“He stole a pig, and in God’s name gave the trotters to the poor.”—­From the Spanish.

Man must be thrifty in order to be generous.  Thrift does not end with itself, but extends its benefits to others.  It founds hospitals, endows charities, establishes colleges, and extends educational influences.  Benevolence springs from the best qualities of the mind and heart.  Its divine spirit elevates the benefactors of the world—­the Howards, Clarksons, and Naviers—­to the highest pedestals of moral genius and of national worship.

The same feeling pervades our common humanity.  The poorest man, the daily worker, the obscurest individual, shares the gift and the blessing of doing good—­a blessing that imparts no less delight to him who gives than to him who receives.

“Man is dear to man; the poorest poor
Long for some moments, in a weary life,
When they can know and feel that they have been
Themselves the fathers and the dealers-out
Of some small blessings; have been kind to such
As needed kindness, for this single cause,
That we have all of us one human heart.”

The duty of helping the helpless is one that speaks trumpet-tongued; but especially to those who profess love to God and goodwill to men.  It is a duty that belongs to men as individuals, and as members of the social body.  As individuals, because we are enjoined to help the widow and the fatherless in their affliction; and as members of the social body, because society claims of every man that he shall be a helper in the cause of progress and of social well-being.

It is not necessary that men should be rich, to be helpful to others.  John Pounds was not a rich man; yet by his influence Ragged Schools were established.  He was temperate, and saved enough from his earnings to buy food for his pupils.  He attracted them by his kindness, sometimes by a “hot potato;” he taught them, and sent them out into the world, fortified by his good example, to work in it, and do their duty towards it.  Nor was Robert Raikes, the founder of Sunday and other schools, a rich man; neither was Thomas Wright, the prison philanthropist.  Nor were St. Vincent de Paul and Father Mathew—­the promoters of education and temperance.  Nor were the great men of science—­Newton, Watt, and Faraday; nor the great missionaries—­Xavier, Martyn, Carey, and Livingstone.

A fine instance of gentleness and generosity is recorded in Walton’s memoir of Dr. Donne.  When the latter, long straitened in his means, had entered upon the Deanery of St. Paul’s, and was thereby provided with an income more than sufficient for all his wants, he felt that those means had been entrusted to him, for good uses, and to employ for human help and to the glory of the Giver thereof.  At the foot of a private account, “to which God and His angels only were witnesses with him,” Dr. Donne computed first his revenue, then what was given to the poor and other pious uses, and lastly, what rested for him and his; and having done that, he then blessed each year’s poor remainder with a thankful prayer.