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let them not grudge to bestow some part of their wealth on the poor- —they t > estow it on these , to whom , under God , they owe the whole . For what , I beseech you , is the nature of society ? Is it composed only of the noble and opulent ? Did you ever hear or read of one that was so composed ? Such a . society could not subsist for a week .
As the members of it would not work , they could not eat . Of what value were vour-estates in the country , if the poor did not cultivate them ? Of what account the riches of the nobleman or the gentleman , if they must want the comforts , and even the necessaries of life ? " The kins : himself is served bv
the field , " and , without the labours of the husbandman must starve iu his palace . The world depends for subsistence on the plough , the sickle and the flail . To what purpose warehouses of merchandise in the city ? Who but the poor will submit to the drudgery of exporting our own commodities , and importing others in return ? Nay , by whom but the poor could they be prepared either for consumption at home , or exportation
abroad ; could they he manufactured from the first to last ; could they be "brought and lodged in the warehouses of the merchant ; could such warehouses be built and fitted to receive
them ? Mankind , in short , constitute one vast body , to the support of which every member contributes his share And by all of them together , as by so
many greater and lesser wheels in a machine , the business of the public is harried on , its necessities are served , and its very existence is upholden . In this body , we may truly say , that the lowest and least honourable members
fire as necessary as any others . Indeed , t hey have in one sense a more abundant honour ; for though the head be , without all doubt , a more noble part than either the feet or the hands , yet -what would soon be the fate of the
best head in the world if these its servants should cease to minister to it ? The ridi , therefore , cannot live alone ' without the poor ; and they never support the poor but the poor have first
supported them . And should they be permitted to perish by whom we all J 8 ve > Forbid it prudence and gratitude , as well as philosophy and reli-Hen « e it appears that the inequality
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of mankind is not the effect of chance but the ordinance of heaven , by whose appointment seme must command while others obey j some must labour while others direct ; some must he
rich while others are poor . For the common good , however , the rich must , in various ways , help the poor , and to those who are unwilling to do it , it may be justly observed ,
" It might have pleased God that you should have been poor—but this is not all- ^—it may please him that you shall be so : and hard would you esteem it , in such a case , not then to
experience the benevolence you are now invited to display . " Rules to enable Persons to he kind to the Poor . Let every person lay aside a certain proportion of his income for charitable purposes 3 and let it be ever after sacred to those uses . A bank of this
kind would enable a man to answer bills of considerable amount at first sight , which otherwise not being able to do , or at least not without great inconvenience , many opportunities of
succouring the distressed must needs be lost . The money being once appropriated , he feels not the loss , nor grudges the payment when demanded . Thus is he always giving , and has always something to give .
Practise economy with a view to charity—though in the present state of society , it be not necessary that the opulent should sell their possessions , and divide their produce among the indigent , or that persons of all ranks and conditions should live in the . same
style 3 yet , surely , no one can survey the world , as it goes now among us , without being of opinion that something ( and that very far from inconsiderable ) something , I say , might be retrenched from the expenses of building * somet ) hinff from those of furniture , somtthing from those of dress , something
from those of the table , something from those of diversions and amusements , public and private , for the relief of those who have neither a cottage to inhabit , garments to cover them , bread to eat , medicine to heal them , nor any one circumstance in life to lig hten their load of misery , or cheer their sorrowful souls , in the day of calamity and affliction . 1 Of the poor , some are both able » n * willing to work . When these **
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544 Bishop Home's Rules f 4 enable Persons to be kind to the Poor .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1815, page 544, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1764/page/12/
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