the abundant alms provided in the belief of the permanence of
poverty and the duty of giving to all who ask. As to administration in
the early church (Acts vi. 3), we find seven deacons, the number of
the local Jewish council; and later there were in Rome seven
ecclesiastical relief districts, each in charge of a deacon. The
deacon acted as the minister of the bishop (_Ep._ Clem, to Jam. xii.),
reporting to him and giving as he dictated (_Ap. Con._ ii. 30, 31). He
at first combined disciplinary powers with charitable. The presbyters
also (Polycarp, _Ad Phil._ 6, A.D. 69-155), forming (Hatch, p. 69) a
kind of bishop's council, visited the sick, &c. The bishop was
president and treasurer. The bishop was thus the trustee of the poor.
By reason of the churches' care of orphans, responsibilities of
trusteeship also devolved on him. The temples were in pagan times
depositories of money. Probably the churches were also.

3. Great stress is laid by the Jews on the duty of gentleness to the
poor (Maim. x. 5). The woman was to have first attention (Maim. vi. 13).
If the applicant was hungry he was to be fed, and then examined to learn
whether he was a deceiver (Maim. vii. 6). Assistance was to be given
according to the want--clothes, household things, a wife or a
husband--and according to the poor man's station in life. For widows and
orphans the "gleanings" were left. Both are the recognized objects of
charity (Maim. x. 16,17). "The poor and the orphan were to be employed
in domestic affairs in preference to servants." The dower was a constant
form of help. The ransoming of slaves took precedence of relief to the
poor. The highest degree of alms-deed (Maim. x. 7) was "to yield support
to him who is cast down, either by means of gifts, or by loan, or by
commerce, or by procuring for him traffic with others. Thus his hand
becometh strengthened, exempt from the necessity of soliciting succour
from any created being."

If we compare the Christian methods we find but slight difference. The
absoluteness of "Give to him that asketh" is in the _Didache_ checked by
the "Woe to him that receives: for if any receives having need, he shall
be guiltless, but he that has no need shall give account, ... and coming
into distress ... he shall not come out thence till he hath paid the
last farthing." It is the duty of the bishop to know who is most worthy
of assistance (_Ap. Con._ ii. 3, 4); and "if any one is in want b