HE FELL AMONG THIEVES—A TALK ABOUT OUR INVISIBLE
ENEMIES

[This might be preceded by the reading or recital of the parable of the Good Samaritan.]

Once a boy, as he was going along the road of life, fell among thieves, just like the traveller on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho. The thieves that attacked our boy were Selfishness and Unkindness. They stole his temper, his manliness, his happiness, and his peace. They did not beat him, as the thieves on the Jericho road beat the poor traveller that Christ told about in his parable; but, at any rate, these thieves gave him a headache, they made his eyes red with tears, and they made him thoroughly miserable.

While this boy was in such a pitiable condition, Master Hasty came near. But Master Hasty was in a terrible hurry; for, as you know, he always has a great deal of business on his hands; and so he merely gave a quick glance at our poor boy who had fallen among these thieves, Selfishness and Unkindness, and went on his way without doing anything to help him.

Very soon after, Master Pride came that way; but all Master Pride did was to lift his eyebrows and mutter to himself, “What a fool that fellow is! He ought to be ashamed of such conduct.”

But the third one that passed that way was the good Samaritan. Just as the good Samaritan of old poured oil into the traveler’s wounds, so this second good Samaritan poured oil upon our boy’s temper, and soothed him into kindness again. He healed his evil spirits, and drew him tenderly out of his trouble, showing him the way that led, by Confession Road, to the city of Peace.

Do not think, children, that all the thieves in this world can be seen or heard. Some of the most terrible thieves are just such rascals as this boy fell among,—the thieves that attack the soul. They leave their victims in a far worse plight than the bruised traveller on the Jericho road. And so the good Samaritans, though they often have to minister to sick bodies, can just as often do Christ’s work by stopping to minister to sick souls.