A tombstone cutter was busy in his shop when his friend dropped in for a visit. The friend, while looking about the shop, noticed a headstone which had been there for several years. The inscription had been cut on it, but the words were useless, for the stone had been in storage all that time. Curious, the friend asked why. "The people who ordered it were not able to pay for it," replied the tombstone cutter. "And it stays here until they bring the money." "But what good is it doing you here?" the friend asked. "No good! No good at all!" replied the cutter with some anger. "Well, then," continued his friend, "if those folks haven't been able to pay for it yet  for years -- your chances of collecting are pretty slim. Did it ever occur to you that you might place that stone where it belongs? At least it will be doing some good. It just takes up valuable room here." "That's poor business!" was the curt comment of the stonecutter. "It's never poor business to be kind to people and to go out of your way to help people who are in trouble." Having said this, the friend walked out of the shop. A month passed before he returned to that shop. He looked around the room. The stone was gone. "Well, I see you got rid of that stone," he commented. "Did they pay you for it?" "No!" replied the stonecutter. "But I placed the stone where it belongs anyhow." "That's poor business!" reminded his friend with a smile. "I know it is," replied the stonecutter. "But after your last visit here, my conscience started to torment me about it. I got to putting myself in that family's place, for I know that they haven't had the money to pay for it. Every time I came into this shop, that white stone haunted me like a ghost until finally I took it out and put it where it really belongs. Then, afterwards, when I found out how happy it made the family, I lost my head completely." "How?" "Well, yesterday when they came in here to pay me for the stone, do you know what I did? I refused the money. That's how foolish I'm getting to be." "Foolish? I wonder?" replied his friend. (From More Sermons in Stories, by Rev. William Stidger, published by Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1944, pgs. 64 & 65, submitted by Josephine Green, Dubuque, Iowa)

Unfortunately today in our modern world being a good Samaritan is not often rewarded.  Instead people are sometimes rewarded for not helping at all.

AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?

In 1928, a very interesting case came before the courts in the state of Massachusetts. It concerned a man who had been walking on a boat dock when suddenly he tripped over a rope and fell into the cold, deep water of an ocean bay. He came up sputtering and yelling for help and then sank again, obviously in trouble. His friends were too far away to get to him, but only a few yards away, on another dock, was a young man sprawled on a deck chair, sunbathing. The desperate man shouted "Help, I can't swim!" The young man, an excellent swimmer, only turned his head to watch as the man floundered in the water, sank, came up sputtering in total panic, and then disappeared forever. The family of the drowned man was so upset by that display of callous indifference that they sued the sunbather. They lost. The court reluctantly ruled that the man on the dock had no legal responsibility whatever to try and save the other man's life. In effect, the law agrees with Cain's presupposition: I am not my brother's keeper, and I have every legal right to mind my own business and to refuse to become involved. (Gary Inrig, Quality Friendship, page 105. Submitted by Rick Mandl, Eagle Rock Baptist Church, Los Angeles, California.)

Remember how Abel is called a good and righteous man?  Even in this story Cain is called an unrighteous man who did not care for his brother but killed him.  These two brother's attitudes and actions live on even till today.

How do we react to those who persecute us?  Sometimes returning good for evil can have amazing results.

Good For Evil

According to the Associated Press account, in September 1994, Cindy Hartman of Conway, Arkansas, walked into her house to answer the phone and was confronted by a burglar. He ripped the phone cord out of the wall