The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1906-07-12
The Good Samaritan.

announcer pearl III the lONSlS anu
priceless strand of our Lords
thirty-three parallels, one of I'M
usual size, weight, and luster,
claims our attention.
1t is hard for us Occidentals to
appreciate the license taken by
Oriental audiences in the midst of
public discourse. They express
their approval or dissent not only
by facial and manual gesture, but
by audible word. Discussions
spring up among the auditors, and
the speaker often has running
accompiment of comment. So it
was no novel thing that in the
midst of Jesus discourse the voice
of teacher of the Jewish law rang
out, rabbi, what shall I do to
inherit eternal life?"
1t was a mere dialectic gauntlet
tossed at Jesus feet. The school
man would fain convert that
Perean roadway into all arena
where he could display his hardi-
hood and skill with his logical
lance. He should at least be
given the benefit Of a doubt of
having any special animosity
against Jesus, Sacred things to
him had lost their sacredness.
Law and prophets were only an
armory for wit and subtlety.
The Master takes him upon his
own ground. "Thou art versed in
the law. Mayhap you have an
answer in the text box of your
own phylactery?" The lawyers
response is quick and opposite,
AS in a flash one sees how super
ior the religion Of the old cove
nant was to be identical. The re-
ligion of God was love, but the re-
Iigion of Phar1saism was a narrow
and cold system of dialectics.
The lawyer, conscious Of his
inability to keen the law in its full
breadth, would fain enter his
Pharisaical refinement upon it in
the question, "Who is my neigh
bor?" Jesus has driven the mat
ter home to his heart, but he will
detrously fend it off with his
dialectic Jesus finds the pledge
of eternal life in the subjective
state; this religious dodger begs to
know the objective status of those
toward whom he is to exercise
himself. If they are Jews and
friends he will love them. More
than that the paraphrases, tar
gums, and what-nots of Pharisaism
do not require of him.
At this point the Wilderness and
purity of the love which God in
stills in the penitent and trustful
soul is flashed out in one of the
most incompatible parallels that
ever dropped even from the lips of
Him who spake as never man did.
The site of the story was nota-
BILE, not to say notorious; the per
son9, a wounded traveller, priest,
Levite, Samaritan. The priest
and Levite show us chow not to
do it." They palliate and excuse
themselves. The sufferer may not
be Jew; if so, the law, as they
interpret it, makes no demand upon
them. Even if a Jew, he might
die while they were binding up
his wounds; and if he did, they
would be ceremonially polluted
and disqualified from temple ser
vice. All how they had failed to
learn that if God could not have
both mercy and ceremony of sacri-
fee, he would choose the mercy
always.
The Samaritan does not stop to
party; he Just neighbors the unfor-
tunate man, and that is the end of
it. He does it heartily and thor
oughly. That naked and ensan-
guined form makes its own plea to
him, and makes it not in vain as
to the others. He opens both
heart and pocketbook. The COM
merCial traveller is transformed
into the trained nurse as he sits
the night watches through by the
c., Aararic ciIa n,,1xy ,,La., l.