Covenanter Witness Vol. 55 - Rparchives.org

neighbor?"cy."wise."pray."SABBATHSCHOOL LESSONDecember 11, 1955Rev. W. J. McBurney(Lessons based on international Sunday SchoolLessons; the International Bible Lessons foiChristian Teaching, copyrighted by the Inter.national Council of Religious Education.)WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?Luke 10:25-37MEMORY VERSE. Luke 10 :27. "Thoushalt love the Lord thy God with all thyheart, and with all thy soul, and with allthy strength, and with all thy mind; andthyself."thyneighbor asFollowing his Galilean ministry,Christ journeyed through Perea, towardJerusalem. The fame ofHis, works andteaching had gone before Him, and ofcourse, these reports were not altogether accurate. A lawyer, who had understood that Jesus taught some new wayof salvation not in accord with the OldTestament, stood up to tempt Him. Theword tempt as here used, does not meanto persuade to do evil, but to show thatHe was doing evil. To show that He wasnot teaching according to the Old Testament, the lawyer asked, "What shall Ido to inherit eternal life?" There wouldbe two elements in the crowd of listeners;some would be with Jesus, andsome would be against Him. So therewould be deep interest in what appearedto be the opening of a contest betweenChrist and the lawyer.Jesus did not start an argument. Heasked what was written in the law, asthe lawyer understood it. The replywas decidedly given. It was the law oflove taken from Deut. 11:13 and Lev.19:8, as it was in their phylacteries.Christ commended him for giving a correct answer from the law, and acceptedthat asthe answer to the lawyer'squestion. "This do and thou shaltlive."There were smiles when thelawyer quotedthyself,""and thyneighbor assurely. And it probablyturned to laughter when Christ commended the lawyer's answer. In the eyesof those who knew him, he had convicted himself. So he determined, (willing is the participal of the verb to will,)to justify himself, said, "But who is myHe was ready to argue thatpoint.Again Jesus left him to answer hisown question. He told the story of aman who was robbed and beaten. Hemay have been of any nationality, orsocial cast. He needed help.A priest came along. When he saw theman in need, he went to the other sideof the road and passed on.Then a Levite saw him and looked athim to see if it was anyone he knew. Itwas none of his friends, did not attendNovember 23, 1955his synagogue, did not belong to his Levite was a Mason, and that the needylodge. Or if he did he was too near dead man was not. We are not informed asto give the Grand Hailing Sign of Dis to the line bywhich he decided whotress. So he went on.would receive help from him. But he hadThen came a Samaritan, despised ofa line that put him out of step withthe Jews. This was not a common Sa neighborly folks.maritan. There were good Samaritans, If the good Samaritan was guided byand he was one of them. He saw theany oath, it must have been the oath ofman in need. He immediately rendered allegiance to His Lord and Saviour Jefirst aid. Then he took him to an inn sus Christ. That puts him in decidedand arranged to have him cared for ascontrast with the priest. The priestlong as was needed.would not help anybody. The Good SaThen Christ turned to the lawyer and maritan would help anybody. Eventualasked him which of these three men ly, there might be a great gulf fixed befulfilled the Old Testament law that tween them.would lead to eternal life. I think there The tempting lawyer? He had certainwas no one laughing now, as the lawtalents, and Christ used them to the adyer acknowledged his defeat? O no.vantage of His Kingdom. Under Christ'sChrist had not entered into any contest questions he gave a fine demonstrationwith him. He had simply led him to of the Law of Love.answer his own question. It would seemWhen Goldsmith wrote The Villagethat Christ had won the lawyer, as hePreacher, he must have been thinking ofanswered, "Surely, he that showed merChrist, and perhaps of this lawyer whenChrist said, "Go thou and do likehe came to the lines,"At church with meek and unaffectedIn this lesson, we have six examplesgracethat are worth our study. They all sug His look adorned the sacred place;gest some application of the study a Truth from his lips prevailed withmonth ago on How to Live. Changing double sway,the order, notice The Man Who FellAnd fools who came to scoff, remainedAmong Thieves. Whether he was attofault does not change the fact that heneeded help. A child disobeys by climbing an apple tree and breaks his arm ; he PRAYER MEETING TOPICis not immediately chided for disobediDecember 14, 1955ence. The first concern is to care for his "THE 'AMEN' IN PRAYER"arm. That, however does not excuse hisRev. 7:12sin. Christ's rules for non-resistence im Rev. P. D. McCracken, D.D.ply that we are in the power of the Psalms:oppressor. If we are compelled to go a Psalmssmile, return good for evil and go two. 41:9-12, page 106There was more than one robber. The 89:23, 24, 28, 41, page 218traveler might have seen at first that he 106:30-33, page 263had no power to defend himself. If he 72:9-12, page 175had not put up a fight, he would have References:been robbed, but not likely beaten. That Matt. 6:13; Eph. 3:20, 21; I Cor. 14:would have saved trouble for himself 16; Rev. 22:20, 21; Num. 5:22; Neh.and for the Samaritan. Robbers have 8:6; Deut. 27:15; Jer. 28:6; Matt. 28:been converted by kind words from 20; Rom. 1:25; 11:36; Phil. 4:23; Rev.their victims.1:6.The lazy indifferences of the priest toCOMMENTSsuffering fills us with indignation, it is With this study we have reached theso evident and cruel. What are we to do end of a series on Prayer which haswhen whole nations are robbed and run once a month throughout the year.spoiled?We have considered such subjects asNotice the man who passed by when "The Neglect of Prayer," "Reverence inPrayer,"he found no special reason why heand "Confidence in Prayer."should help. His looking at the man in These were followed by eight studiesdicates that there were some that he all centering in The Lord's Prayer. Wewould have helped. There are several believe it is fitting and proper nowways by which men group themselves to come to the "Amen."for help. We may feel that the man But what does Amen mean? To manyhad no appearance of being a Levite, who pray, or listen to prayers, it meansor the Levite would have helped him. nothing more than a period, the stoppingPerhaps he was of a different nationali place, the announcement of the end, thety from the Levite. If the Masonic order time to change and do something elsewas half as old as Masons claim it is, maybe sit down. But this is very trivial,we would certainly suspect that the to say the least, even though it be very347