THE PROBLEM OF PAUPERISM 



171 



tion of the pauper and lowest classes, all efforts 

 must fail unless they succeed in awakening their 

 consciousness of responsibility and consequent 

 ability. This fact gives dignity and importance 

 to personal appeals which have no other object 

 than the reinforcing of weak wills. To accomplish 

 this supreme result no force is more potent than 

 friendship, and the efforts of those who in public 

 and private, but always in a spirit of love, impress 

 upon the weak the fact that they possess responsi- 

 bility, and that others are interested in them and 

 waiting in right ways to help. 



At the close of this discussion I record my con- 

 viction that no permanent work for humanity will 

 ever be accomplished without heeding the follow- 

 ing fundamental Christian truth. 



All men — paupers, thieves, murderers — are 

 children of God, and therefore worth saving ; they 

 are destined for an endless existence, and therefore 

 the most heroic and self-sacrificing effort in their 

 behalf becomes a privilege and an honour. 



Finally, efforts for the amelioration of human- 

 ity require time for successful result. The bale- 

 ful effects of evil inheritance — which are like 

 streams running through many generations — are 

 not easily overcome. In character, as in disease, 

 more than one generation is needed to eradicate 



