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BIANCA MILES! MOJON. 89
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
About This Time Madame Mojon Lost Her Mo...
wisdom so inspired and controlled by the divine spirit of love , that many of usperplexed by this problemmay come and learn of him .
_" This question , of charity and almsgiving , , " he replies , "does indeed torment us . When we look at the misery that existswe feel an
, incapacity to remedy it ; we feel that we have but a drop of water to offer to a man dying of thirst ; that were we even to give all we
possess , and reduce ourselves to the condition of those whom we assistwe should not even then have put an end to the sufferings
of others , , which pursue us like remorse , and yet we should have committed an injustice towards ourselves and our children—we
should even have been helping to disorganize society . A line must therefore be drawn between what we owe to others , and what
we owe to ourselves . But who has a right to say , Here is the line ? What human authority can satisfy the conscience ? The most
positive result of my often painful reflections on this subject is , a great distrust of theoriesa great dislike of all absolute rules , a great
fear lest science , assuming , ' to regulate charity , should dry up the heart . How often are we told that individual almsgiving trusts all
to chance—that it may be bestowed on the unworthy , that it encourages idleness . This is all trueand yethow priceless is the
double movement of the heart in him , who give , s , and in him who receives ! If we transfer to hospitals and other charitable institutions
the giving of our alms , we sacrifice both the happiness of beneficence and of gratitude , and that sweet contentment that springs from
the daily charities essential to maintain the soul ' s good -habits . Moreover charity loses its character when it becomes a mere matter
of business ; it is then hard and distrustful . The heads of public institutions feel themselves called on to guard the gifts of the
benevolent against the frauds of the poor . " Even the distinction made between the deserving and the
undefallen serving in often vice to alarm die of s starvation me . What ? We ! shall sometimes we condemn hear all all almsg who iving have
condemned . Beggary is spoken of as a cancer eating into the heart of society , produced by the recklessness of the benevolent . It is
proved to us , by calculation , that the beggar earns more by holding out his handand deceiving usthan the industrious man by the most
assiduous labor , . We are reproached , with giving a premium to idleness and ling . It is all true . But the converse is as true ; those
who say true y charity is to make men work , encourage our sad tendency to refer everything to ourselves . They increase the very
evil from which society is suffering—the multiplying productions for which "We there oug are ht to no emp buyers loy . every faculty we j _^ ossess to introduce a
state of things which should distribute the goods of this world more equallyand thereby diminish suffering . But we must confess
that we , cannot place the world on a new pivot ; that it is in vain for us to attempt to assume the place of Providence . We must
distrust our reasonings and our systems ; and admitting that we do
vox . vii . h
Bianca Miles! Mojon. 89
BIANCA MILES ! MOJON . 89
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1861, page 89, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041861/page/17/
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