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Or is anyone laid by from illness? He is confined to his sick room. Wearisome days and lonely nights are appointed him. hours perhaps drag heavily along. Here is an opportunity for you. In that cottage lies. an afflicted Brother or Sister. Do you know it, and yet not so much as ask, if you can do anything for the sufferer? Will you, like the Priest or the Levite, pass by on the other side? Will you say, like Cain, Am I my brother's keeper?

Ah, you may step in,

and be useful. The visit of a Christian neighbour, however poor he may be, is often unspeakably welcome. It is "as cold water to a thirsty soul." It may cheer; it may encourage; it may soften; it may be as a balm to the wounded spirit; it may help on the way to heaven.

Or again, is there any one ignorant or careless? "Here is a case for a minister," you will say. But still, can you do nothing? Though you may not have much learning yourself, you may tell him the little that you know. You may persuade him to come to God's house, where he will hear more, and where he may learn what will be a great

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blessing to his soul.

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"Come thou with us, you can say, and we will do thee good." Or, you may talk kindly to him; and he may open his mind to you, and tell you what keeps him back from God, when perhaps he would be half afraid to speak to his Clergyman.

Don't say, "I have no time for such neighbourly acts. I have other business to attend to. This is not my calling." The good Samaritan in the Parable had perhaps other business. Very likely it was important for him to arrive that night at Jericho. But he put all aside for the sake of the poor wounded Traveller. And see what trouble he took for him, though he was a perfect stranger. He stopped on his journey. He bound up his wounds. He set him on his own beast. He took him to the inn. He passed the night in nursing him; and took care that he was attended to after he left him.

But there is yet another class of persons, on whom our Christian kindness may be well spent. I mean our Heathen Brethren. They have the same wounded souls that we have, but no one to pour in oil and wine-no one to bind up their wounds. There they lie in their

misery, as sheep without a shepherd. They are not our countrymen, you will perhaps say. Neither was the Traveller the Samaritan's fellow-countryman. We may not be able to go to them ourselves; but we may do as he did when he left the inn-we may give our money to those who are able and willing to go and help them.

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Such are some of the many ways, in which we may act according to the teaching of this Parable, and follow the example of that good Samaritan. We may go and do likewise. Try to do so; and your life will become a useful and a happy one, and you will be doing some good in the world. You may be weak; but if you look up for God's strength, He will assuredly make you an instrument of much blessing.

I cannot conclude, without mentioning that there are some who see another and a still deeper meaning in this Parable. They see, in the conduct of the good Samaritan, a picture of our blessed Lord Himself-coming as He did to seek and to save the lost, binding up

the broken-hearted, and giving rest to the weary and the wounded.

I do not think that this was intended by our Lord; but it may have been so. And at all events we know that no love was ever like His love, no pity like His pity; and no one ever did such great things for us as He has done. For not only did He stoop down to help us in our misery, but He Himself was "wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities." He shed for us His own most precious blood, that we might live for ever! Oh amazing goodness! May it touch our hearts, and win us over to Him!

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THE RICH FOOL.

LUKE XII. 16-21.

"And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater: and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."

We have only to look back to the thirteenth verse, and we shall at once see what gave rise to the Parable now before us.

Our Lord had been addressing a considerable crowd of people; and one of the company steps forward, and asks Him to settle a certain family difference, which seems to have taken

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