No 2. 



DialoE^ue between a Father and Son, 



47 



opportunity of doing them service is worth 

 more than the sum the kiln cost in building, 

 and I cannot part with it go cheaply : re- 

 member, " If ye do good to them that do good 

 to you, what thank have ye !" I knew a 

 close-fisted old farmer, of whom his neighbor 

 asked the favor of passing one of his upper 

 fields with his crop, which would shorten the 

 distance to his barn; the old fellow hesitated 

 so long, that at last, suspecting his neighbor 

 would think him unwilling to grant his re- 

 quest, he replied, " certainly, I will give you 

 permission, but I have been considering whe- 

 ther there is not some way in which you can 

 serve me ; but as nothing strikes me at pre- 

 sent, remember that you owe me a kindness." 

 I have heard also of a lady, whose husband 

 said to her, " My dear, I know you value 

 yourself upon the close and saving manner in 

 which you steer through life ; but I know, 

 likewise, that your neighbors and tradesmen 

 do not respect you for it — now, for ten dol- 

 lars a year, [ will purchase for you one of the 

 best characters in the town; that, I calcu- 

 late, is about the sum which you save by ex- 

 tra management." I knew, too, a noble- 

 minded old gentleman, whose son, his part- 

 ner, wishing to overcharge an article in busi- 

 ness, met from his father this memorable re- 

 buke, '' My son, don't sell your birth-right to 

 heaven for a paltry dollar !" 



Frank. — Now I wonder if ever 1 shall be 

 rich enough to be very generous ! 



Father. — Oh ! my boy, don't stay till you 

 are rich before you are generous ; a gene- 

 rous disposition is worth all the riches in the 

 world, for it will find the means o? gratifyinff 

 its propensities, as all other dispositions will. 

 We have known many men who all their 

 lives were accumulating riches for the pur- 

 pose of endowing some magnificent charity 

 at their death : such men have been justly 

 charged with holding on to their wealth as 

 long as they could, and then bestowing it, 

 after it was no longer in their power to keep 

 it, in a way to perpetuate their own memory 

 — selfish to the end ! While others there 

 are, some of whom, blessed be God ! are still 

 living amongst us, whose meat and drink it 

 has been through life, to " go about, doing 

 good :" who 



" Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame !" 



Never let the difference in their dispositions 

 be forgotten, or the very different reception 

 that awaits them at that bar of account which 

 we are taught to believe awaits us all in 

 another world. Only just fancy one of these 

 eelf-lovin? charitable characters approaching 

 it, after death, when the question might be 

 a«ked, " what name V Answer, " A. B." 

 " We have no entries on the credit side 

 against that name," " Oh ! but I have be- 



queathed two hundred thousand dollars for 

 charitable purposes." " Well, then, you must 

 wait untd we see how these charities are 

 managed, and you will be held accountable 

 for alf the misuse that is made of your wealth ; 

 while fifty per cent will be deducted from 

 the good that is done by it, as belonging to 

 those who have the labor of seeing your be- 

 stowment properly appropriated — so you must 

 wait, and be held accountable. You ought 

 to have managed yourself the talents com- 

 mitted to your trust, and been generous and 

 benevolent during your life, laying up trea- 

 sures in heaven, and not upon the earth : but 

 you are not the only one who has mistaken 

 charitable endowments after death for gene- 

 rosity and benevolence." 



Now compare this reception with that 

 which awaits him whose life has been one 

 continued series of generous and beneficent 

 actions, and to whose ancestor we are in- 

 debted even for the pleasant shade of our 

 streets — who has literally "gone about doing 

 good," until the body is all but sublimed, but 

 whose soul, like the setting sun, seems larger 

 as it declines! And that blessed Saint, 

 whose noble nature has placed her in the 

 first rank of society, and to whom the daugh- 

 ters, once of affluence, raise their streaming 

 eyes, in acknowledgment of all the kind and 

 generous support extended to them in this, 

 the time of their altered estate ! Oh ! what 

 strains of joy will resound through the courts 

 above, when such spirits are welcomed with 

 the heavenly salutation, " Come, ye blessed 

 of my Father !" 



Frank. — Well, here are heavenly por- 

 traits ! but how indescribable the difference 

 between them and the endower of " a long 

 row of alms houses!" I will be generous 

 first, and then I will try to get rich, that I 

 might be able to indulge my propensities. 



Father. — Our conversation has taken a 

 singular turn, but it has been occasioned, I 

 suppose, by the mild and sweetening influ- 

 ence of the article lohich forms so targe a 

 portion of our compost heaps ! you see it has 

 leavened the whole lump ! We will close by 

 repeating those beautiful verses of Merrick's, 

 which are ever present in my thoughts. 



Blest, who with gen'roiis pity glows, 

 Whft learns to feel another's woes, 

 Bows to the poor man's wants his ear. 

 And wipes the helpless orphan's tear I 



In ev'ry want, in ev'ry woe. 

 Himself thy pity, Lord, shall know; 

 Thy love his life shall guard, thy hand 

 Give to his lot the chosen land. 



When languid with disease and pain, 

 Thou, lK)rd, his spirit will sustain ; 

 Prop with thine arm his sinking head. 

 And turn with tend'rest car? bis bed. I 



