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To relieve the necessities of the poor is a thing acceptable to the compassionate God, who has given to you what he might have given to them, and has given it to you that you might have the honour and pleasure of imparting it to them; and who has said, "He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord." The more you regard the command and example of a glorious Christ in what you do this way, the more assurance you have that in the day of God you shall joyfully hear him saying, "You have done it unto me." And the more humble, silent, reserved modesty you express, concealing even from the left hand what is done with the right, the more you are assured of a great reward in the heavenly world. Such liberal men, it is observed, are generally long-lived men; and at last they pass from this into everlasting life. "The fruit acquits the tree." The true Lady is one who feeds the poor, and relieves their indigence. The name of a Lady in the original has the following signification:-It was at first Leafdian, from Leaf or Laf, which signifies a loaf of bread, and D'ian to serve. implies one who distributes bread. primitive Christianity, ladies of the first quality would endeavour to find out the sick, visit hospitals, see what help they wanted, and assist them with an admirable alacrity. What a "good report" have the mother and sister of Nazianzen obtained from his pen, for their unwearied bounties to the poor! Empresses themselves have stooped to relieve the miserable, and never appeared so truly great as when they thus stooped; and when they stooped, it was to do some good to others. Angels they do so.

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A very proper season for alms is, when you keep your days of prayer: that your prayers and your alms may go up together as a memorial before the Lord. Verily, there are prayers in alms; and, "Is not this the fast that I have chosen, saith the Lord?" The expression of the beggar among the Jews was, "Deserve something by me:" among us it might be; "Obtain something by me."

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There is a certain city, in which every house has a box hanging by a chain, on which is written, "Think on the poor;" and they seldom conclude a bargain without putting something into the box. The deacons have the key, and once a quarter go round the city, and take out the money. When that city was in imminent danger, a man of no great character was heard to say, "That he was of opinion, God would preserve that city from being destroyed, if it were only for the great charity which its inhabitants express to the poor." It is the richest city of the richest country, for its size, that ever existed: a city which is thought to spend, annually, in charitable uses, more than all the revenues which the fine country of the Grand Duke of Tuscany brings in to its arbitrary master. "The hand of the

is the treasury-box of Christ."

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When you dispense your alms to the poor, who know what it is to pray, you may oblige them to pray for you by name, every day. It is an excellent thing to have "the blessing of those who have been ready to perish," thus coming upon you. Observe here a surprising sense in which you may be “ praying always." You are so, even while you are sleep

ing for you.

ing, if those whom you have thus obliged are prayAnd now look for the accomplishment of that word" Blessed is he that considereth the poor; the Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive, and he shall be blessed upon the earth."

Very frequently your alms are dispersed among such as very much need admonitions of piety. Cannot you contrive to mingle a spiritual charity with your temporal bounty? Perhaps you may discourse with them about the state of their souls, and obtain from them (for which you have now a singular advantage) some declared resolutions to do what they ought to do. Or else you may convey to them little books, which they will certainly promise to read, when you thus entreat them.

Charity to the souls of men is undoubtedly the highest, the noblest, and the most important charity. To furnish the poor with Catechisms and Bibles, is to do for them an incalculable good. No one knows how much he may do by dispersing books of piety, and by putting into the hands of mankind such treatises of divinity as may have a tendency to make them wiser or better. It was a noble action of some good men, who, a little while ago, were at the charge of printing thirty thousand of the "Alarm to the Unconverted," written by Joseph Alleine, to be all given away to such as would promise to read it. A man of no great estate has been known to give away, without much trouble, nearly a thousand books of piety every year, for many years together. Who can tell, but that with the expense of less than a shilling, you may, Sir, "convert a sinner from the

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error of his ways, and save a soul from death." worse doom than to be " condemned to the mines," lies upon that soul who had rather hoard up his money than employ it on such a charity.

He who supports the office of the evangelical ministry, supports a good work, and performs one; yea, in a secondary way, performs what is done by the skilful, faithful, and laborious minister. The encouraged servant of the Lord will do the more good for your assistance: and what you have done for him, and in consideration of the glorious Gospel preached by him, you have done for a glorious Christ; and you shall receive a prophet's reward." Luther said, "What you give to scholars, you give to God himself." This is still more true, when the scholars are become godly and useful preachers.

I have read the following passage: "It was for several years the practice of a worthy gentleman, in renewing his leases, instead of making it a condition that his tenants should keep a hawk or a dog for him, to oblige them to keep a Bible in their houses for themselves, and to bring up their children to read and to be catechised." Landlords! It is worthy of your consideration, whether you may not in your leases insert some clauses that may serve the kingdom of God. You are his tenants in those very freeholds in which you are landlords to other men. Oblige your tenants to worship God in their families.

To take a poor child, especially an orphan left in poverty, and to bestow education upon it, especially if it be a liberal education, is an admirable charity; yea, it may draw after it a long train of good,

and may interest you in all the good that shall be done by him whom you have educated.

Hence also, what is done for Schools, for Colleges, and for Hospitals, is done for the general good. The endowment or maintenance of these is at once to do good to many.

But alas! how much of the silver and gold of the world is buried in hands where it is little better than conveyed back to the mines from whence it came! Or else employed to as little purpose as what arrives at Hindostan, where a great part of the silver and gold is, after some circulation, carried as to a fatal centre, and by the Moguls lodged in subterraneous caves never to see the light again. "A Christian of good faith and hope does not such things."

Sometimes elaborate compositions may be prepared for the press, works of great bulk, and of greater worth, by which the best interests of knowledge and virtue may be considerably promoted in the world: they lie, like the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda; and are likely to remain neglected, till God inspire some wealthy persons nobly to subscribe to their publication, and by this generous application of their wealth, to bring them abroad. The names of such noble benefactors to mankind ought to live as long as the works themselves; and where the works do any good, what these have done towards the publishing of them, ought to be "told for a memorial" of them.

I will carry this subject still farther. The saying may seem to carry some affront in it, that, "idle gentlemen, and idle beggars, are the pests of the

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