them, they by degrees shook off their idolatry, and, when their temple was built on Mount Gerizim, in which they imitated as much as possible the service performed on mount Sion, they came much nearer to the worship of the true Jehovah, as prescribed in the Mosaic law. The existence however of a rival temple tended rather to inflame than allay the hatred of the Jews against the Samaritans. The kind reception moreover offered by the latter to the apostate brethren of the former, made so wide a breach betwixt the two nations as was not to be closed. The bitterest curse imaginable was published at Jerusalem against the Samaritans. The fruits of their land, themselves and their cattle were declared unclean. They were excluded from ever being received as proselytes, and denied, as far as possible, from having any portion in the resurrection of the dead to eternal life.

Having now considered the extreme national antipathy existing betwixt Jew and Samaritan, at the period of our Lord's teaching, we shall the more readily apprehend the pertinency of his parabolic answer to the lawyer.

"A certain man," said our Saviour, "went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. By chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him he passed

by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side."

You will observe that the wounded man was an inhabitant of Jerusalem, and therefore a Jew. It is important that this should be borne in mind, because the whole moral of the parable lies in this. The priest and the Levite also were Jews, and not only so, but ministers of religion. At the very time too of their cruel disregard of the wounded man, they were on their way to Jericho, upon the sacred business of their ministry. Being however beyond the reach of human observation, upon beholding the sufferer prostrate and weltering in his blood, they separately go up to him, examine his melancholy plight, then deliberately leave him to the doubtful chance of meeting a a more charitable passenger, or to linger on in his agonies until death shall bring him release.

This example of heartless indifference on the part of these functionaries of the Jewish temple, was no doubt intended by our blessed Lord as a covert censure of the lax habits of all those who at this time filled any ecclesiastical office among the generally unfeeling and factious Jews. It will nevertheless apply to all ranks and conditions of men. And we shall further perceive that the Saviour, in the progress of his discourse, gives us a very happy illustration of

those imperative obligations which universally exist betwixt man and man. "But a certain Samaritan," he continues, "as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds."

Here we shall mark the contrast between the outwardly sanctified priest and Levite, and the vitally charitable Samaritan. We shall remember that although, according to the prejudices in which he had been reared, he suffered pollution by even touching a Jew, still, seeing him in extremity, he laid aside that ferocious enmity which existed betwixt Jew and Samaritan, "poured oil and wine into his wounds, set him on his own beast, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the morrow, when he departed, he took out two-pence and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee." The sum left with the host was two Roman Denarii, together equivalent to about fifteen pence of our money, and would in that country in those days, go probably full as far as four or five shillings with us now.

What shall we say to this emphatic example of honest benevolence? Here indeed was a triumph of principle over the narrow prejudices of education, a conquest of feeling over the blind suggestions of national antipathy, a victory of

the tender appeals of benevolence over the cold calculations of selfishness. Let us apply this home. It is an example proposed for our imitation by the Lord God of our salvation, our blessed Saviour and Redeemer. The benevolent Samaritan, as we have perceived, suppressed all feelings of religious or political hostility, upon an occasion where the life of a fellow-creature was at hazard, shewing the tenderest disposition towards a man who, probably, before he fell among thieves, would, had they met, have treated him with supercilious scorn. His charity was exercised where none was by to applaud, in a case too where no requital was to be expected, and further towards a national enemy. At the close of the narrative, Christ asks the lawyer, "Which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbour unto him that fell among thieves?" leaving the inference to be drawn from the recital just given, "and he said, he that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise."

In this parable it will be observed that Christ does not openly describe a Jew doing good offices to a Gentile, which the lawyer might have replied was no where enjoined in the Mosaic law; but he indirectly obliges him to confess that reasons may arise to a Jew to love a Samaritan more than one of his own nation, nay, more than even a priest or Levite, and to

account him his neighbour, notwithstanding the difference of their religious belief, and the inveteracy of their national enmity. This being admitted, the lawyer, by his silence, allows that it must be the duty of a Jew to show similar kindness to a Samaritan. The Saviour here, with great prudence and address, representing the Jew as the party robbed and wounded, and as having obtained relief from the humanity of the Samaritan, after a priest and Levite had passed without affording him relief, obliged his opponent to confess that the kindness of which he could not but admit the merit should be returned by his own nation; and that the Hebrew ritual, so far from abolishing, unites with the general obligation of mutual succour to all mankind.*

Hence it will be evident that we all stand in the relation of neighbours one towards another, in spite of every distinction of nation or religion; and to this moral obligation under which we lay to protect and assist each other, is obviously directed that important precept, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Our blessed Lord could not have better illustrated the practical necessity of this command than in the narrative which we have just considered. The Psalmist too unites in confirming this doctrine by showing us how he had himself practically applied it.

* Vide Elsley's Annot. ad loc.