beat him, and left half-dead. The Priest passed by without rendering the wounded man any help, likewise the Levite in the same manner; but a certain Samaritan came that way, and when he saw the poor wounded man lying there in that wounded condition, although he may be a Jew, and the Jews and the Samaritans might have enmity existing between them, yet he pitied the man, went down to him, bound up his wounds, set him on his beast, took him to an inn, and paid the fare," and Jesus asked the young lawyer the question, "which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor to him that fell among the thieves?" And he (the lawyer) said: "he that showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said unto him: "Go thou and do likewise." Thus Jesus of Nazareth taught the duty of kindness. This kindness we must show, not to our dear friends alone, but to our enemies, to those who despitefully use us, and say all manner of evil against us for righteousness' sake. Kindness may be defined as neighbor's candle by our own," by "lighting our which we lose nothing and impart something. One man has kindness deep within him, and when the occasion comes the rind or shell is cracked, and the kernel is found. Such a man's heart, too long clouded, like a sun in a storm-muffled day, shoots through some opening rift, and glows for a period in glory. But there are other natures that are always cloudless. With them a cloud is the exception, shining is the rule. They rise radiant over the horizon; they fill the whole heavens with brightness, and all day long they overhang life, pouring down an undiminished flood of brightness and warmth. Among the Alps, when the day is done, and twilight and darkness are creeping over fold and hamlet in the valleys below, Mont Rosa and Mont Blanc rise up far above the darkness, catching from the retreating sun something of its light, flushed with rose-color, exquisite beyond words, or pencil or paint, glowing like the Gate of Heaven. And so past favors and kindnesses lift themselves up in the memory of noble natures, and long after the lower parts are darkened by neglect, or selfishness, or anger, former loves, high up: above all clouds, glow with divine ra diance and seem to forbid the advance of night any further. "Be kind to each other! The night's coming on, When friend and when brother-perchance may be gone! Then 'midst our dejection,-how sweet to have earned An English barrister was in the habit of visiting the hospitals, and on one occasion visited the bed of one of the very poorest of creatures, one of the lowest in ignorance and poverty. The barrister was a man of tender sensibilities, a man whose tender spirit radiated from his countenance, and as he sat down beside the poor man's bed he began to speak in tones of sympathy for the suffering man, and after speaking a few words he began to say something about Jesus of Nazareth, and he at once saw that the man's face began to twitch convulsively. The muscles quivered, and at last the man hid his face in the bed clothes and burst into a violent flood of tears and sobbed aloud. The barrister waited until this storm of grief was passed, and when the poor man was able to speak he asked him, saying: "What is it that has so touched you? What can have moved you so much?" And as well as the man could sob out he said: "Sir, you are the first man that ever spoke a kind word to me since I was born, and I can't stand it." Ah! that is so much like the touch of the Great Nazarene, when He mingled amongst men, he was the antitype of the Good Samaritan, and His life should be our constant example. 66 CHAPTER XV. THE TRANSFIGURATION." The Evangelists tells us that after six days He took with Him the three dearest and most enlightened of His disciples, and went with them up a lofty mountain, or, as St. Luke calls it, simply "the mountain." The supposition that the mountain intended was Mount Tabor has been engrained for centuries in the tradition of the Christian Church. Others again have contended that it was Mount Hermon, the mount of Jewish poetry. St. Luke simply says: "the mountain," and, whichever it was, it has received the sacred name of "The Holy Mountain." It was the evening hour when He ascended, and as He climbed the hill-slope with those three chosen witnesses, "the Sons of Thunder and the Man of Rock," doubtless a solemın gladness dilated his whole soul, sustained of the heavenly calm which that solitary communion with His Heavenly Father would afford Him. |