ART. III.-The Relation of the Church to the Poor.

GOD, in the dispensation of his grace, has been pleased to reveal himself as a most bountiful almsgiver to needy souls. All mankind are absolutely dependent upon his free bounty, to which they have no claim but their necessities; in his sight all men are alike "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked;" and his saving mercy must be received by the impoverished soul as a free gift, as an alms, or it cannot be received at all. Moreover, the great object for which the church of God was instituted, is to make him known to the world in this his true character, of a most bountiful almsgiver to needy souls, and his only begotten Son as the bread and the water of spiritual life, and the righteousness of Christ as the covering for spiritual nakedness.

In this statement, as throughout the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, poverty in a natural sense-want, necessity, and helplessness, with respect to earthly things, are treated as chosen images, divinely consecrated symbols of spiritual destitution; nakedness, hunger, and thirst, are taken as the most significant and expressive representations of that spiritual want through which only is it possible to receive Christ as the bread and the water of life, and his righteousness as the covering of guilt and shame. Now the intimate connection which subsists between spiritual things and their natural or scripturally authorized images and symbols, might lead us to anticipate beforehand, that the church of God, in all ages of the world, would sustain a peculiar relation to 'the poor among men, and him that hath no helper.' Upon examination, we find this anticipation fully verified.

For under the old dispensation a great body of positive commands and ordinances were laid down, by which the theocratic people, i. e., the church, was to be governed in guarding the rights, and in providing both for the spiritual and for the temporal wants of the poor. These are so numerous that they cannot be

cited here; and they are so striking that they cannot have escaped the attention of the most cursory readers. Also, it would seem that the provision thus made for temporal destitution was ample and sure, and that the system attained its object by means less grating to the natural feelings of the class for whose benefit it was designed than any other that has ever been known. The forms, at least, under which the divine charities were dispensed, according to the Mosaic law, had this great advantage over all the poor-laws of modern times, that they directed the minds of the destitute and afflicted who were relieved, directly to God himself, as their peculiar patron and benefactor, and taught them to recognise him as their helper, and as the object of their gratitude and trust. The want of this element in the modern state and national systems of relief for the poor, is, we are persuaded, a grievous defect, which goes far to neutralize their benefits. With respect to spiritual privileges, the whole property of the theocratic nation was rigorously taxed to provide religious accommodations, which should be adequate to the wants of all the people. These accommodations were available equally and alike by the poor and the rich. In all their solemn assemblies, in all their sacrificial rites, in all their ordinances of social worship, the rich and the poor met together on equal terms, because the Lord was the Maker of them all.' This characteristic of the worship of Jehovah, as distinguished from that of the false gods of the heathen, is celebrated with glowing praises in many passages of the Old Testament.

Accordingly, we have abundant evidence that under the church of the old dispensation the poor were effectually instructed in the peculiar relation which God sustained to them, that the means of grace did reach them, and that they, as a class, were the most zealous and faithful worshippers. "The poor among men did rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.' Even in times of the most wide-spread declension and apostasy, a remnant of sincere souls was always found among them; and the prophets, when driven almost to despair by persecution from others, could still find encouragement to proclaim the divine word, and to minister to the poor. Thus one of them exclaims, turning away from the rich and powerful, "I will

feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock... And the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the Lord."

This idea of a peculiar relation between God and his poor, was a part of the inheritance of the New Testament church, by which it was taken up, developed, and more fully realized. This might be made to appear in a great number of particulars in the life and teachings of her great Head, and of his first chosen disciples, as also in the constitution of the church, and in her first and most glorious triumphs. The limits of this article do not allow of more than a glance at these leading ideas.

And, first, our Lord himself "was born in a low condition;" his mother was a poor virgin; his legal and reputed father was a poor mechanic; his birthplace was a manger. His infancy and childhood were passed in the midst of poverty; and his youth, as we are informed by a tradition which in itself is altogether probable, in working with his reputed father at the trade of a carpenter. Throughout his public ministry he appears to have depended for his food and clothing upon charity. Among the poor he spent most of his time, and his chief miracles were wrought for their benefit. It was his constant endeavour to win their confidence and sympathy. He spared no pains to comfort and encourage them under their sorrows and trials, by giving them the assurance that their poverty and destitution had no tendency to alienate from them their covenant God, but was a reason for his peculiar interest in their welfare. He taught them that it was intended by their Heavenly Father for a spiritual blessing; that through the sign they might be made partakers of the thing signified; viz., that poverty of spirit, that consciousness of spiritual destitution and want, without which none could share in the riches of his grace, nor in the glories of his kingdom. In his miracles of physical healing, and for providing them with food, which were extended even to the most degraded and abandoned, he sought to win their confidence and gratitude, and thus to bring them into such a relation to himself as would call into exercise their faith in his power and willingness to heal them

of their spiritual maladies, and open their hearts to receive at his hands the supply of all their spiritual wants.

The first act of the public ministry of Christ appears to have been a discourse which he preached in the synagogue at Nazareth, upon a text of the prophet Isaiah, which exhibited, in the most striking manner, the special relation which the coming Messiah should bear to the poor. Here, having opened the sacred volume, he found the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." How he explained and applied this prophecy to himself and his mission, we are not informed; but it could hardly fail to give him a chosen opportunity of opening his heart to the destitute and afflicted, and of manifesting that deep interest in their temporal and eternal welfare, which, in all his subsequent ministry, seems to have missed no occasion of making itself known. And hence it is recorded, that after he had concluded, "all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth."

Some time after this, when John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to Jesus, to ask him whether he was indeed the longexpected Messiah, or they should continue to look for another, he pointed them to a series of miracles, which he wrought in their presence, and after these to the fact, that he preached the gospel to the poor, as the crowning evidence. He said to them, "Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me." Thus he seems to give the fact that his gospel did actually reach the poor, as the crowning proof, without which even his miracles might appear to be incomplete evidence that he was the true Messiah and Saviour that should come into the world, as foretold by the prophets. But as if fully conscious that such condescension to the lowest and most degraded of the people was

not expected, but would surely give offence to the carnal pride of the higher classes, he adds a blessing upon all who should not be scandalized by it.

From this point of view, also, we can best appreciate the significancy of that incident of his life, in which he fulfilled the prophecy, "Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass."

Nor is it unimportant to observe, that this special relation which the Messiah must bear to the poor, was so clearly defined and fixed in his own mind, and entered so essentially into his true character and mission, as to determine the form of one of his three great temptations in the wilderness; in which the tempter evidently aimed to seduce him from the course of procedure which it marked out for him, to ally himself, for the accomplishment of his purposes, with wealth and political power. For this end, Satan, by diabolical art, caused to pass before his eyes, "all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." But he resisted the temptation, and remained constant to his true character as revealed in prophecy.

In like manner, when he comes to state the principle by which he will distinguish at the last judgment the sheep from the goats, we are taught that his true people will be those who have ministered in his name, whilst the false professors and hypocrites will be those who have neglected to minister in his name to the poor and necessitous. "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was an hungered and ye gave me meat, &c.

Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me." Whilst those on the left hand are consigned to everlasting punishment, because they have neglected these duties to the poor.

Hence it was, that mingling freely in the company even of the most degraded and immoral, the Lord gained their sympathy and their confidence. Abandoned women were among his first converts; who loved him much because they had