reference
to the poor.

THE VICE OF DEFECT.

+The reluctant doling out of insufficient aid to the poor is
niggardliness.+--The niggard is thinking all the time of himself, and
how he hates to part with what belongs to him. He gives as little as he
can; and that little hurts him terribly. This vice cannot be overcome
directly. It is a phase of selfishness; and like all forms of
selfishness it can be cured only by getting out of self into another's
life. By going among the poor, studying their needs, realizing their
sufferings, we may be drawn out of our niggardliness and find a pleasure
in giving which we could never have cultivated by direct efforts of
will. We cannot make ourselves benevolent by making up our minds that we
will be benevolent. Like all forms of love, benevolence cannot be
forced; but it will come of itself if we give its appropriate objects a
large share of our thoughts and a warm place in our hearts.

THE VICE OF EXCESS.

+Regard for others as they happen to be, instead of regard for what they
are capable of becoming, leads to soft hearted and mischievous
indulgence.+--The indulgent giver sees the fact of suffering and rushes
to its relief, without stopping to inquire into the cause of the poverty
and the best measures of relief. Indulgence fails to see the ideal of
what the poor man is to become. Indulgence does not look beyond the
immediate fact of poverty; and consequently the indulgent giver does
nothing to lift the poor man out of it. Help in poverty, rather than
help out of poverty, is what indulgent giving amounts to. The indulgent
and indiscriminate giver becomes a partner in the production of poverty.
This indulgent giving is a phase of sentimentality; and the relief of
one's own feelings, rather than the real good of a fellow-man is at the
root of all such mischievous almsgiving. It is the form of benevolence
without the substance. It does too much for the poor man just because it
loves him too little. Indulgence measures benefactions, not by the needs
and capacities of the receiver, but by the sensibilities and emotions of
the giver. What wonder that it always goes astray, and does harm under
the guise of doing good!

THE PENALTY.

+Uncharitable treatment of the poor makes us alien to humanity, and
distrustful of human nature.+--We feel that they have a claim upon us
that we have not fulfilled; and we try to push them off beyond the range
of our sympathy. They are not slow to t