of the Jews left behind, which made a strange confusion of nation and belief, with whom the Jews, who still kept to the profession of the true God, would hold no communication. The distance grew afterwards into enmity and open opposition. The idolatrous Samaritans did all they could to obstruct the building of the second temple; and, afterwards, a renegade brother of the high priest of Jerusalem, excommunicated for marrying a strange wife, became, himself, high priest of the temple of mount Gerizim, of which he made himself supreme, and independent of the real temple, and this made a schism and enmity, that in the time of our Lord was at its height, and was quite irreconcileable '.

The parable of the good Samaritan is an affecting and instructive little history, the circumstances of which are so naturally combined, and related with such simplicity, that it cannot fail to interest every reader. A Jew is represented as reduced to the most calamitous and dangerous condition, through the violence of robbers. Two men of sacred character, a Priest and a Levite, travelling the same road, were witnesses of his misery; though their office, in an especial manner, should have disposed them to acts of tenderness and compassion, they turned away from Dean Stanhope.

the painful sight without even attempting his relief. But a Samaritan, taught from his earliest years to hate and to avoid the Jews, felt a natural commiseration at the first sight of so wretched an object. Forgetting all odious distinctions of a sectarian character, he ran to his assistance, and made the most effectual provision for his support. Even the bigoted Scribe was constrained to admire this generosity and benevolence in the Samaritan, and to confess that he had shown himself a neighbour indeed 3. Our Lord extorts a frank confession even from a Jew, that the Samaritans, though hated of the Jews, and of a different country, and of a different creed, could yet deserve to be considered as neighbours, whenever there should be occasion or room for any good offices between them. Jesus followed up this admission of the lawyer by this moral of the parable, "Go and do thou likewise." Since thou commendest the Samaritan for acting like a neighbour to the Jew, you have the answer to your question, Who is my neighbour?" Do thou learn to act like a neighbour to all thy fellow creatures who have need of thy assistance'.

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It is observable in many places of Scripture, that our blessed Saviour, in describing the day of judgment, does it in such a manner, as if the great enquiry then would be this one virtue of

Dr. Robinson.

9

9 Dr. Jortin.

1

Bishop Sherlock.

compassion. Not that we are to imagine from thence, that any other good or evil action could be overlooked by the eye of an all-seeing Judge; but to intimate to us, that a charitable and benevolent disposition is so principal a part of a man's character, as to be a considerable test by itself of the whole frame and temper of his mind. To speak therefore of a compassionate man is to represent a man of a thousand other good qualities. So well might Jesus conclude, that charity, which he showed by the love to our neighbour, was the great commandment," and that whosoever fulfilled it had fulfilled the law 2. SECT. LXXX.-Christ commends Mary the Sister of Martha. -Luke x. 38-42.

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It has been remarked, upon a former occasion, that when St. John recorded of Jesus, that "He went unto the Mount of Olives," it was to be understood that He went to Bethany, to the house of Lazarus. We have now, according to St. Luke, to relate another circumstance that occurred in the same house. It has been already stated as an uncertain, but a partially received opinion, that Mary, the sister of Lazarus, was Mary Magdalene, and that Bethany, which is mentioned by St. John as the residence of this family, was also called, in opprobrium, Magdala, from whence it is supposed Mary received the appellation. The Evange

2 Sterne.

list now first speaks of her sister Martha, as being the owner of the house in which He entered'. The anecdote appears to be introduced chiefly to draw instruction from the different attentions paid by two pious women to our Lord. Martha, immediately anxious to provide an entertainment worthy of her illustrious guest, fancied that every thing should give way to it, and that her sister Mary was miserably wasting her time when sitting at the feet of Jesus to listen to His Word. Our Saviour does not altogether blame Martha for her respectful care of Him, but yet commends her sister for the greater care of her soul, which made her wholly to forget, or unwilling to mind, other things at that moment. So that, on the whole, He highly approves her wise choice in preferring an attentive regard to His doctrines, even before those attentions of respect and regard that ought to be shown to His person'. Whence He deduces the inference that religion is, after all, “the one thing needful." How few are there among all Christians who uniformly act with a view to this needful thing; and what multitudes are so entangled in the various occupations of a busy and tumultuous life, that, like Martha, they are more disposed to call on the help of others to their worldly employments than to take away

any portion of their attention from them to bestow them on the concerns of another life! SECT. LXXXI.—Christ teacheth to Pray.—Luke xi. 1—43. ON another occasion, and in a different place, where He had retired to pray, "when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples." It cannot be supposed that His disciples had continued so long with Him in ignorance, or neglect of a duty which Jesus Himself so frequently practised, and had previously enjoined in a set form of words in His sermon on the mount". The meaning, therefore, of this disciple is understood to be, Teach us a rule and form of prayer like that which John had taught his followers. Of all the requests made to our Saviour, which are recorded in the New Testament, this may be accounted among the most just and judicious. The imperfection of the best, and the ignorance of the wisest is such, that, if left to themselves, they would be uncertain concerning the things to be asked, and the effects to be expected from their petitions. Therefore this disciple is greatly to be commended, who did not neglect the opportunity of obtaining instruction on so important a point, from the mouth of Divine Wisdom itself'.

6

Bishop Porteus.

Dr. Lightfoot.

7

Dr. Robinson.

9 Dr. Jortin.