But if there be any rich persons in this congregation who hold
these peculiar economic doctrines, let me recommend to them, more than to
any other persons present, that they would support a society which
alleviates the hard pressure of their system; which helps to make it
tolerable and prudent by teaching the poor to save; by teaching them, in
London alone,--how to save ?54,000 in the last eleven years. Let them
help this society heartily.
The children of this world are--in their generation--wiser than the
children of light. But how long their generation will last, depends
mainly (we are told) on how far they make themselves friends out of the
mammon of unrighteousness.
But if, again, there be rich people in this congregation, as I trust
there are many and many, who start, indignant, at such an imputation, and
utterly deny its truth--then,--if it be false, why in the name of God,
and of humanity, and of common prudence, why do they not go to these
people and tell them so? Why do they not prove that it is not so, by
showing a little more human sympathy, not merely for them behind their
backs, but sympathy with them face to face? If they wish to know how
much can be done by only a little active kindness, they have only to read
the pages of that painful, and yet pleasant, book--"East and West,"--
which I have just quoted; and to read, also, an appendix to it--a Paper
originally read at the Church Congress, Manchester, by the present Lord
Chancellor--a document which it would be an impertinence in me to
recommend or praise.
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