The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-12
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
SOME OF OUR NEIGHBORs AND OUR
OBLIGATIONS TO THEM.
short Sermon by the Rev. @. Nj. Bow
ers, ID. D., Pastor of First Bap-
list Church, Clinton, Mass.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as myself,

VINO our nelSnOOIS are OF now many htAuS
of neighbor there are in this world to be
loved and served.
1t seems young lawyer once wanted to
know the meaning OF our text, and asked
Christ. ''Who is my neighbor?'-a very
natural question from one who had never
before heard of this teaching of neighbor
love- In answer Christ gave the story of
the good Samaritan, who, on the Jericho
road. came across a wounded man, whose
name he did not know nor where he
lived. nor whether he believed In the Pen
tateuch, or was only "a dog of an agnos-
tic" Here was a great need and the Sa-
martan greatly met it-with oil, wine,
bandages and good care. in the place of
close questioning or hollow words of SYM
pathy. Need ought to make Of US a neigh
Dor anywhere and everywhere in the wide
world when it comes in our way
Before taking a look at a few of our
neighbors, note one significant fact in this
narrative Mere emotional benevolence has
no part there. Some people can weep over
suffering and still do nothing. If the Sa-
maritan had sat down and shed tears Of
sympathy and offered a fervent prayer,
and exercised a tender hope that Provi-
dence would somehow intercede, we never
should have heard of him as Christ's idea
of a neighbor. 1.-TWO pence may some
times be worth more than gallon of tear
drops or a ton of good wishes. Christ
loved in the Samaritan way, and served
humanity at infinite cost to himself.
AS charity-that is, love-"begins at
home" it may not be necessary to go even
to the next house TO find our neighbor.
The patient, toiling, self-sacrificing, home
keeping wife may be the one TO whom we
should show ore neighborliness
Woman is often the hardest worked ami
nal on earth, and with small help sym
pathy in return. She is commonly the
house prisoner, chained to her constant
toll, for woman's work is never done"
When the Lord created woman he invented
a perpetual motion" machine. Frequently
her days work is all of to-day and part
OF tomorrow. Often the mothers duty of
caring for six or seven little ones, apart
from other domestic burdens is enough TO
wear away two bodies two hearts and two
sets of nerves. The wife and mother must
be good Samaritan to the entire family,
father and all the children. But who shall
be good Samaritan to her? 1t were better
twice over for some mothers and wives to
be the man that fell among thieves on the
Jericho road than to be in their own Pc
culiar places. In their motherhood and
wear OF service they sometimes get so little
sweetness and sympathy from the head of
the household that it must often seem to
them as if the husband had gone wholly
out of the business of keeping any stock
of heart on hand.
And do not here refer to the bruteS who
turn their home by drunken violence into
a hell but to that large and growing class
who have no evening hours to devote to
delicate social attentions to her who makes
their home; but give to clubs and other or
CARNATIONS the time belonging to fireside
courtesies and love. Must the husband al
ways find after supper some other COM
pany better than the family, some other
place more attractive than the home, and
some other excitement more enhancing
than the old-time pleasure when he acted
the part of a lover? The whole span Of
life should be constant sacred courtship
No one Of the societies on earth should be
of equal value with the divine society into
which he was initiated by marriage. Is he
not fraud and a perjurer who promised
in the most solemn form of pledge to love,
honor and cherish his wife, but who nightly
runs away from the quiet pleasures of
home to find entertainment in some club
of menu Is the pursuit of his own selfish
qualification the love he ought to show to
this best of all neighbors, to convert the
wife into q mere house dog to keep the
premises a mere drudge to wear her life
out in 1.-THE daily task, the common round"
of treadniIl household duties? Many seem
to think they can act as they choose be-
cause it is nobody but the wife, whereas
that nobody ought to be to them the great
est somebody man can ever know on
earth. To such a blessed neighbor he
should be the best of good Samaritans.
Again, to go but a step from our own
doors, the humble creatures God has given
to our world in the variety of interest
ing beings. may possibly sometimes be the
neighbors we need to love more than We
do.
In the beginning the great Father made
beasts birds and creeping things part
of the friendly companionship with man.
The vison of Isaiah is inspiring in its por-
trayal of a coming day when truth ard
progress shall so change the earth and all
life in it, that 1.-The wolf shall dwell with
the lamb, the calf with the lion the cow
with the bear, and a little child shall lead
them They shall not hurt nor destroy IN
all the holy mountain of the Lord" Then
beautiful song birds and frisking squirrels
will again have an Eden where no heart
less gunners will murder for the mere
pleasure of bringing down game. Under no
consideration would 1 kill my bird neigh
bors for the sole purpose Of recreation or
amusement
1t may be called forced interpretation
to embrace the lower orders of being as
a part of our neighbor fellowship. But
why2 Are they not Gods creatures also,
and placed by mis- hand in the same world
homo we occupy? Can we increase piety and
grace in our own souls by wantonly scatter
tering death where heaven has provided
life? Christ regarded these creatures as his
neighbors, and taught that even the in
finite God marks every sparrows fall. In
agine Christ and Paul and John going gun
ming for a vacation. Rather might it do for
Judas.
The painful matter of vivisection may
well come in for q word here. Mercifully
conducted, It unquestionably serves a be-
nignant purpose, of inestimable value to
the human race; but it is well known that
anaesthetics are by no means invariably
employed. Think what is daily taking
place in certain Institutions of this Chris
tian land. 1t is almost beyond belief that
tlis humanitarian age permits domestic
animals to be put TO lingering torture that
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