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of supplying the wants of those who , if they were but truly virtuous , might support themselves and their families by their own industry . And full well , indeed , do I know how manifold are the evils of an indiscriminate charity . But is a Minister less able than are others to detect the pretensions of hypocrisy ? I appeal to common sense , whether an experienced Giver , if in other respects his judgment may be trusted , will not probabl y be the best Giver ; and whether any one can have better advantages for a knowledge of the actual characters , capabilities , and necessities of the poor , than one who ,
allowing him to be an ordinarily sensible and practical man , is constantly visiting in their families , hearing their reports of one another , and is never willingly absent from any , longer than ten days or a fortnight ? It is known to many of the Poor whom I visit that I act as the Almoner of some of my friends . But it is quite as well known to them that I will not , in any way , minister to their vices . I must , indeed , in this office , either impoverish myself , or have my poor 8 purse supplied by others ; for I cannot daily ; and from morning till night , be passing from one to another of the abodes of sickness and want , and witness distress which it would be cruel not to
endeavour to relieve , and pray with and for these suffering families , and leave with them nothing but my advice and exhortations and prayers . I cannot say to virtuous ana industrious Widows , whose whole earnings of the week will barely pay their rent , and who sometimes cannot obtain the employment l > y which they may earn a shilling , but who yet have children who look to them for bread ; or to the aged poor ; or to the feeble and sick poor , who are but partially covered from the cold , and who are without fuel and without food , — Be ye warmed , and fed , and clothed , ' while I give them none of those thing's that are needful for the body .
" / would , therefore ' , propose , that the Minister at large be the Almoner of those who cannot themselves visit the poor ; and that he shall always hold himself accountable for the disbursements of his poor ' s purse to those who shall contribute to the supply of it . He who has not a judgment and caution that can be trusted in this work , is not qualified for the office of a Minister to the poor . If a man is so easily to be deceived that he is not to be trusted with the bestowment of alms , is he fitted , I would ask , to be a spiritual guide ?
" But it is not alone by alms-giving that he is to seek the immediate and the temporal good of those to whom he ministers . He is to be to the poor , emphatically , and in all things , a Christian friend . And innumerable are the cases in which his advice and personal assistance may do much to save them from the dependence on charity . I need not descend to examples . "—Pp .
11 — 15 . " Extract from a Letter received by the Foreign Secretary of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association , from Dr . Tuckerman , dated Boston , September \ Sth , 1830 . ' * I cannot tell you how much I was gratified by reading in the account which has come to us of the doings of your Association in Manchester , the
proposition to establish a permanent Ministry for the poor in the large towns in England . To this Ministry I look as the great agency by which , above all others , the moral redemption of Cities is to be accomplished . In all times *^ Cities have been the centres of the moral corruption of Countries , and they will continue so to be , till suitable moral means shall be employed for their purification : and what , I ask , is known of poverty and crime in cities , but
from the records of courts , and prisons , and alms-houses ? And what has all the knowledge thus obtained done to call forth any thing like the sympathy which our religion would excite in us for our poor and sinning fellow-beings ? What have been the moral results even of your parliamentary investigations of these great subjects ? I find no preventive or remedial measure proposed by your Politicians and Statesmen , other than the question of encouraging emigration , and an improvement of the parochial police . ' You will pardon me , I know , when I say , that J am shocked at once by the levity with which
Untitled Article
City Missions . 319
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1831, page 319, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2597/page/31/
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