When Florence Nightingale began the arduous task of nursing, she set aside a social career. Later she was instrumental in establishing nursing as acceptable work for women. No doubt she was responding to an impetus such as is found in the lesson which Christ Jesus gave in his parable of the good Samaritan.
Today Christian Science nurses are responding to the spiritual lesson given in this parable by going to the bedside of those who have fallen among thieves—the thieves of sin, disease, and death—which would strip them of their garments of Christliness and rob them of their harmony. One doing Christlike ministering to the sick goes, like the good Samaritan, where the need is. Although the Christian Science nurse strives throughout her service to behold, as Jesus did, the perfect man of God's creating and none other, yet the patient is cared for in every loving and helpful way at the disposal of the nurse.
Mary Baker Eddy gives the spiritual meaning of "oil" and of "wine" in the Glossary of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." These definitions throw light on the parable and bring out Jesus' loving thought in regard to the care of the sick and injured. On page 592 we read: "Oil. Consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration." And on page 598 we read: "Wine. Inspiration; understanding."
