without pity or remorse. We see here among the heathen, at times, the utter absence of sensibility or feeling for those, even relations or parents or children, who are suffering pain and agony, or who are sick unto death. Even in that religion of which Christianity is an offshoot, the religion of the Jews, although mercy and kindness are marked peculiarities, still we discover no special provisions for the sick; no regulations for gathering them into lazar-houses and receptacles. Indeed, the history of mankind shows that there is no natural tendency to humane and charitable deeds. The human heart, of itself, never originates efforts and institutions of the kind we are originating this day. It is not of man to assuage suffering, to heal the sick, to save the miserable. It was left to the sublime and humane spirit of Christianity to start such works of mercy and such works of love. Jesus had to come into the world, and since His advent the poor, the maimed, the wretched, the blind, and the deaf have been cared for. Wherever His holy religion has been established, there hospitals, almshouses, and reformatory institutions have sprung up all over Christendom; and the woes, and agonies, and wails of poor distressed humanity have been cared for. We claim, as we have the right to claim, that this is the work of our Lord. No matter what may be the agencies used in the conversion of men, or who may have been the ministers or teachers who led them to Christ, we deny the glory to these agents; we claim that Jesus worked their spiritual restoration. So, in like manner with regard to all eleemosynary works and houses, though we recognize the zeal of
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of st. mark's hospital.
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