| |
| A TRAVELLER fell among the thieves; | |
| He was crushed like autumn leaves: | |
| He was beaten like the sheaves | |
| Upon the threshing-floor. | |
| |
| There, upon the public way, | 5 |
| In the shadowless heat of day, | |
| Bleeding, stripped and bound he lay, | |
| And seemed to breathe no more. | |
| |
| Void of hope was he, when lo! | |
| On his way to Jericho, | 10 |
| Came a priest, serene and slow, | |
| His journey just begun. | |
| |
| Many a silver bell and gem | |
| Glittered on his harness hem; | |
| Behind him gleamed Jerusalem, | 15 |
| In the unclouded sun. | |
| |
| Broad were his phylacteries | |
| And his calm and holy eyes | |
| Looked above earth’s vanities, | |
| And gazed upon the sky. | 20 |
| |
| He the suffering one descried, | |
| But, with saintly looks of pride, | |
| Passed by on the other side, | |
| And left him there to die. | |
| |
| Then approached with reverend pace, | 25 |
| One of the elected race, | |
| The chosen ministers of grace, | |
| Who bore the ark of God. | |
| |
| He a Levite and a high | |
| Exemplar of humanity, | 30 |
| Likewise passed the sufferer by, | |
| Even as the dust he trod. | |
| |
| Then came a Samaritan, | |
| A despised, rejected man, | |
| Outlawed by the Jewish ban | 35 |
| As one in bonds to sin. | |
| |
| He beheld the poor man’s need, | |
| Bound his wounds, and with all speed | |
| Set him on his own good steed, | |
| And brought him to the inn. | 40 |
| |
| When our Judge shall reappear | |
| Thinkest thou this man will hear, | |
| “Wherefore didst thou interfere | |
| With what concerned not thee?” | |
| |
| No! the words of Christ will run, | 45 |
| “Whatsoever thou hast done | |
| To this poor and suffering one, | |
| That hast thou done to me!” | |
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