them, who give them the word of life, do not despair, suffer not yourselves to be depressed by doubt, even when for a long time perhaps you have the grief to behold them proceeding in the paths of error. He, whose gracious promise extends to a thousand generations has heard you; he will save the child of

your prayers, should it be only at the eleventh hour.

[A. L., Homerton College. The translator has not thought himself at liberty to alter some peculiarities of expression, or perhaps of sentiment, which are common among continental Protestants, particularly those of the Lutheran communion.]

Mr last letter was occupied with a few general remarks on the "new commandment" of love; referring particularly to the care of the poor of our churches in large towns. That this important subject deserves the thoughtful consideration of Christians is unquestionable, and with many, the bare mention of it will be sufficient to awaken earnest attention: to none who love the Lord Jesus Christ can it be matter of indifference.

It is to be regretted that the apostolic direction, concerning the "collection for the saints," is so seldom adverted to, or, seemingly, thought of by Christians. "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God has prospered him." Our collections being made, not weekly, according to the injunction, but monthly, a generous contribution, according to individual ability, is, properly speaking, indispensable but our most "liberal things" are found to be far from liberal; for I question if there be a church in any provincial town (I speak not of London, having no personal knowledge of the state of the churches there) which collects more than one hundred, or one hundred and twenty pounds per annum ; i. e., nine or ten pounds a month, probably very few so much. Where so little is collected much cannot be distributed. And this is not to be attributed to niggardliness in the church, but rather to the narrow and limited conception entertained, by officers and members alike, in regard to their duty towards the poor in Christ. To visit frequently and regularly the afflicted and necessitous, to obtain an acquaintance with their wants în the most delicate and courteous manner, and to relieve them in the most effectual

way, requires time, patience, and diligence; and is a duty sometimes incompatible with the business engagements of the deacons. Hence they may make no complaint about the smallness of the monthly collections, since it will probably be large enough for their accustomed distributions. The poor, likewise, trained up to limited expectations, look for little help or sympathy from the church. When reduced to want they join their pauper neighbours in applying to the township; and some few (I grieve to write) may be seen at the Commissioners' Board, as loud, voluble, and bold as any, claiming the pittance which the law allows them, and which is not always bestowed in a manner, and a spirit, in harmony with Christian benevolence. The Society of Friends have studied the New Testament to better purpose: on this, as on a number of points of prac tical Christianity, they are in advance of other religious communities. It is well known that none of their poor are permitted to receive or to stand in need of parochial aid. And because none are to be seen in a state of destitution, it has been supposed that none are really poor and altogether dependent on the society's bounty; an inference very far from correct. But to what extent are poor Friends maintained and supported? None of them are suffered to live, as many of our poor live, in damp, unventilated cellars, destitute of furniture; or in miserable garrets, affording imperfect shelter from cold and wet. They are all, comparatively speaking, well lodged; their apartments containing such furniture as is necessary for comfort and decent convenience. In their persons they are clean; their clothing, how

homely soever, or even mean, serves to keep them warm, and is never in rags; and their looks show that they are not stinted in respect to a supply of wholesome food. This latter particular deserves far more attention than some may be disposed to give it. It is a melancholy subject, and painful to write upon: for though a state of dependence on the bounty of our fellow-creatures, even of fellow-Christians, be indeed under the most favourable circumstances, one of trial, this is as nothing compared with an habitual state of starvation-with that feebleness and heart-sickness arising from deficient food, certain to end, unless grace prevent, in repining, in some immoral shift, or in, what often happens, a premature death.

An intelligent Friend has furnished me with the following facts respecting the poor of one monthly meeting, congregated in a large town in one of the northern counties. The number of Friends, of all ages, and of both sexes, within the bounds of the meeting, is six hundred and twenty; in which number, I suppose there may be about one hundred and twenty-four male heads of families. At this time, two entire families and six single individuals, are receiving weekly support; and six other persons are receiving education, or clothing, or having rent paid. The amount allowed to needy families varies from six shillings to twenty per week, according to circumstances; and to single persons, a sum varying from six to ten shillings. The poor children of deceased members are also maintained, in all cases, and educated at the expense of the monthly meeting to which they belong.

The

meeting referred to, expends upon its poor about two hundred pounds per an

num.

But particular examples speak more intelligibly than general statements. I therefore present the following cases of poor members belonging to an opulent church of the Independent order, where the necessities of the poor are probably, better seen to, and more liberally provided for than in churches where the destitute, as compared with the rich, are relatively more numerous. The details, it will be understood, are not fictitious, but represent cases which exist.

N. H, aged sixty-five years; a cripple; resides in a small room; formerly got a little by winding, but can earn no

thing now; receives from the township two shillings per week, from the church fourteen shillings and sixpence monthly; in all, after the rate of five shillings and sixpence per week. Rent, one shilling per week; leaving four shillings and sixpence, for food, candles, soap, clothes, &c.; at times has had articles of clothing from the church.

M. B., aged fifty-seven years; lame and helpless from rheumatism; receives from the town two shillings, from the chapel fourteen shillings monthly; from both, equal to six shillings and sixpence, per week. Rent, two shillings per week; leaving four shillings and sixpence for washing, food, &c. M. B.'s mother, aged seventy-eight years, lives with her daughter, has been for many years bed-ridden, and is quite blind. She has from the town two shillings and sixpence per week.

Has

J. W., aged sixty-eight years; very infirm; husband in a madhouse. nothing from the town; from chapel weekly, four shillings. Rent, two shillings per week, leaving for living, &c., two shillings; is aided a little in the way of food by a married daughter.

A. T., aged seventy-three years; very infirm in health, sight bad; no occupation; from town, two shillings and sixpence, from chapel, four shillings, weekly, in all, six shillings and sixpence. Rent, two shillings. Has no other stated aid from any quarter.

S. H., widow, aged forty-three; a char-woman; slowly dying of consumption; has one child, who, when in work, earns weekly five shillings in a mill. From the township, nothing; from chapel, two shillings and sixpence per week; but of late, four shillings and sixpence ; also arrow-root occasionally. Rent, one shilling and seven-pence a week; requires a woman to attend upon her, whom she herself pays.

These poor, considering that they obtain at times additional help from their fellow-members in articles of clothing, and a moderate supply of coals in the beginning of winter from the deacons, are well off, it will be said, compared with many of their destitute neighbours, who are not members of a Christian church. This may readily be granted; and when some, belonging to churches, whose poor are neglected, read the foregoing statement, they will perhaps blush to think that their afflicted fellow-mem

bers are so much less kindly dealt with. But even in respect to the above poor, the allowance they are receiving from the various sources enumerated, when carefully analyzed and compared with the necessary outlay, is sufficient to sustain life, and no more; to sustain it in a feeble condition, as the languid looks of the infirm persons themselves plainly show.

It will not be altogether irrelevant to consider, what, in order to procure more necessaries, must be the weekly purchases of a poor woman living by herself in an apartment in one of our populous and, on that account, expensive towns; and whose income (clear of rent, the more important articles of clothing, and a supply of coal at the beginning of winter) is four shillings and sixpence for the seven days of the week, that is, about seven-pence three farthings a day, a sum greater than the average income of such persons. A list of articles such as the following, most of them of weekly, some of them of daily purchase, will probably be thought indispensable. Bread, flour, oatmeal, potatoes, butter, sugar, tea, milk, bacon, eggs, salt, pepper, soap, candles, coals occasionally, needles, pins, thread, tape, minor articles of clothing and furniture, shoes mending, pipe-clay, sand, chips, errand-running or other assistance, and perhaps tobacco. In this list, excepting tobacco, there is no article of luxury, all are necessaries; and the income must indeed be skilfully expended if all are to be purchased. But all are not procured, nor is it possible they should be. It is only by an enumeration of particulars, such as I have here attempted, that we arrive at some faint, though still most inadequate conception of the pinched and straitened circumstances of the virtuous poor of our churches in large towns, who are too infirm to work, and who will not beg.

Some, in calling to mind the words of Scripture, "Thy bread shall be given thee, and thy water shall be sure," may be ready to construe the promise as suggesting in its literal sense what ought to suffice for the children of God who are in poverty. But if there be such fanciful reasoners, (perhaps there are none,) they ought to know that vegetables and water barely sufficient to sustain an inhabitant of a warm country, such as Palestine, will not, speaking generally, sustain its health (and consequently will not

maintain in life for the term it would otherwise continue) an inhabitant of so moist, cold, and variable a climate as that of England. I shall entirely fail of the object I have in view in writing these letters, if I do not convince my readers that it is one thing to support our poor in such a manner as merely to preserve them alive-in such a manner as, in the event of their death, to escape a coroner's verdict of "died from starvation;" and quite another thing to maintain them in a state of bodily vigour compatible with feelings of comfort, feelings of which, according to my observation, "the poor saints" of our Christian churches have very little conception. I am inclined, therefore, to recommend a scale of allowance approaching to that of the Society of Friends before mentioned. And further, that with a view to facilitate the consideration of individual cases, the ob jects of relief should be arranged in the following five classes:

1. The helpless poor, including all who from advanced age, or infirmities at any age, are unable to provide the means of living, and who have no relatives willing, or that may be compelled by law to maintain them.

2. Such as are able in part to procure subsistence by their own hands, and who therefore need only occasional pecuniary help, as also coals in winter, occasional clothing, and the like.

3. Members unexpectedly reduced to temporary poverty by severe sickness or accidents.

4. Persons not, properly speaking, indigent, but who, from habitual weakliness, stand in need, at certain seasons, of change of air, and rest from their usual avocations; which without extraneous aid they cannot obtain,—a class of persons deserving the kindest and most delicate consideration of the officers of a church.

5. The orphan children of members, left destitute.

I will briefly advert to a few other points before concluding. I am not prepared to maintain that our poor should in no case be permitted to solicit parochial aid, as this would bear hard on those churches where the great majority of the members are themselves living on the wages of labour, and where consequently a large number will be much exposed to casualties or diseases which interrupt, for shorter or longer periods,

the course of industry, and, but for charitable help, bring on destitution and want. The poor-rates are levied by law, and may be claimed by a Christian in need, without reproach as respects himself, and, under certain circumstances, without reproach to his church. If his church cannot plead poverty for the withholding relief, but seeks to excuse itself on the ground that other churches do the like, such a plea cannot, I am persuaded, be effectually maintained on Christian principles. However, I waive this point, and merely remark by the way, that when a poor brother or sister is compelled to solicit public relief, they should not be suffered to present themselves alone and friendless at the Commissioners' board, to mingle with the profane and depraved paupers, always a large proportion of the throng. They ought to be accompanied and countenanced by some responsible Christian friend, who (while his presence shields them from browbeating and rebuffs) can vouch on their behalf, that they are in truth unwilling and deserving applicants.

Some persons perhaps will see no objection-unhappily some have seen none -to the Workhouse as the last refuge of a destitute Christian. Few of our brethren think thus, let me hope. Few, let me hope, but repudiate the bare mention of devoting a Christian brother, or the destitute orphan children of brethren, to the wards of a workhouse; considering the partial loss of freedom sustained there, the entire or nearly entire loss of Christian fellowship, and the unchristian society inseparable from such a community. Alas for the church! that body of which Christ is the head; whose members, the meanest and humblest, are loved and cared for by him beyond what heart can conceive or words express. Must these members, I say, whom he so tenderly calls "little ones," be virtually cast off by their brethren, and consigned to degradation and the very atmosphere of sin, because of their poverty? Surely this evil practice-a practice utterly unjustifiable on any plea or pretence whatever-will not long be suffered to disgrace our churches.

I must again advert to the destitute orphans of members. Are they looked upon as devolving on the care and affection of the church? Are they solicitously and tenderly watched over, main

tained, trained up, and educated as the "holy seed" of the just? Were these questions put to the officers of our churches, I fear truth would compel a reply in the negative, at least with very few exceptions. I will suppose a case; one which need not be supposed, since it occurs frequently in every church. A widow dies, leaving several young children unprovided for, and without Christian relatives to offer them a home. A home of some description, however, they must have, and this is provided either by the parish officers, in the usual way, or by irreligious relatives or neighbours, and thus the children, without so much as a thought on the part of the church, or the smallest concern, are abandoned to the world, the flesh, and the devil. It would require more ingenuity than falls to my share, to imagine an excuse for a church's acting in this manner.

Ought the deacons to be the sole dispensers of the church's contributions to the various classes of the necessitous? for many reasons, which I might easily give, they ought to have the assistance of deaconesses, or persons performing the office of such, even if they refused to bear the name. In visiting the sick and afflicted in certain cases, the latter officials would be found of the greatest service. In acquiring a thorough knowledge of privations, difficulties, and secret distresses, in reference to many who shrink from all approach unless conducted with scrupulous delicacy, they would be the more effective servants: and besides possessing, generally speaking, more leisure than the other sex, they would be found to discharge the duties of their office with a regularity and diligence not to be expected from men, however conscientious, immersed from morning till night in the pursuits of business.

There are several things I have not touched upon which, however, deserve notice. The poor members ought to have seats appropriated to their use not in places conspicuously uncomfortable and mean. When receiving their allowance, be it at weekly or monthly periods, (and it has always appeared to me desirable that the distribution should be weekly,) they ought to be treated with kindness of manner, and made to feel habitually that being "in Christ" they are thereby "exalted," how low soever they be in the eyes of the world. But here I conclude, The grand consideration for a