o need God's help.

* * * * *

Jesus ran into a great many trying people in the next few months. One
day there was a lawyer who thought that he knew more than Jesus did.
He wanted an argument which would give him a chance to show how much
he knew, so he came and asked Jesus,

"What should I do to have eternal life?"

Jesus answered, "What does it say in the Law?"

The lawyer replied, "It says, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and
with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.'"

Jesus said: "That is right. Those are the things you ought to do."

It sounded to the lawyer as though Jesus were saying, "If you knew all
along, why did you need to ask me in the first place?" The lawyer
thought that he would get the better of Jesus, so he replied,

"Well, just who is the neighbor that I am supposed to love?"

[Illustration]

Jesus answered with a story:

"A man was traveling on the lonely road between Jerusalem and Jericho.
As so often happens there, some thieves jumped out of a hiding place,
and robbed him and beat him. He was lying there half dead, when a
priest from the Temple in Jerusalem came along. He took one look at
the wounded man, and kept on going along the other side of the road.
Then somebody else from the Temple, who was supposed to be a very
religious sort of person, passed by, and the same thing happened.

"Finally a Samaritan came along. I don't need to tell you how
Samaritans and Jews hate each other! But this Samaritan was sorry for
the wounded man. He put bandages on his wounds, and took him to an
inn. Before he left next morning, the Samaritan went to the innkeeper.
He paid the bill for the man who had been robbed. Then he told the
innkeeper to take care of the man, and the Samaritan said he would pay
for anything more that was needed the next time he came.

"Now, think of those three men who passed along the road. Which of
them was a real neighbor to the man who was robbed?"

The lawyer said, "Why, the one who helped him, of course."

"Then," said Jesus, "go and do the same."

What Jesus wanted the lawyer to understand was:

"You really know what a good neighbor should be, because God has been
good to you. But you are not much interested in being a neighbor to
people who need your help."

But if the lawyer did not see that for himself, there was no use
telling him. He would be too p