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162 THE CHURCH WILL never do her duty.

collective character, the duty of its members in their individual capacities. Nor can that love of men ever dwell in a corporation or ecclesiastical organization which should glow in the bosom of individual Christians. It was not so intended, and is not so inculcated. Every Christian association, however, of which the members are fully warmed up to their separate work, will be found partaking, in the mass, of the life which pervades the individuals. The English church will never perform her duty to the poor, because she has great possessions, and will continue to turn a deaf ear to the command-" One thing thou lackest go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor." How can that be a church of Christ, which has great riches and yet rejects the claims of the poor?

But whatever may be said of the guilt of the church, if a church can be guilty, the responsibility lies upon its members. They are the real stewards, to whom the various talents are committed for which account will be ren

dered at the coming of our Lord. The Christians of England are bound to relieve the poor to the extent of all their possessions, and to perform every other duty towards them required by the precepts of Christ, whatever may be the conduct of church dignitaries or political authorities. Nothing but performance can acquit them of this obligation. That performance would sweep from existence every vestige of the present unchristian system.

THE DUTY OF DEVISING AND CARRYING INTO EFFECT PLANS FOR THE GENERAL AMELIORATION AND PERMANENT RELIEF OF THE SUFFERING AND DEGRADED CLASSES.

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BUT the duty of English Christians is not circumscribed, as we have insisted, to relieving the immediate and pressing wants of the poor, nor even to the present teaching them the way of life. Their numbers are so great, their degradation so low, their oppression so

164 MUST NOT SAY THE EVIL IS HOPELESS.

heavy, that those whose duty it is to minister to them, can only discharge their obligation by adopting measures for permanent emancipation from evils so enormous. If we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us, if we should love our neighbours as ourselves, we cannot escape the responsibility of undertaking, in full earnest, the regeneration of the whole body of poor. This has never occupied the minds of English Christians as it should: the feeling has been too much that to which we have above referred: "Our laws and institutions are the best in the world; the result, visible in our hordes of paupers, is inevitable: there is no remedy but some check to this over-growing population.' No Christian who knows his Master's will should hold such language, or entertain such thoughts. In the eye of the Christian, all men constitute one brotherhood, and there is no avoiding the conclusion to which this truth leads. The poor have as much right to live as the rich; and the rich are equally

bound to help them, whether they give a good reason for coming into the world or not. The same Lord who has given freely to one, and denied to others, is over all, and has given the proper rules of action. How, then, can those who have wealth, or power, or influence, or wisdom, or knowledge, refuse to entertain as the great question of their lives,-What shall be done for the permanent amelioration of the condition of the poor? That in any possible state of society there must always be paupers, cannot be doubted; but in every society where Christian duties are discharged with even moderate faithfulness, the poor will be reduced to the smallest number possible. Is this so in England? Is it necessary-is it unavoidable, that there should be three millions of suffering poor in Great Britain? Is it inevitable that every tenth person should be a pauper? We say, no: that there should not be in Great Britain nor in Ireland more than one pauper to every hundred inhabitants. We say that this subject is seldom, if ever, ap

proached, as it should be, in its Christian

aspect.

All the world hears of the wealth of Great Britain. It is visible on every side to those who traverse the country. But all this wealth yields no income without labour: the industry of the people earns the enormous sum of two hundred and fifty millions of dollars, paid in annual revenue to the government, and five times the amount, which goes to swell the pockets of the rich. The income of the church is large, because it is drawn from the work of a large number of labourers. The large landholders are rich, because they receive the avails of the industry of a multitude of labourers. The manufacturers drive a large business, and make large profits at times, because they command the bones and sinews of as many labourers as they please to employ. It is labour which makes wealth available: without it, neither land, nor houses, nor machinery, nor mines, nor gold and silver, nor stocks of any description, could yield any per

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