Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 242, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1918 — Who Is My Neighbor? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Who Is My Neighbor?

By REV. ED. P. COOK, D. D.

Director Missionary Courae.Moody Bible Institute, Chicago

TEXT—Who Is my neighbor?—Luke IS: 29. Read Luke 10:25-27.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus is clearly undertaking to

show the universal obligation of Christian service. The question to whom this obligation is due and the measure of the obligation, confronts; many an honest inquirer. It 18 interesting to discover the meaning of the master’s answer to the young man’s question. He seems to say that my neighbor is the

man in need, the man in need of what I have to give, and whose need arises and is made known to me at a time when lam able to give IL If this be true, how amazing and wonderful has become the world neighborhood, and how clearly Is the Christian’s duty to make Christ known emphasized by the universality of human suffering. Like the man on the way to Jericho, nations lie stricken, bleeding, hungry and ready to die. Over against this appalling fact, the like of which the Christian neverfaced before in all the history of the world, stands Christ, God’s only answer to human need. We of America know him. We have him enthroned in many an earnest heart. We have throughout. the land the open Bible, God’s word spoken to sinful and suffering man everywhere and in all ages, words of love, words of hope and words of comfort. How mightily It behooves us in this time of world tragedy and suffering to study the parable of the Good Samaritan and to search our own hearts to know whether or not we as individuals are rendering that ministry to the suffering which human need.requires, and our knowledge of human suffering and our ability to alleviate it insistently requires.

What a reproach that in the master’s parable the representatives of religion—the servants of the Temple of God—passed by the sufferer. Each knew of the case of human need. Each looked upon the toA and bleeding form. Each possessed the resources from which to help. Yet each turned away passing on the other side, deliberately walking away from this revelation of suffering and need, deaf to this cry. So proud, so self-righteous, so exclusive, were these servants of religion, and so devoted were they to the forms and ceremonies of their service, and so filled with the thought of their own importance, that there seemed to be no place in either heart for the milk of human kindness. Will we ever again permit this reproach to be laid at the door of the representatives of religion? Can it be possible that those who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ, and who are the exponents and advocates of the Christian religion, shall fail to exemplify that high and holy love wherewith the master loved men? Shall we forget In the days to come that the master himself In answer to the doubt of John the forerunner announced as the evidence of his divinity and gave as the proof of his adequate ministry to men, that "the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good tidings preached to them.” Shall we not, as we journey toward the day of world peace, in our comfort of circumstances, in our amplitude of resources, think of the peoples who have fallen by the way? Will not Belgium and France and Roumania and Armenia and great, old, riven, torn and demoralized Russia, draw out of the Christian heart of America the ministry of healing, the ministry of money, the ministry of a Christly love? Surely the great lessons of selfdenial and self-sacrifice which we are learning as a people in this great war will in God’s good providence prepare us for that new neighborhood created by the universality of suffering and the heart hunger of the world. May God in his providence preserve the faith and love of our people and protect our resources in men and money, for a world-wide campaign of evangelism after the war, and above all preserve In the heart of our nation that reality of spiritual experience that will make our world ministry as beautiful and effective as was that of the humble man of Samaria, who helped his brother in need, when that need was discovered and the humble traveler had the means at his hand to render the succor which human suffering called forth. "The greater one’s power with God in constant prayer, the greater grows one’s power with men who seldom Pray.” We plan and plan, then pray That God may bless our plan. So runs our dark and doubtful way. That scarce shall lead unto the day— So runs the life of man! But hearken! God saith, "Pray.” And he will show his plan. And lead us tn his shining way That leadeth on to perfect day Each God-surrendered man.