Year: 1870




We have not one word to say ia depreciation
of the noble offering OF aid from this country
to Europe for the relief of the sufferers by the


Franco-Prussinn war. Dodge the issue as we


may, we all Of us know in our secret hearts


that war and the laws OF nations concerning


war, arc relics of heathenism: so if, while it
suits the code of governments to stand passive


by while two powors throttle each other with
or without cause, 10 the death, individual men
and women vindicate Christ's teaching and
humanity by fastening into the breach to rob


Death. as far as in them lies, of his prey, we


find in it only occasion for thankfulness.


What we do most earnestly deprecate, how
ever, is the ignoring or even partial neglect


of the rights Of our own poor for these more We
bementclaims. We mean no harshness when we


soy that the most picturesque sufferer rs TOO
likely 10 be the most attractive to faulty bu-


man nature. Distance lends enchantmen. to


nothing so much as to disease ard starvation !;
md besides those OF us who live in cities are
ant TO be hardened by the perpetual discovery
of imposture and villainy under the cloak OF
street poverty. There is danger just Dow'


therefore, that the famiShed French peasant OF
wounded Prussan, the far-of melo-dramailc


suffering shade toward whom we stretch our
helping hands in melo-dramatic picturesque
way by listening to music or chaiferlng win


pretty women at bazaar, viii seem to us much
more Ike the brother whom Christ bids us


receive than lazy Biddy OF filthy Cuilec in the


next alley.
But facts are facts. The streets OF New


York arc filed to-day by o ghastiy multitude
that Oh tho first severe Winters morning VIII


ka as inexorably hunger-bittcn and needy rs


the besieged of Paris. Ii is no time now to


question whether laziness OF crime brought


them to this pass. Ordinarily, as we have al


ways contended, the very base and ground


work of charity is to give wOr'; and not aims; ;


to remove the unemployed seethng masses
| which choke our tenenent-hOuses and pur-


leus out Of the city, where they can have
fresh air, and the chance, which they have not


here, to earn an honest livelihood. But now


there is no space for any such action.
Whether idle or vicious, beathen Chinee or


more hcathen American, the starving man is


our brother, and in the name OF the great


Elder Brother Of us all has right to de-


mand at our hands immediate and unquestion-
ing aid. Neither does it meet the difficulty to
refer to the great public charities, hospitals,
aims or soup houses, or to recount the
thousand and one times in which our charity


has been imposed on by listening to some
doorstep application. " Individual aims" Is
the usual argument, is most apt to be un-


"wise. Better put your money into the hands


"of those whose business it is to apply it prop


"erly. Machinery is best, even in almsgving.'
To which we answer that the classes of the
! a.. hohi l1v
Winter as every other, of the aid of hospitals,
coal and soup societies, arc usually those least


deserving of aid-the professional beggars, the
| idle improvident, who find no shame in want
nor disgrace in accepting aims. Among the
| better class of the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. whose


wages are insufficient, and laborers out of en-
/ ployment-a class largely on the increase this
| Winter--there is the same bitter sense OF hu-


initiation in appealing to public charity that


there is among the Irish in Dauper burial. 1t


is the final seal of their degradation.


| Aid for this class must come from ind-
| yiduals. Indiscrminate street aims giving is
the resource of laziness on the part of the


gver Just as much as of the recipient. But


there is TO family in New-York within whose
home-reaeh of observation there does not lie


at this moment worthy objects of help and


encouragement. The giving of such charity,


the most gracious and beautiful expression of


Christianity which the Great Master has put


within our power, seems to pertain of right
to women. Help from man, or from the


mechanical agent of o corporation, is apt to


come to the starving body and vexed soul,
bitter against God at its ewn mischance, as
hard dole. But even the most trivial and
worldly woman has command of gentle looks
and cheering words which will make her
seem but the messenger of One Who Is the
| loving Father alike of poor and rich. If
every woman in New-YOrk would personally
| find out one such case of want and
relieve it during the coming cold weather,
there would be little suffering and assuredly
far less vice than there have ever been before.
| 1t would be an out-0f-dOOr sermon such as no
| words can offer. That they should do it we
| suggest, not as a praisewOrthy effort, but an
| actual duty which cannot be ignored. What
ever Christian work was left optional with us,
| this was exacted defined, and plains that we


should carry to our suffering brother the help
placed for that purpose in our hands, in the


name of Him who, poorer than the poorest,


had not where on earth to lay his head.
Whether we hear a sermon every Sunday does
not perhaps matter SO greatly; whether We
help our devotions by litany, OF loye-feast or
paternoster, depends, after all. upon birth and


training; the very mystical bread and wine
| which unite us to Him may be inaccessible to
us but the poor we have always with us.
The gaunt army of the sick, the hungry, and
the captive are always at our gates; and we
hear the terrible words coming down to us
through eighteen centuries: "Inasmuch as ye
." did il not To one OF the least of these. We