360 
they hardly bore fruit till nearly the middle of the nineteenth ? 
Study the condition of the workhouse poor as depicted in 
Crabbe’s poems,* and compare his stern and almost hopeless 
tone of indignation with the state of things in the present day, 
when, if a pauper be deprived of his daily allowance, or is 
huddled with indecency to his grave, all England rings with 
it, and an immediate reform is imperatively demanded, f W e 
remarked on the care of the sick and dying displayed in early 
ages but what was that compared to our organizations tor 
their care in these days, when not only the utmost attention, 
the tenderest consideration is shown them, but every appliance 
for their comfort is provided, and that by the voluntary ofter- 
in^s of Christian people ? Look, again, at our arrangements 
for the relief of the poor. Not only are our workhouses— 
there were no workhouses, remember, in heathen times 
abodes of comfort and almost of luxury compared to what they 
were, but every parish has its district visiting society, which 
strives to supplement by voluntary offerings and voluntary 
efforts the provision made for the relief of the poor by the 
State. So far has this beeu carried that the complaint of the 
indifferentist has even taken the form, that Christian charity 
violates the laws of political economy by removing the punish- 
ment by which the order of nature herself is wont to punish 
extravagance or idleness. The country is studded, again, with 
reformatories, refuges, lunatic asylums, orphanages, and in- 
numerable other institutions for the temporal, moral, spiritual 
well-being of the people. Even our political system is domi- 
nated by the principle enunciated by Christ — “ Love thy 
neighbour as thyself.” Whatever some may think of the 
tendency of legislation in the present day, of Reform Bills and 
enable every man to gain bis own livelihood, and so be preserved from the 
fatal necessity of stealing.” “ If by the Mosaic law, though it was stern and 
severe, men were only fined, we cannot imagine that in this new law of mercy, 
in which God treats us with the tenderness of a father, He lias given us 
greater liberty to be cruel than He did to the Jews.” Sir T. More s practice, 
like that of many other Christians, was far below the standard set up in the 
“ law of mercy,” which in his conscience he believed to be the law of God. 
* Crabbe, The Poor and Their Dwellings; The Parish Workhouse, &c. _ 
+ As an instance of this, I may remark on the complaint of “ Veta” in 
the Times, during the month of October, 187G, and the care taken in investi- 
gating and refuting it by the Secretary of the Charity Organization Society. 
The assailants of Christianity would find it difficult to produce a parallel to 
this state of things in a non-Christian country. The Times of November 24th 
gave an additional column and a half to “ Veta,” on no other ground but that 
he was poor and friendless, and was bringing a charge against an organization 
established for the relief of the poor and friendless. 
