The good Samaritan is our Lord's answer to the question, "Who is my neighbor?" and the good Samaritan's neighbor was a bitter enemy, who, in other circumstances, would have spurned him from his presence. Other people may not be beautiful in their character, nor congenial in their habits, manners, modes of life, or disposition; they may even be unkind to us, unjust, unreasonable, in strict justice altogether undeserving of our favor; yet if we persist in being called Christians ourselves we owe them the love that thinketh no evil, that seeketh not its own, that beareth all things, endureth all things, and never faileth. No doubt it is hard to love the other people who hate us. It is not so hard just to let them alone, to pass them by without harming them, or even to pray for them in a way; but to love them--that is a sore test. We are apt to ask:-- "Dear Lord, will it not do, If we return not wrong for wrong, And neither love nor hate? But love--O Lord, our souls are far from strong, And love is such a tender, home-nursed dove-- How can we, Lord, our enemies bless and love? "Fasting--Oh, one could fast-- And praying--one could most pathetic pray; But love our enemies! Dear Lord, Is there not unto thee some easier way-- Some way through churchly service, song, or psalm, Or ritual grand, to reach thy heaven's calm?" But there comes no answer of Christly indulgence to such questions. Other people, though they be our enemies, are not thus taken out of the circle of those to whom we owe love. Our part is always pictured for us in the example of the good Samaritan. That is, we owe other people service. Service goes with loving. We cannot love truly and not serve. Love without serving is but an empty sentiment, a poor mockery. God so loved the world that he gave. Love always gives. If it will not give it is not love. It is measured always by what it will give. The needs of other people are therefore divine commands to us, which we dare not disregard or disobey. To refuse to bless a brother who stands before us in any kind of want is as great a sin as to break one of the positive commandments of the Decalogue. Indeed, in a sense, it is the breaking of the whole second table of the commandments--the sense of which is, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."