man who was very learned and a strict
censor of morals. Several of His disciples were among the guests, and
the talk, partly intellectual and partly guided by feeling, turned on
the Scriptures. At first Jesus took no part; He was thinking how much
pleasanter it would be to hear simple talk at His mother's fireside at
home than to dispute with these arrogant scholars about the empty
letter. But He was soon drawn into the conversation. Someone
mentioned the commandment which enjoins a man to love his neighbour,
and, as often happens, the simplest things became confused and
incomprehensible in the varied opinions of the worldly-wise. One of
the guests said: "It is remarkable how we do not reflect on the most
important things because they are so clear; and yet if we do reflect on
them by any chance, we don't understand them. So that I really do not
know who it is I should love as myself."

"Your neighbour!" the disciple Matthew, who was sitting by him at
table, informed him.

"That is all right, my friend, if only I knew who was my neighbour! I
run up against all sorts of people in the day, and if one of them trips
me up, he is my neighbour for the time being. At this moment I have
two neighbours, you and Zachariah. Which of the two am I to love as
myself? It is only stated that you shall love one. And if it's you or
Zachariah, why should I love either of you more than the Master who
sits at the other end of the table and is not my neighbour!"

"Man! that is an impertinent speech," said the disciple Bartholomew
reprovingly.

"Well then, put me right!" retorted the other.

The disciple began, and tried to explain who the neighbour was, but he
did not get very far, his thoughts were confused. Meanwhile the
question had reached the Master. Who is, in the correct sense of the
term, one's neighbour?

Jesus answered, by telling a story: "There was once a man wh