# Tracts for the Times/Tract 70

First published 28 October, 1835.
TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.
BISHOP WILSON'S MEDITATIONS ON HIS SACRED OFFICE.
No. VII.—SATURDAY.
ALMS.
Questions from the Office of Ordination.—Will you show yourself gentle, and be merciful for Christ's sake to poor and needy people, and to all strangers destitute of help?—Ans. i will so show myself, by God's help.
Luke xi. 41. "But rather give alms of such things as you have, (or, as you are able,) and all things are clean unto you." That is, proportion your alms to your estate, lest God proportion your estate to your alms.—Bishop Beveridge.
Luke xii. 33. "Sell that ye have and give alms: provide yourselves bags which wax not old; a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." N.B. There is still a necessary Christian duty, whatever men think of it; to part with our worldly enjoyments for the sake of Christ.… "Give to the poor," said our Lord to the rich young man whom He loved. Had there been a better way of disposing of his estate. He would certainly have told him.…
St. Bern. Ep. 2. Do not imagine that all that belongs to your Church, belongs to you. You have indeed a right to live by the Altar, but not in luxury.
​N. B. The Church has not had worse enemies, than such as have been raised to estates out of her patrimony. This should open the eyes of those who make no other use of Church livings than to provide portions, raise estates and families, enrich relations, &c.: from which practices the good Lord keep me!
The goods of this world, much more the goods of the Church, are mere depositums, put into the hands of men for the common good—of the Church and mankind. Dr. More's Div. Dial.
Col. iii. 2. "Set your affections on things above." It is more to our advantage to have the prayers of a poor good man, than the smiles of the greatest man on earth.…
Mark x. 21. "Sell what thou hast and give to the poor; and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross and follow Me." My God! we think we love Thee above all things, when, without being sensible of it, we love a thousand things better; but as we hope for heaven, we must sacrifice even what we love most.…
Matt. XXV. 40. "Inasmuch (as often) as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." As often! Who then would miss any occasion?—The least! who then would despise any object?—To Me! so that in serving the poor, we serve Jesus Christ. O comfortable declaration! … The last refuge of a sinner is Alms. It is an act of turning our Master's goods innocently to our own advantage, and making to ourselves friends of His; heaven being the patrimony and inheritance of the poor; and by our alms we engage them to solicit the mercy of God for us. This is the only way to sanctify riches, which are almost always either the fruit or the seed of unrighteousness and injustice. And indeed we are more obliged to the poor, than they to us. Earthly riches are almost always abused, without an extraordinary grace.
Luke xviii. 12. "I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess." Be very careful not to be puffed up with the thoughts of your alms. "I give tithes of all that I possess," was the effect of a pride more prejudicial than the sins of a publican. It is a stratagem of the devil to set before us a sight of our own good works, and to deprive us of that humility which alone can render us acceptable to God.
​Luke xxi. 3. "Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all." … The rich indeed may give much, and reserve much for themselves. The poor, who gives all, reserves nothing to himself, but faith in God's providence. Shut my heart, O Jesus, against the love of worldly riches!
Rom. xv. 25. "But now I go to Jerusalem, to minister (that is, to carry alms,) unto the Saints." So great an Apostle is not at all afraid that he should debase his character in carrying of alms.… God often spares the rich for the sake of the poor. To the poor, therefore, the rich stand indebted. A rich man, if a good man, is more afraid of not finding fit persons to receive his alms, than a poor man is of not finding persons to bestow alms upon him.…
John xii. 6. "This Judas said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare (the money) which was put therein." Our Lord trusts a thief with the little money that He had for His own, or His disciples' necessities, and for the poor, because he values it not much. My Saviour! Thou who hast entrusted me with the revenues of the poor, make me a faithful steward; let me not be proud of the trust, since Judas himself had once the same office; but let me dread being unfaithful, lest I draw upon me his cursed fate and end.…
We should always have enough for the poor, if we would but moderate our vanity, and live according to the spirit of the Gospel.…
Prov. xiv. 31. xvii. 5. "He that mocketh, and he that oppresseth the poor, reproacheth his Maker;" as if He did not order what is best for all His creatures.…
Cor. xiii. 3. "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." … My God, pour into my heart this most excellent gift, the very bond of peace and of all virtue! …
The Apostles and their successors are the proper trustees for the charity of Christ.…
The more a man gives to the poor, the more he receives from God. The increase is like that of the five loaves and two fishes, which produced twelve baskets of fragments, after five thousand were filled.…
​Deut. xxvi. 12, 13. By this, it appears, that the proportion of charity, appointed by God Himself to His own people for the relief of the poor, was every year a thirtieth part of all their incomes, or a tenth every third year; to be laid up every third year as a fund for charitable uses.…
Hospitality does not consist in keeping a plentiful table, and making great entertainments, but in providing a sober and suitable refreshment, for such as are in want, and for such as come to visit us.
Oxford, The Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude.
LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE.
1835.