shall be the subject of the first point. The great utility and signal advantages that accrue from giving alms, particularly towards the clothing, supporting and educating poor little orphans and helpless children, shall be the second point, and the subject of your favourable attention. Let us previously implore the light of the Holy Ghost, through the intercession of the blessed Virgin, &c. Ave Maria.

Since an unequal division of the goods of this life has necessarily taken place in the world, the earth is no longer common to men, as the sea is to the fish, the air is to the birds, and the forests are to the quadrupedes. The peace of society and the good order of civil government require, that each individual should be secured in the quiet and undisturbed possession of the portion of worldly substance which he lawfully acquires, or which naturally devolves to him by inheritance, With regard to other men, he is therefore to be considered as the just proprietor and the full master of what he thus possesses; but with regard to Almighty God, he is no more than a steward and dispenser, and of course he is obliged to make such use of what is deposited in his hands, as God, the Sovereign Lord and Master of all things, wills and commands. The more he has received from the Giver of all good gifts, the stricter account he will be called to on the last day, if he misapplies the talents committed to him to be improved, or wastes and lavishes in extravagancies what Providence was pleased to entrust to his care for the relief and support of his poor fellow-creatures, who are equally children of the same heavenly Father, and destined to be partakers of the same heavenly glory hereafter. In effect, my brethren, nothing is more inconsistent with the great principles of equity and justice, which the author of nature has implanted in the very fund of our being, and stamped on every rational soul, than to squander the blessings of Heaven in supporting pride and gratifying the inordinate cravings of self love, whilst the poor are actually sinking under the heaviest pressures of want and indigence, and exposed to all the rigours of hunger and thirst, of nakedness and cold. If we consult our own natural reason, it will tell us that men living together in community and assembled in society, should do unto others what they would reasonably wish to have done to themselves, and consequently, that they should not suffer those of their own species to languish in extreme poverty, and perish for want of the common necessaries of life, whilst they themselves wallow in riches and live in every kind of luxury; but that on the contrary, they are bound by the law of nature to relieve their neighbour under his grievances according to their ability, as they would wish to be relieved themselves were they in a similar situation. This is a principle which no one contradicts. The Scythian, the Barbarian, the Jew and the Gentile, agree herein with the Christian. This is a duty that nature, that humanity, that instinct, that reason inspires and dictates. But

as the voice of nature and the light of reason are not always attended to, the Almighty has been pleased to inculcate this duty in the clearest and strongest terms both in the Old and New Testament, and to give the rich to understand, that they are not at liberty to hoard up their riches avariciously in their coffers, or to make such use as they please of their superfluities, but that they are to consider them as the gifts and talents of a wise and benign Providence, which in bestowing such plenty and abundance on them, and confining others within such narrow circumstances, proposed to itself an end worthy of itself, and intended that the superfluities of the rich should be the patrimony of the poor, as St. Augustine observes. Hence the Scripture calls the alms given to the poor a debt, and the refusal of it a defrauding the poor. Son, says the Lord, Eccls. c. iv. v. 1, 8, defraud not the poor of alms, and turn not away thy face from them; bow down thy ear cheerfully to them, and pay what thou owest. And again, Deut. c. xv. v. 11. I command thee to open thy hand to thy poor and needy brother, who dwelleth in the land; and again, v. 7, thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor close thy hand, but thou shalt open it to the poor man; and again, Eccles. xxix. Help the poor because of the commandment, and send him not away empty-handed because of his poverty and again, Isai. c. lviii. v. 7, break thy bread to the needy, bring the poor and harbourless into thy house; when thou seest one naked, cover him, and despise not thy own flesh.

All this plainly shews, that the poor have acquired from God a just right and title to be supplied with the necessaries of life out of the abundance of the rich, and that to give alms to them in order to solace their wants, is not a simple counsel, nor a mere work of supererogation, but an indispensable duty, and a formal precept of the Sovereign Lord and Master of the universe, who has appointed the rich his agents and economists, and has placed them, like Joseph, over the treasures of Egypt, for the purpose of supplying the wants of his people, and succouring them in the hour of distress. To neglect the poor, therefore, in their distresses, or to withhold and refuse them what has been thus given and appropriated for their relief, is to oppose the ordinance of Heaven, and to counteract the designs of Divine Providence. It is to commit an act of injustice in the sight of God, similar to that of the unjust steward in the Gospel, who embezzled what the master of the family had entrusted to his care for the use and support of the domestics and lower servants of the house. It is also an open breach of charity in both its branches; for, as the Scripture says, He who has the substance of this world, and sees his brother in necessity, and shuts his bowels against him, how does the love of God remain in him? St. John, c. iii. v. 17. What is more, he is guilty of a breach of the fifth commandment, Thou shalt not kill, when through his neglect his neighbour dies for want: which made St. Ambrose say, Si non pavisti, occidisti: Feed

those who are famishing with hunger. If thou hast not fed them, thou hast killed them; thou art guilty in the sight of God of as many murders as there are poor in extreme necessity, who perish with hunger in the place where thou livest, when thou hast it in thy power and thou dost not relieve them. Hence it is that the uncharitable Priest and Levite are so justly condemned in the Gospel, for passing by and taking no notice of the poor man that lay on the road of Jericho, weltering in his gore, and half dead of the wounds he had received from a set of robbers. Hence it is also that the rich man mentioned in St. Luke, c. xvi. was condemned to eternal misery for refusing the crumbs that fell from his table to poor Lazarus, who sat at his gate covered with ulcers and famishing with hunger. The rich man was clothed in purple and silk, as the sacred text tells us; he feasted sumptuously every day, and when he died he was buried in hell, and plunged into devouring flames, where all the treasures he had formerly possessed on earth were insufficient to purchase a single drop of cold water for him to cool his burning tongue, or mitigate in the least degree, the excruciating torments to which he was sentenced by a just judgment of God, because in his life-time he had been insensible to the cries of the poor, and had misapplied in all kind of vanity and dissipation, what he ought to have laid out in doing works of mercy. His misfortune should serve as a lesson and a warning to those unfeeling and hard-hearted mortals, who resist all the tender sentiments that nature, humanity and religion inspire, and who, far from alleviating the sufferings of their fellow creatures by works of mercy, let them pine away at their doors in the neighbouring cellars and garrets, for want of necessary food and raiment. They will stop at no expense to gratify their own favourite passions, and to indulge their appetite in unnecessary delicacies, but refuse to afford the least comfort or relief to a distressed neighbour, perishing on a bed of sorrow under the anguish of an ulcerous and disordered body, shielded only against the inclemency of the weather by the scanty covering of a tattered garment. They can find money enough to spend in gaming and drinking, in playhouses and idle company, in high living, fine clothes, and expensive diversions; but, if you take their own word for it, they have nothing to spare for charitable purposes and works of mercy to the poor.

O, let me entreat Christians of this description, if any such happen to be here present, to remember that the day will come when they shall be called to a strict account of their stewardship, and that the measure of their alms now to the poor, shall then be the measure of God's mercy to them. Judgment withshall then be dealt out to him, who hath not done mercy, mercy says St. James, c. ii. v. 13. The tears of disconsolate widows, the cries of helpless orphans, the sighs and lamentations of numbers of piteous objects, will then rise up against the uncha

out

ritable, and draw down the divine vengeance, on their criminal heads. In vain shall they cry out then for mercy; for, as the Holy Ghost says, Proverb. c. xxi. v. 13. He that stops his ears against the cries of the poor, shall also cry himself and shall not be heard. The Sovereign Judge will then shut the bowels of infinite mercy against the unmerciful; he will be deaf to their entreaties and turn away his face from them, as they now turn away their faces from the poor, and shut their ears against their moving petitions; he will then pass sentence of reprobation on them, because they have neglected to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, in short, because they have refused to assist him in the persons of his poor brethren and distressed members here on earth, as appears from St. Matt. c. xxv. v. 41. where we read, that the Saviour of the world looks upon what is done or refused to the poor, as done or refused to himself in person, and that the sentence of eternal happiness, or eternal misery, shall be pronounced on the last day, according as we have or have not performed deeds of charity and works of mercy. Before I proceed, permit me to address a few words of comfort and instruction to the suffering and distressed poor, who, like Lazarus, labour under the difficulties of life. As the unhappy fate of the rich glutton should alarm the great ones of the world, who enjoy all the comforts of this life, so on the other hand, the happy end of poor Lazarus, who when he died was carried by Angels into Abraham's bosom, is sufficient to afford consolation to ye, my poor brethren, and should animate ye to endure with patience and resignation, all the trials and hardships to which your humble station subjects ye. Ye should guard against murmuring and repining at your condition, during the short term ye are to remain in this place of pilgrimage and vale of tears. Your Divine Redeemer has consecrated your state of poverty by his own example, and he expressly says in the Gospel, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. He will in his own good time dry up your tears, and change your sorrow into inexpressible joy. If ye do but keep up to the rules of a Christian life, and refrain from the vices of filching and stealing, cursing and swearing, to which the lower orders of people are peculiarly addicted, the God of mercy will one day translate your souls as he did poor Lazarus, to the sacred mansions of everlasting bliss. In the interim you may rest assured, that the condition of the rich is not so much to be envied as some may, perhaps imagine; it is attended with so many dangers, difficulties, temptations and weighty obligations, that the Gospel declares it to be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich, man to enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Let us now briefly consider the great utility and signal advantages of alms-deeds. It is what I promised to shew you in the second point.

As it is the indispensable duty, so it is the great interest of the rich and affluent, to be charitable and merciful to the poor

and distressed; they are the greatest gainers thereby themselves; they receive more than they give; of a duty they make a merit; and by paying a debt they accumulate a treasure, which moths cannot destroy and which thieves are not able to steal away. Hence the Scripture says, Prov. c. xiv. He that sheweth mercy to the poor shall be blessed; and again, ch. xix. Whatever is given to the poor is lent to the Lord. It is a little capital, put out at the highest interest, to bring in a profit that vastly surpasses the principal; it is a small grain of seed that is sown in a fertile soil, and produces hundred-fold fruit ; for such is the bounty of the Lord, that, as St. Augustine observes, he never suffers himself to be outdone by us in acts of liberality, but holding himself indebted to us for the smallest act of charity we do for his sake, though it should be as trifling as the widow's mite, or of no more value in itself than a cup of cold water, he requites it with a most ample reward. Give to the poor, says our Blessed Saviour, Mat. c. xix. v. 21, and thou shalt have a treasure in Heaven. The salutary effects of alms-giving appear visibly in the charitable Dorcas, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, c. ix. who, on account of her having clothed some poor widows, deserved to be miraculously raised to life by St. Peter the Apostle, and in Cornelius the Centurion, who was favoured with the apparition of an Angel and enlightened with the gift of faith, and mercifully called by a special grace to the pale of the true Church, because the alms given by him to the poor had ascended to Heaven like a sweet incense in the sight of the Lord; the example of the widow of Sarephta, who shared her measure of oil and pot of meal with the prophet Elias in his distress, and who was therefore not only blessed with plenty of provision for herself and her family, but also had the comfort to see her dead child restored to life, shews plainly that alms-deeds draw down temporal as well as spiritual blessings on the charitable donors in this life, and cause their worldly substance to encrease and multiply. They are very effectual means tó avert the wrath of Heaven, to disarm the justice of God, and to expiate and redeem sins, as the Prophet Daniel told Nabuchodonosor, and as our Blessed Saviour himself gave the Pharisees to understand in St. Luke, c. xi. They contributed wonderfully to move the God of mercy to hear the prayers to which otherwise he would be deaf; to accept the sacrifices, which otherwise he would despise; to be mollified by the tears, which otherwise he would reject, and to grant the grace true conversion to sinners, and the precious gift of final perseverance to the just; so that in whatever state a person may happen to be, whether in the happy state of grace, or in the dismal state of mortal sin, if he be merciful to the poor he will find his own great advantage in it, and may confidently hope that he will one day obtain mercy from the Lord, according to these words of the Gospel, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

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