PLAIN HINTS TO AN OVERSEER OR

GUARDIAN OF THE POOR.

You have to do with the poor. Happy are you if you exercise your office in a Christian spirit, if love the poor, you if you listen patiently to their wants, if you are indeed an overseer or guardian, one acting as their friend, wishing to relieve real want, wherever it is to be found, and solemnly taking charge of them as one who has to give account.

Of course if you listen to the world, the world will tell you to look down upon the poor, not to listen compassionately to their complaints, but to push them off if you can, to treat them as if they were the worthless dregs of mankind, to be slighted and set at nought, and, as far as possible, to be kept from having aid that the rates may be low. Prudent and frugal management of the rates is doubtless greatly to be desired; as our Lord Himself, by bidding the fragments of the loaves to be gathered up that nothing might be lost, has urged His disciples

not to be wasteful of any thing they have. And further still, it is desirable to draw lines between the worthless and the deserving poor, not to be imposed upon by idlers, to search into real claims for relief that false claims may be exposed, and not to fritter away public funds. But the world would bid us to look upon all the poor alike, that is, to look on all with cold eyes and hard hearts, to grudge them any help, and to grind them down in any relief that we may be forced by the law to give. The world, in short, has no pity for the poor, and hence we so often hear worldly men speaking to them harshly and contemptuously, without entering into their feelings or their wants.

And yet, only consider with what wonderful love, with what wonderful tenderness our Blessed Saviour always speaks of the poor, how earnestly He commends them to the care of the rich, what blessings He promises to all those who shall succour them in time of need, who shall pity them and treat them tenderly, who shall be kind and considerate. Nay, so anxious is He to secure love and compassion to the poor, that He tells us He will regard every act of kindness done to them even as an act done to Himself.

"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one

of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." Over and over again, from one end of Scripture to the other, God speaks most tenderly, most lovingly to the poor; over and over again, from one end of Scripture to the other, He promises His blessing, His favour, His love, to all who shew mercy to the poor, and have pity on the needy and the distressed.

And is not the Bible to be your guide? As a member of Christ's Church, as a part of the body of Christ, should you not have brotherly feeling for the poorer members of His body, for are not they your brethren through Christ? Has not your Saviour died for them as much as for you? Does He not at this very time look down upon them from heaven with equal love? Does He not say Himself that He is no respecter of persons, that the poor are as precious in His sight as the rich? Will not many a Lazarus be lifted up into heaven and sit in the higher places of Christ's glorious kingdom, though they were last on earth, and died in workhouses? Was not our Saviour Himself poor, homeless, hungry and athirst, while He was on earth ?

Think of these things. Your own salvation depends to some extent on your treatment of the poor; and as your office calls you to deal with

them, deal with them as if they were your own flesh and blood; nay, deal with them as you would deal with Christ Himself. Be not harsh to them; do not despise them, nor look down upon them. Even if your duty prevents you relieving some who come to you, or makes you give them less than they seek to get, you can at least give them kind words; you can at least speak gently. This you owe them for Christ's sake. Blessed are they who have poor men's blessings; "blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Woe be to the hardhearted, the unfeeling, the stern, the proud, the unpitiful. Choose between these two, the blessing and the woe. It is now within your power to shew a true Christian spirit by being a humane guardian, a kindly overseer of the poor, by leaning to the kinder side, by speaking kindly words, by dealing with them in a kind way, kind spirit. May God be with you and help you in your office; may His Holy Spirit at all times soften your heart, that at the day of judgment you may be found to have executed your office as a disciple of Christ and not as a disciple of the world.

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THE HOLY ANGELS.

In those wonderful acts of love by which the redemption of the world was wrought, we find our Saviour making continual use of the services of angels. As if to bring the whole of heaven near to man, and as if to make man conscious of the love of all that dwell in heaven, at every step of His most merciful and blessed work, He employed His angels. As He Himself, to use His own words, was amongst us "as one that serveth," so these holy spirits came, "not to be ministered unto, but to minister." Thus by an angel was the conception of Christ announced; by an angel His birth was told to the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night; angels appeared unto Him after His temptation in the wilderness, ministering to Him. An angel came to Him in His agony in the garden to strengthen Him; twelve legions of angels were ready to deliver Him in the hour of His betrayal, though He would not speak the word to bring