The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 294

the pormnnting force of the Christian spirH will avail to lead us to love those beyond our lionlcrs, without the palo of our own civilization. II. HEMOVEB THE LIMIT OF SPACE, The simple and cbmmon notion of a neighbour is that of one locally near to us. But that idea, under Christ, has been very greatly enlar~ed. 1. It is true that, since he spoke, we have seemed to be further off, in space, from one another. For those to whom he spoke had no notion of the width of the world, no icleB that there were fellow-men living twelve thousand miles away from them. 2. Dut it is also true that, since he spoke, we have been brought near to one another. (1) Christian civilization has given us an intimate knowledge of one another. so that we know more of what is happening in India thnn the" dwellers in Jerusalem" know then of the events occurring in Nazareth; and (2) Christian zeal has made pos- sible to us a genuine sympathy and a practical kindness. We can, by putting a coin in a plate, help to send the light of Divine truth to men of every colour, in every lati- tude and longitude of the habitable globe. Who is our neighbour? All men beneath all skies, and it is open to us all to do something to help the wounded pilgrim on life's highway, even in remotest lands, to health and joy and life. Ill. 'l'RANBCENDB THE LIMIT OF CHARACTER. If that lawyer bad answered his own question, it is certain that he would ha.vo given a reply which would have excluded the ungodly and the immoral. But in Christ's view the neighbour we should com- miserate and rescue is not only the poor traveller who has fa.lien among thieves, but the erring soul who has lost his way in the search of trnth, and that pitiable one who has fallen into the mire of guilt and shame; those who have been smitten by the worst of all strokes, and have descended into the darkest of all shadows. Our ncigbbour, in the view of our Lord, is not the man who is up and who can assist us on our way, but he that is down and whom we can help to rise; he is the man who is most in need of our sympathy and our succour; he is the man who has a bruised and UC1·d.ing heart that patient, sacrificial love alone can heal. If we will go to him and help and bless him, and make ourselves "neighbour unto" him, we shall thus" fulfil the law of Obrist; " and we shall thus be not only "keeping his commandment," but living his life.-C. Vers. 38-42.-0hrist at Bethany. There are few places at which we so mnch like to think of our Lord's presenco as '3ethany. We like to think that there the Son of man, who had not where to lay his head, did find a home; that there, away from the conspiracies of those who hated him, he found a refuge with those who loved him. \Ve like to think that there he found e. diligent disciple in one sister, and an assitluous and eager ministrant in the other. We must carefully consider- I. 'l'lIE COMPARISON WHICH OUR LORD WAS MAKING. (Ver. 42.) For it was a. comparison, not a contrast-a comparison between the choice that was good but was not the best, and tr 1 choice that was the good one. It was not a contrast between the absolutely bad and tae positively good; it was a comparison between the good that was insufficient a.nu the good that sufficed. There are those who choose the positively bad -pleasures which are unlawful, profits which are dishonest, a life that is ungodly. Christ condemns this elsewhere; but here (in the text) he is condemning another thing. He condemns the too-absorbing pursuit of that which is not supreme, which is good only up to a certain point, and beyond that is powerless. Christ was comparing the woman who was absorbed in doing a right but an inferior thing with her sister who was intent on the highest and best of all. II. THE INFERENCE lIE WAS DRAWING. That many good things, however many they may be, do not constitute the good thing, and that they will disappear and disappoint. Health, home comforts, worldly position, literary delights, e.rt,-thesa are good in their measure; but they will not together make up our human requirement; they are not " the bread of life " and " the water of life;" they do not satisfy, and they will not la.'!t; sooner or later they break down and leave us portionless and hopeless. Ill. TllE POINT WHICH HE WAS PRESSING. There is one thing which is so surpassingly excellent that it may be considered the one good thing-" that good par~ which shall not be taken away." To Mary this was Divina truth as it came ~o her m the Pe.rso.n and in the words of Jesus Christ. And to us it is also heavenly wJSdorn, as we g,iiu it direct frvlll our Divine Lord. ~a drank iu that illllllorLal trntil as she ".at at 1w  2flS THE oosrEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [en. x. 1-42.