When [the Samaritan] saw him,
he took pity on him.
—Luke 10:33
A drunken bum with a slashed throat was picked up in the Bowery and dropped off at Bellevue Hospital—last stop before the morgue.
He was thirty-eight. No one knew who he was. In the pocket of his ragged coat they found all his earthly belongings: 38 cents and a scrap of paper on which were five words: “Dear friends and gentle hearts.”
He had written over 200 songs, including Oh! Susanna, Beautiful Dreamer, Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, Camptown Races, Old Folks at Home, My Old Kentucky Home. Stephen C. Foster.
If anyone had tried to help, that part of the story has been lost.
I’m grateful for those who have Samaritan-like ministries. People who care, step in, stoop down, and help the fallen.
Let your hand be a helping hand.