The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-10


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Never before has the onward march ce
civilization been so marked as it is to-day.
If there is one thing above another which.
In the large view. the present war is en-
phasizing, it IS the extension of human SYM
pathy and responsibility. Standing at this
| conspicuous milestone of the ages. there Is
encouragement in a brief backward glance
along the way humanity has traversed.
| In the story of the man who fell among
thieves. whom the priest and the Levite ig-
nored, but the good Samaritan helped, we
have history. not only of classes and in
dividuals, but of humanity itself. The thief,
| the priest and the Samaritan represent the
! successive stages of the progress OF the
| human race. Each of them stands as q
| type of distinct period and process in the
! growth of mankind from a state OF savagery
| to it's final condition of Christian civiliza~
! ton.
| Note first the thieves. In mountain pass
on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, they
sprang upon solitary traveller, wounded
him. robbed him of purse and raiment and
| fled, leaving him half dead"
| These thieves may represent humanity at
| Its beginning-after those brief days IN
| Eden. The human race was one of savage
| life. Violence, combat the fierce, relentless
| struggle for existence, led ON by all the pas
| sons of a natural selfishness, everywhere
| ragged. AS strongly emphasized in the early
| pages of the Bible as in all other early his
| tories of the human race, is that doctrine
of science, the survival of the fittest''-that
is, of the strongest, not the worthiest in
any moral way, but the cunningest, the
most powerful, in a purely brutal. savage
way 1.-The world was filled with violence"
These thieves in the parable wore the
clothes of more civilized state; their weap-
ons were of a more modern date. But the
men themselves, rushing from their caves
upon the Jerusalem traveller, were the sur
vivors of the old cave jewellers. The old
idea that might makes right" the old prin-
cple of leach for himself" with no law to
curb, no government to overawe, with no
confederation save that formed in family
or tribal band--you have it all in these
thieves on the Jericho road, with one hand
at the throat and the other in the pocket Of
their victim. Selfishness, the same that
RACES in the hunger of a tiger and compels
it to fasten its teeth and claws in the sides
of lamb, that was the ruling instinct in
the human breast-of the early savages and
of these Jericho robbers.
This Is one type of humanity, it's first
| type. 1t tells US what humanity was; +
tells us what humanity is before God lays
hold upon it to evolve righteousness. 1t is.
more or less, the state of humanity even
in the upper grades of civilization. 1t
streaks with broad bands even our Chris
tian civilization.
THE NEW TYPE OF MAN.
2. Consider next the men who took
the places of the thieves First comes a
priest and afterward a Levite. Each, in
turn. seeing the PROSTATE form. and prob
|
passed by on the other SIDE" This is what
they did; but, further, what did they not do2
In our answer you will find the new type
| of mana very certain and most momentous
result Of Gods evolution Of righteousness
and salvation for humanity. What did these
representatives of Gods first religion for
man not do?
The first, and perhaps most natural an
swer. would be one Of condemnation. "They
did not minister to this dying one; they left
| him to die, the miserable hypocrites Well,
| let us think of all this farther on. Just now
we are concerned about some other things
that they did not do which really were
greatly to their credit, and which will serve
to show us how real and magnificent an
advance had been accomplished in the pro-
cess of perfecting mankind.
| Say what we will of the conduct of these
| dying stranger. we must admit that they
| had not robbed and killed him. Nor would
| they have done this even had the oppor-
| tunity been theirs. Had they met the lone
| traveller first, as did the thieves. they would
| have done just what they afterwards did
| passed him by on the other side. They
| were not the murderous thieves; the diff
| ference is Unreasonable.
| 1t was thousands of years before this that
/ God had taken this violent human race in
hand, with it's enormous instincts of SELF
with all it's brutal passions surging within
| it and breaking out into deeds Of shame and
blood; and said to it. Thou shalt not" He
| had to begin on this negative side. He
could not say to this unreasoning, heartless
savage-burning with revenge, flaming with
desire, dying for the food in anothers hands
he could not say to him, BE good. be
kind, love your enemy" The most he could
do at the first was to restrain his raging
impulse saying. through his awakening
conscience and vague fears, "Thou shalt
not STEAL" Thou shalt not KILL" etc The
Jews had learned the lesson; no people pos
sessed such rigor OF obedience as they. We
may condemn this priest and Levite for
| their unfeeling conduct, but in those other
virtues which belonged to them, In their
| perfect regard for that law which held back
| their hands from murder AID theft, they
represented the high mark which mankind
! had reached in the course of its uplifting
1t was a great triumph for Gods plan
| that the race should have risen out of it's
| murderous selhshness and utter lawlessness
| into the securities of government, the OBJ
| servance of common rights. the self-re-
straints which go with social order-into the
practice of sheer justice. 1t was slow
process, the curbing I'm and killing out this
| demon of self by which men ignored or
trampled down all private rights, all prop
| erty rights, all sanctity of marriage, all
sacredness of possession and life. 1t was
the hardest possible problem; yet even these
priests whom we so heavily condemn had
reached that high point in the upward evo-
| luton.
3. But no sooner had the Levite passed
| by and out of sight than up the rough way
comes another. He rides his own mule. He
| has money in his purse. though not much
At sight OF the dying man he is at his side.
reviving him with wine. binding up his
wounds with a healing oil. He casts over
him his own cloak. lifts him upon his mule,
and with steadied pace conducts the sufferer
10 the village inn where he leaves him in
! good hands. providing for every expense
AT rFeTS~ ~