428 [Assembly 



with their hogs, " cheek by jowl!" Yet riches foster appetites and 

 passions still more hostile to virtue and religion; hence it was aver- 

 red by the Maker and Savior of men, that " it is easier for a camel 

 to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom 

 of God." Extremes meet — therefore I have made some of the fore- 

 going observations, to show that every gradation in the circumstances 

 of an individual or a family, from abject poverty to " a happy 

 mediocrity," defined exactly in Agur's prayer, " Neither poverty nor 

 riches," (which even the insensate infidel Tom Paine, had not the 

 moral hardihood to deny as replete with true wisdom,) will have a 

 good influence on their m-orals, but not beyond that point. 



I have further to say in relation to this question, that though I 

 have not the shadow of a doubt resting on ray mind, as to the de- 

 teriorating moral effect of a large family embracing both sexes and 

 all ages, being pent up in one apartment, where all things must be 

 done in common, yet I have no striking facts as an illustration in 

 proof to give, but have a distinct impression that where I have met 

 with families so circumstanceil, or among the abject poor, their moral 

 sensibilities in some respects were very obtuse, and in nothing that 

 I recollect more often manifested than the shameful nudities of chil- 

 dren. 



In regard to your second question, " Have you found physical dis- 

 tress to present a bar to your moral and religious instructions, and 

 do you think their relief from bodily ailments would enable you to 

 be of greater service to the poor in your calling?" I answer, that 

 1 have often found persons and families, in such circumstances of 

 distress, from want of food and raiment, or by excruciating bodily 

 pain, 1 thought it would be preposterous and vain to say much to 

 them on the subject of religion, until their minds and bodies were 

 somewhat relieved and disenthralled from the absorbing power of 

 want and pain by physical appliances. And always under such cir- 

 cumstances, I have gone to work to procure food and clothing, or a 

 physician and medicine, to prepare the way for moral and religious 

 culture. And happy should I be if the facility for ministering to the 

 poor and suffering were many fold in.Teasecl, as it regards giving 

 the -worthy poor both food and physic; thereby increasing our pros- 

 pect of being useful to them in religious matters. And I rejoice in 

 the society recently organised in this city, by a truly intelligent and 

 philanthropic class of our wealthy citizens, for " the improvement of 

 the condition of the poor," who have already prepared the way for 

 he Tract Missionary- to exert the happiest influence on hundreds of 

 families. 



