The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-14 00:00:00

We read in the lives of the Servants of God of a
beautiful eustom, that they daily set aside at table
a portion of everything, as if for the Invisible Pre-
sence of Him whose blessing multiplies Alr food, to
be given to the poor. They who did these things
had the instincts which fasting keeps plive.
Now, in such an age as this, when material com-
fort and material luxury have reached a height never
known, at least in the Christian world, and when
not the worldly only, but even those of a higher
and more Christian life, are drawn in by the stream
to live like the world, indulging themselves to the
full, in more than abundance, and more than deli-
cacy, it is wholesome and necessary that the
Church, year by year, should break in upon their
softness and indulgence by the words and the laws
of the Sermon on the Mount. When the members
of Christ all around us are in poverty, when the
poor are hungry, thirsty, and naked, and souls are
dying without Pastors, and children by thousands
are caught away and perish by evil and by igno-
rance of God, is it a time to squander the main-
tenance of whole families in one profuse repast, or
the nurture of many orphans in dress and baubles ?
Many never give ia a whole year as much as they
' spend on ostentatious clothes, or an armlet, or
a necklace, or some useless work of fancy.
The spirit of self-command, however, would make
these things impossible. A higher spiritual insight,
opened in the heart by the mortification of our-
selves, would restore among us the grand simplicity
which still survives in Catholic countries, the living
tradition of the dignity of self-denial of those to
whom the Apostle wrote, " Godliness with content-
ment is great gain : for we brought nothing into
this world, and certainly we can carry nothing out.
But having food and wherewith to be covered, with
these we are content." And, again, speaking of
Christian women :—" Whose adorning let it not be
the outward plaiting of the hair, or the wearing of
gold, or the putting on of apparel, but the hidden
man of the heart in the incorruptibility of a quiet
and meek spirit, which is rich in the sight of God."
And again, "In like manner women also in decent
apparel, adorning themselves with modesty and
sobriety, not with plaited hair, or gold, or pearls,
or costly attire, but as it becomes women professing
godliness with good works."
11. Next, as to the precept of Almsgiving. Our
purpose now is to ask, as the Apostle did of the
Corinthians, not for yours, but for yourselves : that
I .
is, for your activity, co-operation in works of cha-
rity to the poor, and, above all, for souls.
If we have in us the Spirit of Christ, we shall
have a desire to do some personal work for those
that are in need. We do not read that the rich
man refused his alms to Lazarus, or that he drove
him from his gate. He was simply unconscious of
the misery upon his threshold. Insensibility to the
sufferings of others is a sin against the grace of
charity. To go to our grave without giving alms
to the needy, all men see would endanger our sal-
vation. How is it, then, that men can go to their
graves without an act of personal charity or service
to their brethren ? It is a cheap thing to give
money. Often it is given to redeem ourselves from
the trouble or the disgust of serving our neighbour.
But we owe to our Lord not alms only, but every
form of service we can render to Him. He is wait-
ing to receive it at our hands. " The poor ye have
always with you. Me ye have not always." And
yet in them He accepts all we do.

The world is divided into those who work for
their bread and those who eat of the labour of
others. Upon those who work our Lord has be-
stowed a special honour. Ile worked Himself. Ile
ate the bread earned by S. Joseph, or given in alms
by others. This has consecrated the state of the
poor man and of the working man ; and the per-
petual round of daily work brings with it many
graces to preserve the soul from the danger of the
world. The work of a Christian is the salt of the
soul.