Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-01-16
WHEN IS ONE REAL
GOOD SAMARITAN :?
Title Is Reserved For Those
Who Help Those Whom
They Owe Nothing
The International Sunday School Les
son For January 18th Is "The
GOOD Sainaritan."-LIke 1O:25-37


son For January 18th Is "The
GOOD Samaritan.'-Luke 1O:25-37
(By William T. Ellis)
Petrif1ed phrases form a large part
OF common speech: everybody uses
the words Good Samaritan" but
Few who do so understand their real
point. man is not "a good
Der of his own lodge or church, or
an old friend, or fellow townsman,
or one of his own kinfolk He is
worthy of praise when he does this,
put he is not in the good Samaritan
class. That title is reserved for the
irish who help Italians, for the Jews
VINO are kind to Russians, for the
British who deal tenderly with Ger
mans, for the Californians who sue
cor japanese, for the Texans who
serve Mexicans, for the Protes-
tants who play brother to Ro-
man Catholics. for the white men
VINO minister to the negroes, and for
all others who give friendliness
where unfriendliness might be ex-
pected.
The whole point of this story is
hereditary enemy who despised him.
1t was no mere kindness Of man to
man, of friend to friend. The good
samaritan stands as the type of those
who go outside their own crowd and
their own natural sympathies and
their own racial group to do a kind
ness to the needy. For "the Jews
have no dealings with the Samari-
tans." The poorest Jew counted
himself better than the greatest
Samaritan. The latter was of mixed
heather blood, and so was disdained
and despised. But when a Jewish
wayfarer fell among thieves on the
Jericho road his own nationals, the
priest and the Levite, both of whom
should have worn the spirit of
"nobless oblige" on their hearts
passed him by in selfish unconcern.
And the foreigner" the "heatehn"
Samaritan gave instant, efficient and
continuous help to the man who was
down.
This is a good story for these
times. For ours is the century OF
cosmopolitanistn. We are learning
the lesson of world brotherhood. The
basic human ties that underlie all
national or racial groupings are un-
derstood as never before. We are
shaping our international relations
and our Christian civilization to that
ideal. When north mid-China was
starving, few years ago, and the
prosperous Chinese themselves were
needless. 1t was the people of the
United States and Canada who sent
the relief which broke the famine.
So to-day this western. world is hear
ing the cry of starving Albanians
and Bulgarians. The earth is full
of the good Samaritan spirit in this
year of our Lord, 1914.
No other book has SO many inter
nal evidences of genuineness as the
Bible. Thus, this little story tells
how the traveller went down. from
Jerusalem to Jericho. Those of us
who have been over the road know
how he went down." a descent of
almost a mile In short journey of
about twenty miles. Jericho lies in
the deepest depression Of the earth's
surface. which is the valley of the
Dead Sea.
That difficult road has been, by
one of the strange persistences SO
common in the Orient, a resort for
thieves from time immemoriaL Only
recently have the Turkish soldiers
made 1t reasonably safe, and forced
the line Of outlawry to the Jordan
River. Every hearer of the story as
Jesus told 1t, recognized the appro-
pirate setting Of the incident on that
lonely and dangerous road; which
now, however, is safely travelled by
hundreds of pilgrims every year. A
rest house and souvenir shop to-day
stands on the reputed site of the
scene.
Typically Oriental, too, is the
eagerness of the priest and the Le-
vite to avoid entangling themselves
in the scrape. Don't mix UP in the
other mans trouble" is the selfish
rule there. In China they will let a
man drown, rather than try to Sue
cor him. rare Samaritan was the
hero of the parable, to take personal
responsibility for the stranger in
trouble, and put himself to incon-
venience and expense. l met young
American Jew at Jaffa once who
took exactly this same sort of care
of a poor old woman whom he met
In the steamship office, eager to get
to Alexandria. He was modern i'm
provement on the priest and the Le-
Vite.
The parable points the truth that
life is Won by deeds of kindness. To
have life, which is fullness of expert
ence. we must give of ourselves to
other lives. "a mans life consists
of the number of things to which he
is alive" A wealthy western busi-
ness man boasted to me recently
that he has never been a hundred
miles from his native city; and he
has no interests except his business
of making money. Poor fellow! II
pitied him more than any beggar I
saw on his city's streets. He cannot
even see why it is that his business
is slipping away from him, he is los
ing money, and his soul is like
shriveled pea. He has missed life.
Had he been wise enough to give he
would have been able really to live.
The niggardly, self-serving, self-en-
crossed life misses even the little
goals at which it aims. The Good
Samaritan way Is the way of wis
dom, as well as of helpfulness. Altru-
ism is a workable philosonhy