The institution of this order at least makes plain one fact: that numbers of poor can be well supported from the waste of the rich. It ought also to put to silence those who scoff at the idea of an overruling Providence—the living God rather, who cares for the raven and the sparrow, and is constantly working miracles under our eyes, whereby the hungry are fed and the naked clothed.
Madame Guizot de Witt, a-Protestant lady, says: "Every time I visit one of the houses of the 'Little Sisters,' and see their bands of old people—aged children, so neatly dressed, so well taken care of, occupied and amused in every way that age or weakness allow, I seem to hear the voice which says, 'Go, and do thou likewise.'"
This band of noble workers is coming among us, to gather the abundance that falls from our tables, often wasted, or thrown to dumb beasts, while souls made in the image of God look on with hungry eyes.
How shall we greet these servants of God? If we receive the "Little Sister" kindly, giving of our plenty when she asks, she will thank God; if we turn away with cold questioning, she still thanks God that she may bear trial for his sake.
To the thrifty American mind, this scheme of beggary will, no doubt, appear to some as a nuisance, and call for the interference of the laws against begging; but there are others whom the hand of God has touched; these will welcome to the freedom of our land a band of sisters whose charity beareth all things, endureth all things, and hopeth all things. But however we receive them, they will still go on, and if they are turned away from one town or city by the iron hand, they will bring a blessing upon another, both now and in that day when the Judge shall say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye covered me: … for as long as ye did it to one of my least brethren, ye did it to me."
List Of The Houses Founded By The Little Sisters Of The Poor.
In France.—
The novitiate at Latour;
St. Joseph, near Becherel, (Ile et Vilaine;)
Rennes;
St. Servan;
Dinan;
Tours;
Nantes;
Paris, Rue St. Jacques near the Val de Grace;
Besançon;
Angers;
Bordeaux;
Rouen;
Nancy;
Paris, Avenue de Breteuil;
Laval;
Lyon, á la Vilette;
Lille;
Marseilles;
Bourges;
Pau;
Vannes;
Colmar;
La Rochelle;
Dijon;
St. Omer;
Brest;
Chartres;
Bolbec;
Paris, Rue Beccaria, Faubourg St. Antoine;
Toulouse;
St. Dizier;
Le Havre;
Blois;
Le Maus;
Tarare;
Paris, Rue Notre Dame des Champs;
Orleans;
Strasbourg;
Caen;
St. Etienne;
Perpignan;
Montpellier;
Agen;
Poitiers;
St. Quentin;
Lisieux;
Annonay;
Amiens;
Roanne;
Valenciennes;
Grenoble;
Draguignan;
Chateauroux;
Roubaix;
Boulogne;
Dieppe;
Beziers;
Clermont Ferrand;
Lyons, La Croix Rousse;
Metz;
Nice;
Lorient;
Nevers;
Flers;
Villefranche;
Cambrai;
Niort;
Paris, Rue Philippe Gerard;
Les Sables d'Olonne;
Troyes;
Maubeuge;
Nimes;
Toulon;
Tourcoing;
Cherbourg;
Valence;
Périgueux;
and one just now beginning in Dunkerque.
In Switzerland.—Genevra.
In Belgium.—
Bruxelles, Rue Haute;
Liege, at the Chartreuse;
Jemmapes, near Mons;
Louvain;
Antwerp;
Bruges;
Ostende;
Namur.
In Spain.—
Barcelona;
Maureza;
Granada;
Lerida;
Lorca;
Malaga;
Antequera;
Madrid, Calle della Hortaletza;
Jaen;
Reuss;
two more are preparing in Valence and Andalusia.
In England, Ireland, and Scotland.—
London, (Southwark,) South Lambeth Road;
London, (Bayswater,) Portobello Lane;
Manchester, Plymouth Grove;
Bristol, Park Row;
Birmingham, Cambridge Street Crescent;
Leeds, Hanover Square;
Newcastle-on-Tyne, Clayton Street;
Plymouth, St. Mary's;
Waterford;
Edinburgh, Gilmore Place;
Glasgow, Garngad Hill;
Lochee, near Dundee;
a new foundation beginning in Tipperary.
In the United States.—
No house exists as yet, but the "Little Sisters of the Poor" are preparing three foundations which are to take place very soon, one in Brooklyn, De Kalb Avenue; a second one in New Orleans, in the buildings occupied by the Widows' Home; the third one in Baltimore, with the charge, too, of the Widows' Home; besides these, several other foundations are contemplated in the course of the next and of following year.
Religion Medically Considered.
By the term "religion," we mean that divine code mercifully revealed by God to mankind, in the old and new dispensations, as their rule of faith and practice. Its precepts have reference both to the corporal and spiritual, the temporal and eternal welfare of men. Religion, it is true, in its higher sphere, addresses itself to the soul. It embraces the affections, emotions, and sentiments of our spiritual nature, and its direction is always toward the infinite fountain of love and wisdom. Yet its scope, while for eternity, is for time also. When God first revealed himself to Moses, the Israelites were fast relapsing into heathenism, with, its pernicious and degrading habits of life. Under the divine inspiration, however, the prophet imbued them anew with faith in the true God, and presented them at the same time with an admirable code of practical life. He taught them to love and fear God, to obey his commandments, to live soberly and uprightly in themselves, and to practise justice and love toward each other. He continually placed before them the divine promises of not only eternal but also temporal rewards for obedience, and, in like manner, the threatened penalties of disobedience. Viewed even as practical rules of living for earthly life alone, his are models of excellence. No man has ever done more toward retaining that tabernacle of the human soul, the earthly body, in a pure and healthy condition than this great lawgiver. Contrast the precepts given by God through him to the Israelites after he had brought them out of the land of Egypt, with those of the Egyptians, of the Canaanites, and other heathen nations of the period. How wise and elevating are the tendencies of the one! What injustice, inhumanity, and degradation mark the other! On the one hand, love supreme to God and to one's neighbor as one's self, joined with forbearance, justice, truthfulness, honesty, chastity, temperance, cleanliness even, and rigid adherence to what would now be termed sound sanitary principles; while on the heathen side, what may be comprised in three words—selfishness, sensuality, and force. The fruits of obedience to the former were, even here, comparative immunity from disease and its sufferings, with enhanced material prosperity and happiness, and with increased longevity; while to the other there came the legitimate penalties of inordinate self-indulgence, of selfishness and evil-living; the fruits of the laws of life which heathenism gave to them.
It is hence that we claim for religion—for the religious precepts revealed to man by the divinely inspired prophets of the old dispensation, that they contributed vastly to the physical and temporal well-being of the race. The God of nature required that there should be no violation of the laws of nature; that our organs and faculties, designed for legitimate uses, should not be subjected to abuse and perversion. Hence temperance and moderation, and a rigid avoidance of whatever tended to a violation of the natural laws of health, were enjoined upon man as duties of religious obligation. That the mortal body might be and remain a fit enclosure of the immortal soul, the inspired teachings of the old law descended to the minutest details of the laws of health and life. This, indeed, constituted the less exalted sphere of religion, yet one of prime importance, so far as the well-being and happiness of earthly life was concerned.