[2] Proverbs xxviii. 22.
[3] Deuteronomy xv. 7-10.
[4] 1 Timothy vi. 18.
[5] The Board of Visitors of the Poor, as established in this city, is one of the most practically useful institutions which the modern spirit of enlightened charity has devised. Its object is not merely to search out the sick and needy and to relieve them, but also to investigate the claims of any applicants for charity that may be recommended to it, and thus to prevent impositions as far as practicable. Every family that has not time to disburse its charities under the superintendence of its own members, should be in communication with this Board. Measures are now in progress to organize a system, which shall render this Institution more effective even than it has yet been, in accomplishing the important purposes for which it was established. When completed, public notice will be given. Let every benevolent individual in our community then come forward and give this system his countenance and pecuniary support; and let all resolve by a united effort to do away the baleful influence of a tolerated pauperism, by detecting and discountenancing every vicious and unworthy applicant for charity, and by industriously searching out and promptly relieving every real and deserving object of distress.
[6] Proverbs xxix. 7.
[7] The custom recommended by St. Paul to the Galatians and Corinthians, as we learn from 1 Corinthians xvi. 1, 2. has recently been brought into prominent notice, and begins to be practiced in the Episcopal Church, especially as applicable to the cause of missions. Why should it not be adopted in all Christian families, and thus let the principle—the sound and effective principle—of systematic charity be extensively established amongst us.
[8] Dr. Chalmers.
[9] Proverbs, xi. 17.
[10] Same, xix. 17.
[11] Isaiah, lviii. 10, 11.