The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1900, Page 30

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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

—_<s oor oe —_

has been brought nearer to him than anyone
else upon earth, and he helps him.

Here, then, in this Samaritan we have one
who gives us the answer to the question,
Whom shall I love? or, Who is my neighbor?
— The answer he gives us to this question
by his example is: Your neighbor is every one
who is in need of your love, be he acquaint-
ance or stranger, rich or poor, friend or foe. —

How shall we love our neigbhor.? Christ an-
swers this question thus: ‘*Love thy neighbor
as thyself. -All things whatsoever ye would that
men should do to you, do ye even so to them.’’
We have an earnest desire that no evil may
come near us, & Sincere wish that we may fare
well bodily and spiritually, temporally and

eternally. This our desire is unalloyed with| A Brrizver’s dying day is his crowning day.