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Welfare Ministry
they could use to condemn Him, sent a lawyer to Him with a question,
“What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Christ read the hearts of the
Pharisees as an open book, and His answer to the questioner was,
“What is written in the law? how readest thou?” “And he answering
said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy
neighbour as thyself.”
“Thou hast answered right,” Christ said; “this do, and thou shalt
live.” The lawyer knew that by his own answer he had condemned
himself. He knew that he did not love his neighbor as himself. But
willing to justify himself, he asked, “And who is my neighbour?”
Christ answered this question by relating an incident, the memory
of which was fresh in the minds of his hearers.—
Manuscript 117,
1903
.
“A certain man,” He said, “went down from Jerusalem to Jeri-
cho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and
wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.”
[44]
In journeying from Jerusalem to Jericho, the traveler had to pass
through a portion of the wilderness of Judea. The road led down a
wild, rocky ravine, which was infested with robbers and was often the
scene of violence. It was here that the traveler was attacked, stripped of
all that was valuable, and left half dead by the wayside. As he lay thus,
a priest came that way; he saw the man lying wounded and bruised,
weltering in his own blood; but he left him without rendering any
assistance. He “passed by on the other side.” Then a Levite appeared.
Curious to know what had happened, he stopped and looked at the
sufferer. He was convicted of what he ought to do, but it was not an
agreeable duty. He wished that he had not come that way, so that he
would not have seen the wounded man. He persuaded himself that the
case was no concern of his, and he too “passed by on the other side.”
But a Samaritan, traveling the same road, saw the sufferer, and he
did the work that the others had refused to do. With gentleness and
kindness he ministered to the wounded man. “When he saw him, he
had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds,
pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him
to an inn, and took care of him. And 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