# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1900_S30 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 30 The Lutheran Pioneer. (For the LUTHERAN PIONEER.) The Second Table. Matt. 22, 3740 Christ comprehends the Ten Commandments in two precepts: ‘‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two command- ments hang all the law and the prophets.” Here Christ sums up the first three Command- ments in one precept, and the other seven Com- mandments in a second precept. The three Commandments of the First Table, Christ tells us, treat of the love we owe to God, while the remaining seven Commandments, or the Second Table, treat of the love we owe our neighbor. In His Sermon on the Mount Christ sum- marizes the Second Table thus: ‘‘All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.’’ (Matt. 7, 12.) These words of the Lord can leave no one in doubt as to the two great questions here involved; namely, Whom shall I love? and, How shallI love him? Whom shall I love? ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor.”’ ‘‘All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.’’? The word ‘‘neighbor’’ is derived from two old English words, meaning ‘‘one that lives near,’”’ and therefore some might imag- ine that God commands us to love our next- door neighbors and our nearest relatives only. In order, however, that no one may harbor such a wrong idea, the Saviour tells us that when the Second Table speaks of our neigh- | bor, if means everybody, all men. All men shall be our neighbors, shall be near to us. It is true, God has in a certain sense made a difference, placing some of our fellowmen in a nearer relation to us than others, and it is our duty to observe this difference. 1 Tim. 5, 8 St. Paul writes: ‘‘If any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.’’ “he same apostle writes to the Galatians (6, 10): ‘‘As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, es- pecially unto them who are of the household of Jaith.” You see from these two passages that the members of our family and our fellow-be- lievers should be the particular objects of our love, and that, all other things being equal, we should consider their welfare first of all. But it would be utterly wrong were we tb make use of this difference which God has made, as an excuse for our indifference to the wants and " needs of our fellowmen. That would be us- ing God’s command for a cloak of malicious- hess. This was, however, undoubtedly, what “the priest and the Levite did in that beauti- ul story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10, 7). When that priest saw the poor man ‘in the road and detected in him the vic- ‘but his neighbor, one who for the time being tim of the robbers that infested that neighbor- hood, he turned out of the road and made a large circuit around, so as not to be seen by the poor fellow, lest he be called upon to help him. And when the Levite came upon the scene, he acted similarly, save that he walked up to the half-dead man and looked at him before he passed on. What was the probable cause of their heartless action? Perhaps, their thoughts ran about like this: ‘‘Poor man! Another victim of the murderous robbers! I wish I could help him! But how can I? Who knows but what the robbers are close about here’even now, and if I should stop to help this poor fellow (and he surely does need help), they might come up and pounce on me and treat me just as they did him. Oh, how would my wife and children then worry as to my absence, and what a fright it would give them, if Ishould be brought home in the wretched condition this poor man isin. Yes, what say I? Perhaps, I never would be brought home, but would die here in the dreary wilder- ness! What would become of my poor-family then? No, I can’t stop to help this poor fellow; I must first think of myself and my family.’”’ In this way, the priest and the Levite may have reasoned away their duty of helping their poor countryman. Somewhat later a Samaritan came that way and saw the poor man in his great distress. As he was but human, thoughts like those that came to the mind of the priest and Le- vite, may also have come to him. And as-he was possibly a merchant who had been to Je- rusalem to dispose of his merchandise, it is not unlikely that he had considerable money on his person; which fact would also be a strong argument for not lingering in that dan- gerous locality. But besides.this there was yet another thing which would make the Sa- maritan’s flesh loath to have anything to do with this wounded man. The robbers’ victim was a Jew; but the Samaritans and Jews were enemies. Supposing the places of these two men exchanged, the Jew would never have thought of helping the Samaritan. But be- hold, the Samaritan puts all such thoughts aside, — he sees in this Jew not an enemy, hypocrisy. It is a free and upright wish of the heart. We love ourselves without any ex- pectation of reward, and it never once enters our mind to ask what our recompense will be. And we love ourselves continually ; we never cease to do so unto death. Zhus we love our- selves, thus we are to love our neighbor. His temporal, spiritual, and eternal welfare shall be a matter of deepest concern to us, and this our concern shall express itself in words and deeds. His troubles should be our troubles, his joys should be our joys. ‘The enemy, the ungrateful person, the stranger, the poor, shall be the objects of our love as much as are our friends, the grateful, the acquaintances, and the rich. We should be ready to extend a helping hand just as quickly to him from whom we have no gratitude to expect, as to him of whose gratitude we are certain. The ugly cripple loves his body and cares for it just as much as does the handsome athlete, though it repays his love and care by inflict- ing pain upon him. Thus we should love and help not only those who can and are willing to return our kindness, but also such as repay our love with indifference and even hatred. And this love should be enduring and tireless. It should not grow cold till we grow cold in death. — Alas, who is sufficient for this? True, the _ Christian has begun to love his neighbor as he loves himself, yet how far is he from having attained perfection. ‘Therefore, “Lord Jesus Christ, in Thee alone My only hope on earth I place, For other comforter is none, No help’ have I but in Thy grace.” ¥. J. L. The Baptism of Christ. From the baptism of Christ, the holy sacra- ment of Baptism, which He Himself gave, de- rives new light and glory. Shall we deride the holy ordinance and say that it is nothing but water? But—it is objected—the three persons of the Holy ‘Trinity were present there! —And are they not still present when the divinely appointed sacrament is adminis- tered? Has the Saviour who loved little chil- dren, took them is His arms, and blessed them, now ceased to love them? And shall the gift of Baptism with all its blessings be now denied to them? Again: Is this holy ordinance a mere ceremony, a shadow, & mockery—or is it designed to convey rich blessings to the soul? But can those bless- ings be bestowed on the thoughtless and im- penitent? The Saviour says: ‘‘He that be- lieveth and is baptized,’’ etc., Mark 16, 16. Unless we observe our baptismal covenant in faith, we convert our baptism, which was de- signed to be a blessing to the soul, into 9 1089- é Dr. Martin Luther —_