Year: 1861

"OlHeu W hFellBlOHS society Will uHdke up
a batch Of little. or,nothDgs, freeze few
cans of ice cream, hire q ball, and advertise
a sale. We all go, and buy things that we
do not want, with a good .natured and gal.
liant Disregard Of prices, and the footings
of receipts are published in the newspapers
The charitable women feel pleasantly about
it, and think that they have done great
deal of good at small cost, without re.
memberng that all the money they have
made has cost somebody the amount of the
declared figures. They forget that all they
nave done is to obtain q subscription by a
graceful an attractive strategem, and that
the motives which they have pocketed with
the money would not stand the test of n
scrupulous analysis The main point seems
to be to get the money, and do the good
with the least possible sense of sacrifice as
man goes to charitable ball. and paws
two dollars for the privilege of dancing all
night, in order to give shilling Of profits
to the widow and fatheross without feeling
the burden of the charity.


Of all the means Of doing good, | know
OF none so repulsiye as that which is purely
professional. / think we do not have SO
much of this in these days as our fathers
had. Our pastors are more thoroughly our
companions aud friends than they used to
be. They do not assume to be our dicta-
tors and censors as they did in the earlier
days Of Puritansm The idea Of the regu.
lar parochial visit is essentially changed.
but | know clergymon, even now, who visit
the house of mourning professionally, and
give their professional consolation in a pro-
fessional way, and depart feeling that they
have faithfully performed their professional
duty. l know clergymen who go round
from house to house with their professional
inquiries, and do up any quantity of pro-
fessional work in a day. The family come
in (those who do not run away and take
seats around the room, and answer ques.
tions, and listen 10 q prayer, aud then they
bid their pastor good afternoon with a
sense Of relief, and go about their business
again, while he pushes on to his next par
iShioner, and repeats the professional task.
1t is all dry and unfrutfu formality on
the part of the families visited, and pro-
feSsonally discharged duty on the part of
the pastor, and a pitifully ridiculous carica-
tHre of the visit of a religious teacher TO
his disciples every way. What shall be
said Of an interview of which the pastors
part consisted of these words +: Very late
sprng-Hem = Cooking out Of the win.
dow who is building that barn ?-pota-
toes seem to be getting along very wel'--
(turning TO member of the family Jane,
how do you enjoy your mind p A spiritual
frame that could stand such transition
as that without taking fatal cold must
be based upon q very sound constitution,
and toughened by frequent repetition Of the
process


| suppose there will always be obtuse
men in the pastoral ofice-men who know
no way of getting into sensitive soul ex-
cept by knocking in the doors and walking
in with their boots on but all such men are
out of their place. The souls of an aver
age peope--ted to the tasks Of life, bur-
dened by care, Oppressed by routine, and
depressed in many instances by bodily
weakness-need sympathy more than couu.
sci, and encouragement and inspiration
more than solemn, professional catechet-
cal probing of their religious state. But
think, as have already said, that the
world is improving in this matter. Our
pastors are more social, more facile, more
apprecatiYe of the fact that in all their per.
sonal intercourse with their people they
must win love and give sympathy if they
would do good in the line of their profes
sion. ... ..


So much in the vein Of criticism; and if
am asked what guide man shall have in
the matter of doing good in the world, l
shall answer: loving, honest & brave heart,
and mind that judges for itself The
loves its feIlow-men will move its possessor
to do good; and the mind that thinks and
Judges for itself will decide in what direction
its efforts ought to be made. If man be
moved to do good, he will do it, and his
heart will lead him in the right direction.
Under mistaken sense Of duty, inculcated
by incompetent counsellors, men find them
selves in fields Of benevolent action to which
they are very poorly adapted; and the
world is full Of these blunders but an hoa
eslly loving heart and ordinarily cleal
brain, that nobody has been allowed tt
meddle with aud muddle, will tell mar
where he belongs and what he ought to do
If q man have q gift for ministering 10 the
sick, let him do it, If he have gift foT
dealing personally with the poor, let him
do that. If be have a gift for making
money, and none for properly applying his
charities, let him hand bis money to those
who are competent to dispense it. / dc
not believe that many loving hearts, coup
led with unsophsticated judgments, are en-
gagged in indiscriminate aud random efforts
to act for religious ends upon the mind:
they meet with l believe that with al
such hearts and judgments there is connect
ed sense of that which is flt and prope
in time, place and circumstance, so tha
wherever they strike they leave their mark
| believe that such hearts and judgment
will scorn to do that by indreclion whicl
they can do better directly, and that if
be fit and proper for them to offer reproC
to man, they will do it by the brave wor
of mouth, and not sneak up to him an
put card or a tract into his hand, l b.


leve that men with such hearts and JUDI
ments would prefer making a subscriptic
directly to a charitable object, to maxim
one indirectly by paying double price f
articles they do not want. And last,


think that pastors, with such hearts al


judgments, are not at all in danger of b
coming coldly professional in their mob
duties A life in any sphere that is Il
. / pl ontNouy of an bOnagt pa