on the contrary, those which have traversed plains and countries, exposed to the day, carry there, in general, only muddy waters, and drag along with them the wrecks, carcasses, and slime which they have amassed in their course. Behold, then, the first rule of charity which our Saviour here lays down — to shun show and ostentation in all works of compassion — to be unwilling to have your name mentioned in them, either on account of the rank which you may here hold, or from the glory of having been the first promoter, or from the noise which they may make in the world, and not to lose upon the earth that which charity had amassed only for heaven.
The second circumstance which I remark in our gospel, is, that no one, of all the multitude who present themselves to Jesus Christ, is rejected: all are indiscriminately relieved; and we do not read that with regard to them our Saviour hath used any distinction or preference. Second rule: charity is universal; it banishes those capricious liberalities which seem to open the heart to certain wants, only in order to shut it against all others. You find persons in the world, who, under the pretext of having stated charities and places destined to receive them, are callous to all other wants. In vain would you inform them that a family is on the brink of ruin, and that a very small assistance would extricate it; that a young person hangs over a precipice, and must necessarily perish, if some friendly and assisting hand be not held out; that a certain meritorious and useful establishment must fall, if not supported by a renewal of charity; these are not necessities after their taste; and, in placing elsewhere some trifling bounties, they imagine to have purchased the right of viewing with a dry eye and an indifferent heart every other description of misery.
I know that charity hath its order and its measure; that in its practice it ought to use a proper distinction; that justice requires a preference to certain wants: but I would not have that methodical charity (if I may thus speak) which to a point knows where to stop, — which has its days, its places, its persons, and its limits, — which, beyond these, is cruel, and can settle with itself to be affected only in certain times and by certain wants. Ah! are we thus masters of our hearts when we truly love our brethren? Can we at our will mark out to ourselves the moments of warmth and indifference? Charity, that holy love, is it so regular when it truly inflames the heart? Has it not, if I may so say, its transports and its excesses? And do not occasions sometimes occur so truly affecting, that, did but a single spark of charity exist in your heart, it would show itself, and in the instant would open your bowels of compassion and your riches to your brethren.
I would not have that rigidly circumspect charity which is never done with its scrutiny, and which always mistrusts the truth of the necessities laid open to it. See if, in that multitude which our Saviour filleth, he apply himself to separate those whom idleness or the sole hope of corporeal nourishment had perhaps attracted to the desert, and who might still have sufficient strength left to go
