low mortals. Reader, art thou the parent of a numerous offspring, and didst thou see thy mature offspring behold, without pity or relief, thy minor daughter, seven years old, perish with cold, wouldst thou not pity the last, and punish the first? without any manner of doubt. But would not such a man pity his perishing horse, dog, or cat? most assuredly: and will the source and sum total of justice and benevolence, who heard the infantile cries, and saw the frozen limbs of his little child who perished with cold, begging from door to door in Cherry street, last Thursday, neglect to punish those who have both time and funds to remove the fatal cause which produced this doleful effect? and will not the dying exhortation of the amiable Matthew Franklin, published two weeks ago, and my first address, published the day before this tragical, this shameful catastrophe, enhance the mighty guilt of such pitiless characters ?Admitting, therefore, God to be as just and as generous as the aforesaid father, he must and will visit the crime of cruelty, especially in professors. But says a late wrir in the Columbiad, she was a little vagabond!" and did not God make even that "vagabond" for his own glory, and to try rich men? No man can call these remarks the offspring of religious enthusiasm, I do not, I dare not profess religion, because I see clearly its divinity, its spirituality, its universal philanthropy. I profess to be merely the shadow of a philanthropist, the fragment of a physiognomist. I see perhaps in the countenance of the trembling mendicant, the outline or the aperture of a gulf of beastly vice, but shall I therefore turn from him with contempt? No--I give my mite, and my soul with it, because I know God sees the same gulf in me, and I clearly see a more deleterious gulf of Satanic vice in the countenances of many of those who ride in their gilded coaches. Avaunt then, ye hateful subterfuges, the offspring of parsimony and pride. The most sanctimonious professor, had be the least self-knowledge, would be ashamed to apply an epithet of contumely to the most worthless of mendicants. In addition to my address to the antiprofessors of New York, I have sent a private letter to Messrs. Cooper and Price, the Managers of the theatre, respectfully requesting them to appropriate a night for an oration or recitation, for the benefit of the poor, O may bleeding humanity, weeping philanthropy, and frowning justice forbid that they should imitate the orators I have already solicited in behalf of the poor, but humbly solicited and danced attendance on, them, in vain. They will generously con tribute their mite for this godlike purpose, by appointing a night for a public recitation of some pathetic piece in favour of suffering humanity. It will add to their personal honour, and the credit of their city, so to do. For all men, however vile and vulgar, pitiless and penurious they may be themselves, cannot help admiring and venerating the man whose social heart melts at human woe Some reasons for Beneficence to the Indigent. [Presented to the author, and written by his friend Dr. BACHLY, of New York.] "Ye who have, should relieve the necessities of those who have not, for many rea sons:- 1st. Because opulence, unless it be used benevolently, and distributed annually in certain proportions to the necessitous, is generally found to be as injurious to the possessors of it, and to their descendants who inherit it, as the poverty of the indigent is to themselves, and to the inheritors of their poverty.--A miserable consideration! 2dly. Because you or your children may possibly need assistance, in the revolution of human events. Losses, crosses, ruin may arise from fire, and fifty other circumstances. Then they who have been merciful, will have a right to receive and expect it from God and man.--A happy reflection! 3dly. Because the beneficent man who has lost, or been swindled out of all his riches, will find that all he has given away in deeds of compassion and benevolence, will appear to him, as so much saved; as a treasure which moth cannot consume, nor thieves rob him of.--A delightful treasure! 4thly. Because all you possess in riches, erudition, and person, is committed and given to you by human authority, or by God and his providence, that you, as stewards of God and society, should use them all for. the promotion of the social and divine good of the great family of mankind. Money and goods bestowed on the needy, in a sense of duty to the giver of all good things, is exchanged for treasures which cannot be stolen, burnt, or lost in any possible manner. No man ought to esteem any thing his own; for a king is but a steward and servant, and accountable to the higher power of God and his country. 5thly. Because God, who hath made all nations of one blood and brotherhood, says, that he is no respecter of persons, and that we should be like him. Innocent children, therefore, who are born of indigent parents, are as deserving of inheriting their proportion of social property, as the innocent children who are born of opulent progenitors. 6thly. Because of the injustice of social law in the present form of inheritances, which have respect to persons. And because of the injustice of the law in making and allowing interest on money, and rents on properties, to such a degree, as to enable the opulent to revel in luxury, idleness and dissipation for ages, if they keep within their incomes; while by these means the indigent are kept so, enduring toil, nakedness, hunger and necessity, from tender youth to decrepid age. And they have no jubilee. 7thly. The seventh reason for being compassionate and charitable, is the external and divine honour, recompence, and satisfaction a person receives by doing justice, duty, and good works.' WINTER. A Season for remembering the Poor. When in plenty you sit by a good fire-side, |