Daily Reading

CHRIST'S TEACHING ABOUT BENEFICENCE
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,.., and thy neighbour as thyself.... But he said, And who is my neighbour?"-- Luk_10:27-29.
WE CANNOT live alone. No one of us can be entirely independent of others.
When we talk about neighbours, we naturally think of those who live next door, and we are apt to reduce the divine command to those who reside in the same street. If these are very comfortable and well-to-do, it seems as though there is not much scope for helping them. This definition of neighbours, however, is altogether too narrow and contracted, as our Lord shows in the parable of the Good Samaritan. The lawyer asked who was his neighbour, and Jesus said, "Be a neighbour to someone else.'" And if it be asked what kind of people I am to neighbour, the answer comes: "Make no distinction of race or creed; but wherever you come across a man who has been stripped, beaten, robbed, and is half-dead, don't wait for other men to succour him. but bind up his wounds; minister to him, and treat him as though you loved him with the natural love of brotherhood."