Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

172

THE NATURE OF OUR STEWARDSHIP.

if he has wealth, the principle upon which he is to hold it is plainly indicated. The rich man is not bound to divide his estate with his neighbour who may be in want, for the poor man may be utterly incapable of managing property. He is bound to relieve him, to the extent that love may dictate, necessity require, and prudence prescribe. The Christian who cannot hold riches upon this tenure, is in great danger if he hold them at all. It will be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for him to enter the kingdom of God.

THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF CHRISTIANS IN THE UNITED STATES IN REGARD TO THE SUFFERING CLASSES.

WE have thus instanced the case of British Christians, and insisted upon their adopting the Christian solution of the great problem of pauperism. Their social difficulties are

complicated by connection with the government, and hardened in texture by antiquity; but the duty is not less pressing and imperative. Lazarus is still lying at their gate: the wounded man in their streets is still bleeding-and the priest and Levite pass by on the other side, whilst the good Samaritan delays his coming. All this, however striking, removes no responsibility from the Christians of this country. Have we not among us those who are hungry, and require to be fed; those that are naked, and require to be clothed; those that are fainting with thirst, that require a cup of cold water; those that are sick and in prison that require to be visited? Alas! how many poor are already among us, and how fearfully the numbers are increasing! And what has been done for them by American Christians, upon whom their Master has heaped such bounteous favours? They have, as in England since the Reformation, been turned over to the public authorities. Christians, as such, have thus repudiated the

174 WHAT HAVE WE DONE FOR THE POOR?

highest obligations. They have not taken in Lazarus, to clothe and feed him they have not taken up the wounded man: they have sent all to the poor-house; or rather, they have virtually assented to the doctrine that that is the proper place for them.

In some parts of the country,our poor-houses are fast growing populous, and we are, in this career, treading upon the heels of England. What have Christians done here to arrest this evil of pauperism? Their influence must be felt and exhibited in the action of our institutions, according to numbers, energy, and devotion to any good cause. If Christianity is not exemplified in the lives of its professors in this country, where lies the responsibility? If their united influence is not seen in the action of our various governments, what is the cause?

In point of fact, we find Christians forgetting their vocation in the exercise of their duty as citizens, and ranging themselves in the rank and file of political gamblers and

demagogues. There are Christians enough, and light, and wisdom enough, if properly and zealously applied, to place every truly good cause in the ascendant, and to make our land as remarkable for its exemplification of Christian precepts as it has been for the favour of Providence. If the Christians of this country had only been as faithful to their religious obligations as they have been faithful to party discipline, they would now wield a moral and religious power which nothing within or without could long withstand.

Here is a field in which Christians, for more than half a century, have had full liberty and free scope to carry out their Master's injunctions. What have they done? What kind of Christianity is exhibited in this country, where the conscience is free; where religion is not complicated with the government; where abuses are not consecrated by antiquity; where superstitions are not fastened upon us by the habits and associations of ages; where the priesthood is without power, and where

the light of the Scriptures shines as freely as the light of the sun? To what extent do we behold the influence of Christians in our legislation, or in the working of our national or >> state governments? Do we find that influence in the fierce competition of trades, in the progress of which thousands upon thousands annually fall into distress and poverty, while the eager votaries of wealth sweep past, unheeding the victims upon whom they trample?

But this is the mass which owns not Christ. Look, then, at those who profess to be his followers, and bear his name. Scores of churches surround us, mutually repelling and attacking each other, and affording a scene of strife, jealousy, animosity, and evil-speaking, with scarce a parallel for virulence in the proceed. ings of those who profess no fellowship with Christ. Each of these various sects claim, in terms the most unqualified, that they only are right no claim of infallibility is stronger than that they arrogate. Some differ as wide as terms can separate them: others agree so

« AnteriorContinuar »