The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-03-07
The SAMARITAN
WILL BE SUNDAY
SCHOOL THEME
Jesus Reminds Us in This
Parable We Make Our
Environment.
The International Uniform Sunday
School Lesson for March s. The Good
Samaritan. Luke 10:25-37.
BY VIM. E. GMROY, d. d.
Editor of The COngregationaIist

Editor of The COngregationaIist
The story that we call the Par
able of the Good Samaritan is
from every standpoint one of the
richest, deepest, and most beautiful
in all human history.
From a literary standpoint it is
perfect. 1t congresses into small
space a remarkable story, and tells
it with unexcelled dramatic force
and vigor.
From a moral standpoint it ex-
presses the whole challenge of duty
in connection with human relation
ships and mans responsibility for
the welfare of his fellow-men in as
pointed and compelling a way as it
could well be expressed.
And from a spiritual standpoint
it reveals the sham and hypocrisy
that often parade under the profess
sion OF religion and the insincerity
and futility that go hand in hand
with Journalism, as these things
have never been so vigorously set
forth anywhere else.
Here, also, the parable has be-
come known through it's chief fig
ure and its chief purpose. 1t is not
the parable of the man who fell
among thieves, or the parable of
the priest who passed by on the
other side, or Of the Levite who
did likewise. 1t is the parable of
the good Samaritan-the man who
is known to us not because we are
told anything about his creed or
profession, but who appears in all
the glory of his kind and loving
deed.
Story Told as Illustration
It should not be forgotten that
the story was told, like many of
the parallels of Jesus, to illustrate
a particular point. Jesus was an
swering the question, Who is my
neighbor? The lawyer who was
trying him out had asked that ques-
ton when Jesus had defined re-
ligion as consisting of love to God
and love to ones neighbor.
1t is instructive to see the way
in which Jesus turned the tables
upon his queStioner. He compelled
the questioner to answer himself.
He did not say to him as he told
the story, "The man who fell among
thieves was neighbor to the priest
and to the, Levite and to the man
who helped him." Jesus put the
application the other way round.
He said to the lawyer, (which of
the three, thinkest thou, was
neighbor unto him that fell among
thieves?" That is, Jesus does not
say to lis, "You must help such and
such a man because he is your
neighbor," but he says, "You can be
a neighbor to any man whom you
are willing to help"
In this parable, as in other places,
Jesus reminds us that we make our
own religious world and environ
ment. We can make it as narrow
as our own prejudices and as mean
and circumscribed as ourselves. or
we can make it as vast as the love
Of God and inclusive of all that
great family of our fellow-men who
are comprised in that love Of the
Almighty Father.
A LimitIess Religion
The religion of the good Samari-
tan is a limitlesS religion. 1t is
limitless in the largeness of it's creed
and profession, for its creed is not
formal but practical. 1t is limitless
in its application of religion, for it
does not inquire whether the man
to whom one would be neighbor
is an American or a foreigner, or
what is the color of his skin, or
what is the particular cause of the
affection from which he is suffer-
ing. It is the religion that moves
with instructive action toward the
help Of any one in distress. It is
the religion in which love as natu-
rally expresses itself in kind words
and loving deeds as ones physical
being inhales and exhales the air
that is essential for life.
The glory of such a religion is
that the more one practices it, the
more natural it becomes until it is
almost second nature to behave in
the spirit and in the manner of the
good Sanlar IAN; for the good Sa-
marian was simply acting in the
spirit of the Master who gives wis
dom and strength to all to act in
the same way.
America, in its present situation
of unemployment and widespread
suffering, offers a rich opportunity
for all who are willing to be good
SamaritanS.'