Chap. VII.]

DUTY OF MUTUAL ASSISTANCE.

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honest, that he may be so ; and we ought to respect honestywherever we may find it. But, that our alms may accomplishthe purposes of Christian benevolence, our eyes must not beshut to their liabilities and tendencies to evil.

(2.) Again ; it is a fundamental principle, that individuals andfamilies, asking for alms, ought to be relieved only at their homes,and after a personal examination of each case; and relief inthose cases, when given, ought to be given, not in money, but inthe necessaries required in the case ; and street-begging is, as faras possible, to be brolcen up, especially begging by children. Pri-vate individuals, indeed, cannot often do this ; but those, who dis-pense the extensive alms of charitable societies, must make uptheir minds to do it with patience and perseverance, if they expectto prevent imposture, and do the good at which they aim. Thegiving of alms to street-beggars is, it may be said with greatconfidence, the worst of all the abuses of almsgiving. Wemay well believe, and we ought to act upon the belief, that it isscarcely possible to live by street-begging, and to live virtuously.It is almost certain, that the boy, who shall be reared to beggary,will be a pauper for life ; and that the beggar girl, if not earlyrescued, will be irretrievably, and in the worst sense possible,ruined.

(3.) My third principle respects those who are called theable-bodied poor, and is this, — that the alms which interferewith the necessity of industry, forethought, economy, and aproper self-denial, are not only encouragements, but causes ofpauperism. The truth upon this subject is, and the more faith-fully it is regarded, the better it will be for all; that, except thefeeble, the aged, the maimed, and the diseased, the number isextremely small, who, by industry, economy, and temperance,could not provide for themselves and their families.

Among the feeble here referred to, may be included a veryinteresting class of women, principally widows, who have thecharge of several children. Their sole dependence, except oc-casional alms, is either upon their needles, by which they canearn at best a dollar, or a dollar and a half a week; or upon em-ployment for a day, or a part of a day, whenever they can obtainit, in any of the coarse work of a family. Many of these are the