ake the hint. They interpret our
harsh tones and our cold looks, and they look to us for help no more.
But in pushing these poor ones beyond our reach, we unconsciously
acquire hard, unsympathetic ways of thinking, feeling, speaking and
acting, which others not so poor, others whom we would gladly have near
us, also interpret; and they too come to understand that there is no
real kindness and helpfulness to be had from us in time of real need,
and they keep their inmost selves apart, and suffer us to touch them
only on the surface of their lives. When trouble comes to us we
instinctively feel that we have no claim on the sympathy of others; and
so we have to bear our griefs alone. Having never suffered with others,
sorrow is a stranger to us, and we think we are the most miserable
creatures in the world.

Humanity is one. Action and reaction are equal. Our treatment of the
poorest of our fellows is potentially our treatment of them all. And by
a subtle law of compensation, which runs deeper than our own
consciousness, what our attitude is toward our fellows determines their
attitude toward us. "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of
these my brethren," says the Representative of our common humanity, "ye
did it not unto me."

CHAPTER XVI.

Wrongdoers.

Another class of our fellow-men whom it is especially hard to love are
those who willfully do wrong. The men who cheat us, and say hateful
things to us; the men who abuse their wives and neglect their families;
the men who grind the faces of the poor, and contrive to live in ease
and luxury on the earnings of the widow and the orphan; the men who
pervert justice and corrupt legislation in order to make money; these
and all wrongdoers exasperate us, and rouse our righteous indignation.
Yet they are our fellow-men. We meet them everywhere. We suffer for
their misdeeds;--and, what is worse, we have to see others, weaker and
more helpless than ourselves, maltreated, plundered, and beaten by these
wretches and villains. Wrongdoing is a great, hard, terrible fact. We
must face it. We must have some clear and consistent principles of
action with reference to these wrongdoers; or else our wrath and
indignation will betray us into the futile attempt to right one wrong by
another wrong; and so drag us down to the level of the wrongdoers
against whom we contend.

THE DUTY.

+The first thing we owe to the wrongdoer is to give him his just
deserts. Wrongdoi