it were, the _official_ tutelage of poverty, to proclaim and consecrate
that function by some great memorial precedent. And, accordingly, in
testimony of that obligation, the first Christian Caesar, on behalf of
Christianity, founded the first system of relief for pauperism. It is
true, that largesses from the public treasury, gratuitous coin, or corn
sold at diminished rates, not to mention the _sportulae_ or stated doles
of private Roman nobles, had been distributed amongst the indigent
citizens of Western Rome for centuries before Constantine; but all these
had been the selfish bounties of factious ambition or intrigue.

To Christianity was reserved the inaugural act of public charity in the
spirit of charity. We must remember that no charitable or beneficent
institutions of any kind, grounded on disinterested kindness, existed
amongst the Pagan Romans, and still less amongst the Pagan Greeks. Mr
Coleridge, in one of his lay sermons, advanced the novel doctrine--that
in the Scriptures is contained all genuine and profound statesmanship.
Of course he must be understood to mean--in its capital principles:
for, as to subordinate and executive rules for applying such principles,
these, doubtless, are in part suggested by the local circumstances in
each separate case. Now, amongst the political theories of the Bible is
this--that pauperism is not an accident in the constitution of states,
but an indefeasible necessity; or, in the scriptural words, that "the
poor shall never cease out of the land." This theory, or great canon of
social philosophy, during many centuries, drew no especial attention
from philosophers. It passed for a truism, bearing no particular
emphasis or meaning beyond some general purpose of sanction to the
impulses of charity. But there is good reason to believe, that it
slumbered, and was meant to slumber, until Christianity arising and
moving forwards should call it into a new life, as a principle suited to
a new order of things. Accordingly, we have seen of late that this
scriptural dictum--"The poor shall never cease out of the land"--has
terminated its career as a truism, (that is, as a truth, either obvious
on one hand, or inert on the other,) and has wakened into a polemic or
controversial life. People arose who took upon them utterly to deny this
scriptural doctrine. Peremptorily they challenged the assertion that
poverty must always exist. The Bible said that it was an affection of
human societ