to cheer with heavenly consolation. There were outcast
babes to pluck from death. There were a thousand forms of suffering and
sorrow to relieve; and the ever-present thought of Him who came, not to
be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for
many, was an inspiration to heroic sacrifice and self-denial. And
doubtless the religion of mercy won its way to many a stony pagan heart
by the winsome spell of the saintly charities and heavenly benedictions
of the persecuted Christians. This sublime principle has since covered
the earth with its institutions of mercy, and with a passionate zeal has
sought out the woes of raan in every land, in order to their relief.

In the primitive Church voluntary collections[62] were regularly made
for the poor, the aged, the sick, the brethren in bonds, and for the
burial of the dead. All fraud and deceit was abhorred, and all usury
forbidden. Many gave all their goods to feed the poor. "Our charity
dispenses more in the streets," says Tertullian to the heathen, "than
your religion in your temples." He upbraids them for offering to the
gods only the worn-out and useless, such as is given to dogs. "How
monstrous is it," exclaims the Alexandrian Clement, "to live in luxury
while so many are in want." "As you would receive, show mercy," says
Chrysostom; "make God your debtor that you may receive again with
usury." The Church at Antioch, he tells us, maintained three thousand
widows and virgins, besides the sick and the poor. Under the persecuting
Decius the widows and the infirm under the care of the Church at Rome
were fifteen hundred. "Behold the treasures of the Church," said St.
Lawrence pointing to the aged and poor, when the heathen prefect came to
confiscate its wealth. The Church in Carthage sent a sum equal to four
thousand dollars to ransom Christian captives in Numidia. St. Ambrose
sold the sacred vessels of the Church of Milan to rescue prisoners from
the Goths, esteeming it their truest consecration to the service of
God. "Better clothe the Christ," says living temples of Jerome, "than
adorn the temples of stone." "God has no need of plates and dishes,"
said Acacius, Bishop of Amida, and he ransomed therewith a number of
poor captives. For a similar purpose Paulinus of Nola sold the treasures
of his beautiful church, and, it is said, even sold himself into African
slavery. The Christian traveller was hospitably entertained by the
faithful; and before the