soul-destroying trinity of Vice, Ignorance, and Poverty, above
mentioned, are desolating the world in their very sight. There are
possessors of personal virtue, enlightenment, and wealth, who dare
stand neutral with regard to these dire exigencies among their fellows.
And yet they are the logical helpers, as holders of the special
antidote to each of those banes! Infinitely more deserving of
execration are such folk than the callous owner of some specific, who
allows a suffering neighbour to perish for want of it.

We who believe in the ultimate development of the Christian notion of
duty towards God, as manifested in untiring beneficence to man, cling
to this faith--starting from the [223] beginning of the New Testament
dispensation--because Saul of Tarsus, transformed into Paul the Apostle
through his whole-souled acceptance of this very creed with its
practical responsibilities, has, in his ardent, indefatigable labours
for the enlightenment and elevation of his fellows, left us a lesson
which is an enduring inspiration; because Augustine, Bishop of Hippo,
benefited, in a manner which has borne, and ever will bear, priceless
fruit, enormous sections of the human family, after his definite
submission to the benign yoke of the same old creed; because Vincent de
Paul has, through the identical inspiration, endowed the world with his
everlasting legacy of organized beneficence; because it impelled
Francis Xavier with yearning heart and eager footsteps through
thousands of miles of peril, to proclaim to the darkling millions of
India what he had experienced to be tidings of great joy to himself;
because Matthew Hale, a lawyer, and of first prominence in a pursuit
which materializes the mind and nips its native candour and tenderness,
escaped unblighted, through the saving influence of his faith,
approving himself in the sight of all [224] an ideal judge, even
according to the highest conception; because John Howard, opulent and
free to enjoy his opulence and repose, was drawn thereby throughout the
whole continent of Europe in quest of the hidden miseries that torture
those whom the law has shut out, in dungeons, from the light and
sympathy of the world; because Thomas Clarkson, animated by the spirit
of its teachings, consecrated wealth, luxury, and the quiet of an
entire lifetime on the altar of voluntary sacrifice for the salvation
of an alien people; because Samuel Johnson, shut out from mirthfulness
by disease and