Year: 1861

rags to the best advantage, and give him


his medicine. you may not know it. but the


tears are rolling down that mother S cheeks.


She would DO anything for you. If her
, children were well, she would promise you
. to go to the house of God next abbath-a


place where she has not been for twenty
years. Perhaps never.


! But again: We remark that in doing
good to the poor:


intelligence. When you find your fellow
man lying half frozen by the road side. ask


no questions. No matter how he came


there. No matter who sold him the liquor.


Let all that rest until you have provided


him with shelter, and secured his immediate


safety. But if that man comes to your door


to beg. do not give him penny. II he is
hungry, take him in and warn, him and


give him his dinner. If you know his wife


and children to be suffering at home, send


some one with bread to keep them from


starving, and send him to your wood pile 10


saw wood. If be is able to beg he is able


to do something else. Indiscriminate con-


tributions are not. perhaps in one case out


Of one hundred. a real charity and in


ninety nine cases may be a positive injury.


Sir Robert Peele was one of the most be-


nevolent men in England. bu, he never
gave money to common begga". The
most worthy cases Of real want have to be
sought om. Honest poverty is not impudent.
1t is not clamcIous: il is shrinking. | would
shiver in the coll. and fight the wolf from
the door for days and weeks. rather than
go out to beg. When sickness, following


in the footsteps of want, has at length
brought out the secret. have heard the
poor man blamed for not making his wants
known. My friends, honor that feeling.
It is Just the stuff that heroes are made out
Of Show me that man. There is a noble
heart beating under that homespun jacket.
The fault is not his. but yours and mine,
that his children are sick and starving -
We ought to have searched him out. 1t
were easy for us to go to his humble dwell
ing and find out his necessities in such a
way as not to wound his selfrespec,, there
are many ways of doing it. and we would
feel allthe better tor it. But it is hard
thing for him TO come to US. That sense of
manly independence keeps him back, and
he entertains the hope of relief from some
other quarter, or being able in few days
to leave his family and earn something with
his hands. But you ask in amazement. why
preach thus to US? we have no suffering
poor in our church. Then your church is
not what it ought to be; Christ's church
ought to have great many poor in it. A
church which has no poor in it ought To do
great deal for the world. But we have
no suffering poor In our town How do
you know that? When did you look into
that little cabin in the alley just below " ur
own dwelling Do you know whether
any smoke has been coming out OF the chin
ney for the last week. or whether there is
anything to make smoke? :? Have you look
ed whether path has been beaten since
the last snow fell, or whether there is sin
gle track Why they may be all dead for
anything that zoe know. Remember. then,
that the most worthy objects of charity
have to be sought out, aud that it is your
duty to seek them--not theirs TO make their
wants known. And having found them,
the ne xt thing is


8. To dispense your charities with deli
cacy. But | hear some one saying, what is
needed in feeding hungry fam ly? Is it
not enough that they are provided with food
clothing. and other bodily comforts ich
they may need ? No; it is not enough
You have no right to east your charities to
that poor mans family as you would a bone
to hungry dog. He is = man. if he is
poor and hungry. He has human feelings,
and these ought TO be respected. Thought
less. or coarse. wealthy people. cannot i'm
agine how much pain they have given wi en-
they thought themselves the most benevo-
lent. How often the repast which they
have lett behind them. in the p3or mans
larder. has been sweet as honey to hungry
pala,es. but. alas with sting in it because
of the manner of the donor.


Oh bs tender TO the poor, their burdens
are heavy enough-add not another grain
-trample not upon their sensibilities, but
nourish them and cherish them. Sensbih
ties they have. Rjoice 10 find it SO. for
these are the basis of hope for moral and
spiritual elevation. Let every little evidence
of taste or delicaey of feeling be hailed as
bud of promi se of better future.
should never despair of that household.
whatever the nei.hbors may tell me. If
see morning glory climbing over the door.
or around the window Of their poor Lovel:
or ii the soft notes of the flute may be heard.
borne from the threshold by the gentle
breeze at eventide; or il the flush comes to
the fathers brow when stranger offers a
shilling or sixpence to his little girl. 1t is
common mistake for the rich 10 undervslue
the feelings of the poor man. and thus while
they pour out the ointment with liberal
hand. it is by breaking the box upon his
head.


Upon little reflection, you will see that
there are . hundred ways Of doing good to
the poor. without trampeling rudely on their
selt-respect. And if you are willing that
your fright hand should not hint to the
left. what it has been DOING there are q
good many ways in which you can do good
and not seer to be doing it. You may take
the poor mans shilling. it would wound
him ii you should not. but there is no law Of
propriety or of delicacy which forbids you
to give h,m an extra pound or half-pound Of
meat in his basket. He will have the bene-


81 without the pain. And If you are will


ing that none but God and yourself should


know 1t. when the poor industrious and


needy man comes to your store and asks
1 for hve pounds Of some necessary article,
you may take his money and give him six.
He will never know it. aud If you are, rs
you ought to be. it will never come out till


the day of Judgment. and then it will do