“Sir—­Upon reflection, I feel that I ought not to receive from you the money that was due to me when you became unfortunate some years ago.  I understand that you have a large family, that your health is not very good, and that you are depriving the one of comforts, and injuring the other, in endeavouring to pay off your old debts.  To cancel these obligations would be all right—­nay, your duty—­if you could do so without neglecting higher and plainer duties.  But you cannot do this, and I cannot receive the money you paid me this morning.  Take it back, and let it be expended in making your family more comfortable.  I have enough, and more than enough for all my wants, and I will not deprive you of a sum that must be important, while to me it is of little consequence either as gained or lost.

Edward Petron.”

The letter dropped from the tailor’s hand; he was overcome with emotion.  His wife, when she understood its purport, burst into tears.

The merchant’s sleep was sweeter that night than it had been for some time, and so was the sleep of the poor debtor.

The next day Mr. Moale called to see Mr. Petron, to whom, at the instance of the latter, he gave a full detail of his actual circumstances.  The merchant was touched by his story, and prompted by true benevolence to aid him in his struggles.  He saw most of the tailor’s old creditors, and induced those who had not been paid in full to voluntarily relinquish their claims, and some of those who had received money since the poor man’s misfortunes, to restore it as belonging of right to his family.  There was not one of these creditors who did not feel happier by their act of generosity; and no one can doubt that both the tailor and his family were also happier.  John and Henry were not compelled to leave their home until they were older and better prepared to endure the privations that usually attend the boy’s first entrance into the world; and help for the mother in her arduous duties could now be afforded.

No one doubts that the creditor, whose money is not paid to him, has rights.  But too few think of the rights of the poor debtor, who sinks into obscurity, and often privations, while his heart is oppressed with a sense of obligations utterly beyond his power to cancel.

THE SUNDAY CHRISTIAN.

Two things are required to make a Christian—­piety and charity.  The first has relation to worship, and in the last all social duties are involved.  Of the great importance of charity in the Christian character, some idea may be gained by the pointed question asked by an apostle—­“If you love not your brother whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you have not seen?” There is no mistaking the meaning of this.  It says, in the plainest language—­“Piety without charity is nothing;” and yet how many thousands and hundreds of thousands around us expect to get to heaven by Sunday religion alone!  Through the week they reach out their hands for money on the right and on the left, so eager for its attainment, that little or no regard is paid to the interests of others; and on Sunday, with a pious face, they attend church and enter into the most holy acts of worship, fondly imagining that they can be saved by mere acts of piety, while no regard for their fellow-man is in their hearts.