August 13

“And then, lastly, the rich men, rich in character, must know that no man can give character to other men without self-sacrifice. Labour, personal effort, personal intercourse with the poor, these must come in before the work can be done. You cannot do your duty to the poor by a society, your life must touch their life. You try to work solely by a society, and what does it come to? Is it not the old story of the book of Samuel? The traveller appeals to you, and you spare to take of your own thought and time and sympathy to give to the wayfaring man that is come to you. They are too precious, you say. ‘There is thought, time, sympathy, down at the charity bureau to which I have a right by virtue of a contribution I have made, go down and get a ticket’s worth of that.’

“The poor are always with us. The wayfarers come to us continually, and they do not come by chance. God sends them. And as they come with their white faces and their poor shuffling feet, they are our judges. Not merely by whether we give, but by how we give, and by what we give, they judge us. One man sends them entirely away. Another drops a little easy, careless, unconscientious money into their hands. Another man washes and clothes. Another man teaches them lessons. Thank God there are some men and women here and there, full of the power of the Gospel, who cannot rest satisfied till they have opened their very hearts, and given the poor wayfaring men the only thing which really is their own, themselves, their faith, their energy, their hope in God. Of such true charity-givers, may He who gave Himself for us increase the multitude among us every day.”

PHILLIPS BROOKS

August 12

“The first thing that men must do in order that they may really, thoroughly relieve the poor, is to profoundly recognise that there can be no complete and permanent relief, until not merely men who have money shall have given it to men who have no money, but until men who have character shall have given it to men who are deficient in that last and only real possession. Not till you make men self-reliant, intelligent, and fond of struggle, fonder of struggle than of mere help – not till then have you relieved poverty. If you could give every poor man in this town of ours a house, a wardrobe, and a balance in the bank tomorrow, do you think there would not be poor men and rich men here among us still? There must be, so long as there are some men with the spirit of independence, the light of intelligence, and the love of struggle; and other men who have none of those things, which make the only true riches of a manly man. And the second thing is this, the rich men of our community must be truly rich themselves, or they can have nothing worth giving to the poor, nothing with which they can permanently help their poorer brethren. Only a class of men independent, intelligent, and glorying in struggle themselves, can really send independence, intelligence, and the dignity of struggle, down through a whole city’s life. This is the reason why your selfish and idle rich man, who has neither of these great human properties, does nothing for the permanent help of poverty. The money which he gives is no symbol. It means nothing. O, let us be sure that the first necessity for giving the poor man character is that the rich man should have character to give him.