Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1894-12-21
yHE CRY M1ss1ON,s- AppEdJ

LITE CII1 MISSIOJVSS FAPPE1L.
The poor We have always with you.
That is true
And they are always asking aid. That
is not true!
There is not in this strange makeup OF
this world OF ours less demonstratiye less
worrying, less apparent class than the
poor. There is not an animal. tame or
wild, on earth that makes as little demon
stration OF its hunger and its distress as do
the poor men, women and children of this
world. If they were never brought to the
surface they would never come. If benev-
olent men and women did not draw their
fellow men to the edge of the gulf-for it
is a gulf that separates comfort from
poverty-and Show them what lies in its
depths, no cry out OF its depths would evel
attract our attention. 1t is the silence
the poor that is SO pitiable; it is their NUT.
distress thai Wflllso H., neai,. is "a
How and then they set II VOICE to the hal
pier world and then it is the voice OF soil,
other. If it we're not for such wOinei .
constitute the City Mission for the Pc.
Who lend them voices, 10 SOUND wouh
ever be heard.
And why should these women do it
Why should women at the lie of happ,
households, with all the cares of wives and
mothers burdening them, brave all to help
the unfortunate 1t is because no good
cause ever wanders through the roads and
Ia Of ha xu;t G,,d
Gates. That is the plan OF the Master.
What can they do after taking up the
cause, but call on the world at large to
aid. and in their call could there be deeper
pathos than the simple story they have to
tell ? Whole families suffering for food,
heat and shelter! You do not see them; no,
the sufferers would be hidden beneath the
sod before it is even likely you would see
them. They do not cross your path nor do
you cross theirs. But these good women
see them; they see to it that their path lies
among them. You are not hard hearted.
but you do not see. They see and you must
use their eyes 10 know what suffering ex-
lists around your very homes. II these
women were to- photograph but one famil,
of mother and children, sick, without food,
with scant bedding Or none at all, without
fire, without clothing to meet the winter,
and the photograph were shown you, how
it would arouse every instinct of charity
within you! 1t is this sort of suffering
that they see every day, that you are asked
to aid. DO not wait for the poor to come
after you; they will never come. Take the
only avenue that leads from you to them
and avail yourself OF it,
The women OF the mission have sent YOU
an envelope, asking that you will enclose a
contribution in it. Do not neglect it. Try
and leaijze what it is for, and who it is for.
Makeau effort to do something for those
who are i'll the world with you. Be sure it
will be registered somewhere. If you are
a man give it for the sake OF humanity. 1t
you are something better than mere man
"a Christian. give it for the sake of
One who was on earth with us centuries
ago. 1t may be-for we do not know these
things as yet-that we may he permitted to
look back from that Better Country. If
we are, and some night you should look
back, out from that Home, there will he 10
happier moment than to see through the
darkness one light Oh earth shining from
the window Of a home which you had help
ed to make happy.
Think of it.