Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-03-15
ReneVOIence and Begging.

Gail Hamilton frees her mind in Har-
per's Bazar as follows:
1t is always improper and impertinent
for one person to urge another to bestow
in charity. If case Of destitution be
brought to the knowledge of one man he
may lay it before others, and present any
plan for assistance that he may have form
ed but that is ALL He is not to solicit
aims When persons know the suffering
the matter lies in their hands alone. For
what they do or do not they alone are re-
sponsible Still less for large organized
charities should men solicit contributions.
Let them give what publicity they choose
to their objects and methods ; let ministers
preach sermons explanatory and exhorta
tory if they will but let all the rest be
left to the action of individuals. For con-
venienc9 an agent may be appointed to
receive what people have to bestow; but
the man who comes to my house and urges
me to give FIVE dollars, or fifty dollars. or
fifty cents, to anybody or any thing, is i'm
pertinent, and if l had not better man
ners than he 1 should tell him so. Happi-
ly, newspapers have been invented for the
purpose of giving US a chance to say be-
TO their faces. To put the facts on the
lowest ground, he does not know what is
my income nor what are my expenses, and
he has, therefore, no possible means Of
knowing what am able to give, or wheth
er l can give any thing. Moreover, may
not have faith in his aims, his society or
himself but, of course, don't wish to
tell him so, though, if he annoys me over
much, there is danger that l shall, and
with some heat. But worse than this, by
the very act Of urging me TO charity he
becomes offensive. He puts himself on a
plane above me he assumes that | will
not do what | ought unless he, with his
superior goodness, urges me to (which
may all be true, but truth which 1t Is
not his province to preach.
But what will our charities come to,
cry the benevolent, Il we are to be SO
squeamish What shall we come to if we
are not so squeamish is quite as important
question If the heather Chiuee can
not become Christian without Christians
becoming busy-bodies in other mems mat
ters, why, Christianity has two sides. If
Christians DO not care enough about their
Gospel and their fellows to send the one
to the ether, the true way is to make them
better Christians, not to work upon their
pride or their vanity, and make them send
the Gospel any how. Let not your left
hand know what your right hand doeth,
saws Christ, as clear as crystal; and we
obey his Injunction by sending around a
subscription paper with all the names and
gifts in black and white John Doe,
twenty dollars Richard Roe, fifteen dol
lars and the excuse is that you would
not get half as much any other way that
Is, Christians will not give for love half as
much as they will for shame or show. If this
were so, would it not be well to leave the
heather Chi, ee, and turn our guns upon
ourselves
We greatly need more delicacy, more
knowledge OF limitations, more sense of
propriety, more respect for the rights and
the individuality of others. If we wish
to build a memorial hall, and send an
agent around with a subscription-paper
his object ought not to be to make as
many people give as much as possible,
but, primarily, to save people the trouble
of carrying their contributions to head
quarters; and, secondly, to spare them
any possible pain or embarrassment in net T
making a contribution. The best agent
is not the one who collects the most money. +
but the one who leaves in the hearts of
those he has visited the strongest convic- .
tion that benevolence is gentle, ,considerate, I
courteous. When benevolence attempts
to pry into your affairs, or to take advan-
tage of your position, or in any way to
dictate your course, you feel inclined to
close your purse-strings and open your
door.