ist by labour rather than by gifts of charity.
This is thought of by the reflecting patron, who knows full well how
benefits unearned weaken the moral powers. But there are many ways by
which the feeling of charity may be manifested without moral injury. A
son may be in chambers, and who can so well clean and arrange them, as
the nurse of his infancy? She may be intrusted with the care of an
office; or she may be recommended to friends, who have hitherto taken
labour from the labour market, at the lowest market price, and are just
beginning to perceive that the moral qualities manifested in a prudent
carriage, strict honesty, and taciturnity with respect to private
affairs, are valuable, and have yet to learn that they are not common,
and to be obtained must be paid for. The recommendation is well-timed.
And although this friend of the family may miss the moral points of the
matter, and would, if the patroness had not fixed her wages, by the
force of example, tell the widow how little she gave the other "person,"
and offer the same. The widow's eyes now sparkle. She has reason to be
grateful, and is not absolutely dependent. She is now in a fair way to
gain an honest livelihood. The parish has not once been thought of. Then
she may be a member of a religious body: which congregation is not a
question of moment. As a member of the Established Church she has many
advantages. Did you, reader, ever hear of a member of the Society of
Friends being an applicant for parochial relief? The question may be
repeated with respect to the Jews; not, however, with the expectation of
an universal negative; but, having regard to the precariousness of their
callings, the answer must be--_No!_ The widow is a Wesleyan methodist.
She is united with a religious body which includes within its pale many
of those who compose the middle--or rather the lower middle--and lower
classes of society. The members of it are closely cemented
together--spiritually and temporally. As a member of a "class meeting,"
her hopes and fears, her temptations, and trials, are known; not only to
the members of her own section, but to the minister, and the members of
the congregation. It may be true that the class system engenders
spiritual pride and hypocrisy: that is not in point. We are dealing with
facts. And it is a fact, and one which might be predicated from the
circumstances, that the frequent meeting together of persons in nearly
the same social position, to c