My neighbour

The Good Samaritan.

(The Gospel History, Section 89)

Jesus made answer and said, A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, which both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance a certain priest was going down that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And in like manner a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion, and came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on them oil and wine; and he set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, I, when I come back again, will repay thee. Which of these three, thinkest thou, proved neighbour unto him that fell among the robbers? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. And Jesus said unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

My neighbour

(The Saviour of the World, Vol VI Book II Poem XXII)

And, first half-smiling at the word,
(So quick to apprehend), the Lord
Told tale should each man straight convince,
Who is his neighbour, ever since:
Not him he goes with day by day
In common work and common play;
Not who lives next in the same street,
Acquaintance he may frequent meet;
No ties of consanguinity,
No chances of proximity,
Limit the law for him would prove
The strait demands of neighbour-love;
No boundaries of race or creed
Shall nullify a neighbour’s need;
His need, the single quality
His neighbourhood shall prove to thee!

“But, Lord, Thou know’st, I have mine own;
To shew me kind to them alone
Is all I can; towards them I fail;
How then the whole wide world prevail
To hold in neighbour-love and serve?”

“Nay, thou dost not the rule observe
Whereby thy neighbour to discern;
See’st one whose need calls thee to turn
Aside and help him, that is he,
The neighbour for thy charity:
Unsparing be thy help and kind,
Consoling to his wounded mind
As to his body’s urgent need;
Be neighbour to that one indeed:
Not, ‘Who’s my neighbour?’ idle ask
To prove thee neighbour, is thy task.”

“What if the man should not deserve
The pains I take his need to serve?
Or scanty eagerness display
My labour with his thanks to pay?
If I abhor his way of life
Or am with all his views at strife?
How love I such a man perverse?”

“The Samaritan, he was averse
To the haughty, dominating Jew?
Had not his people wrongs enow
Done by the supercilious race
To keep on record? How efface
This ages-old hostility
And to the wounded neighbour be?
This good man knew the blessed art
Of how to play a neighbour’s part,
To cherish him of alien ways,
Nor look for thanks, reward or praise.”

“But, Lord, if danger there should be
That ills he suffers fall on me?
Those robbers might have left the friend
In worse case than he stopped to mend;
Had the man died, how ill it were!”

“Ill hap to thee is not thy care
From any act of neighbour-love
To which thy pitying heart shall move:
Run thou with help at neighbour’s call,
Not thine to heed what may befal.”

“I would be neighbour, Lord, but see,
I have one more perplexity;
With work to do, a place to fill,
I may not wander at my will:
From east and north, from far and near,
Cries of the needy reach mine ear;
Th’ ignorant ask for some to teach,
Th’ indigent piteous hands outreach;
Do I run up and down the ways
And spend in acts of help my days,
Distraught, I miss my proper task
And poor my aid to them who ask!”

“My son, hast watched a weaver’s loom
To see design of carpet come?
The wrong side of the stuff appears;
Vain you note shuttle’s work or shears’
The pattern of the piece to shew;
The threads at random to and fro
Travel apace; follow one thread,
A blue speck shews, anon, a red;
For your blue woof you look in vain,
Then, sudden, it appears again;
Did that blue thread its transit know,
By chance ’twould seem to come and go;
But, see you, there is a design,
And seeming random throws combine
To make the carpet’s perfect glow.

“E’en so, a man may never know
The pattern of the web; his part
In the considered work of art
Is ready to the weaver’s hand,
Who throws where he would have that strand;
But there be many threads; for each,
The weaver has his use; impeach
Not Wisdom that the work controls
Of myriad eager, differing souls;
But watch occasion for the part
’Tis thine to play; then bring thy art
To play it with thy utmost skill,
With generous love and hearty will:
Remember how this man, My friend,
Succoured his neighbour, nor made end
With present aid, for, to provide
The helpless man he alms supplied;
But taxed not his ingenuous mind
Some others, robbed and hurt, to find:
Wait on occasion; ready be
For all that task assigned to thee;
So shalt thou a true neighbour prove
To some distress’d that need thy love.

“There be that all their days shall spend
Apt succour to My poor to lend;
There be that walk an ordered way
And only now and then find play
For neighbour-love beyond their own;
Yet these do well, e’en though alone
Toward their own household, those at hand,
They strict fulfil their Lord’s command:
Thy one concern is—watchful be;
Who serves his neighbour, serveth Me.”

St. Luke x. 30–37.

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