THE RELIGION OF THE BIBLE THE FRIEND OF THE POOR.

The Gospel an enemy to the poor! The Gospel a friend to despots! There can be no poor where all obey its precepts; there can be no despots where its truths are known, and its spirit imbibed. Nothing evil can keep its ground where the Gospel prevails: and where the Gospel prevails, nothing good can long be absent. Its great design is to lead us to heaven, but it first gives a foretaste of heaven on earth.

God has been especially attentive to the interests of the poor from the beginning, and in every revelation of his will to men, he has made it the duty of every one, according to his power, to seek their comfort and their welfare. This regard for the poor and friendless runs through the whole law of Moses. We can hardly read a single chapter without meeting with something intended to protect them from oppression, or to secure them from want and injury. "Thou shalt not vex a stranger nor oppress him for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.'

The master was forbidden in the most

solemn manner to deprive the hireling of his wages, or to put him to inconvenience by neglecting to pay him at the proper time. "Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of the strangers that are in thy land within thy gates. At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee." Deut. 24., 14. 15. The Almighty cautioned them, when a question should be tried before the Judges, in which the rights of the poor were concerned, to take care that they did not suffer the poor to be wronged. "Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger nor of the fatherless. Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause. Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked." The rich were accustomed to send presents to the Judges, to obtain a verdict in their favour; and where this was practised, the poor could have no hopes of having justice done them; but God set his face against this also. "Thou shalt take no gift; for the gift blindeth the eyes of the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous." "Thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift; that which is altogether just shalt thou follow that thou mayest live." To give more force to those commands the Levites were to pronounce from the top of mount Ebal, "Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. And all the people shall say, Amen." The sternest and most awful words almost that ever God spoke were against such as should injure the fatherless and widow. "Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry: and my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless." Exod. 22. 22. So also when God would introduce himself as the patron and protector of the needy, he assumes the loftiest titles, and

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clothes himself in his most terrible majesty: Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward. He doth execute the judgement of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." Deut. 10., 17. 19. The Lord was tender of the poor man's feelings as well as of his rights. "When thou dost lend thy brother any thing, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge.

Thou shalt stand abroad, and the man to whom thou dost lend shall bring out the pledge abroad unto thee. And if the man be poor thou shalt not sleep with his pledge; in any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment, and bless thee: and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the Lord thy God." Deut. 24., 10. 13. The regulations which God fixed under the Jewish dispensation, in reference to property, were wonderfully adapted both to prevent the poor from becoming numerous, and to secure to such as were poor their share of the blessings of Providence. In the first place God appointed an equal division of the Land, among all the tribes and families of Israel, except the tribe of Levi; and to the Levites he apportioned such a measure of the produce of the Land in sacrifices, tithes and offerings, as made their portion equal to the portions of the other tribes. If any family through poverty were obliged to sell their land, they could only sell it for a few years; for at the end of every fifty years the land returned to its original owners. It is likely that no family would be under any necessity to sell their land for the first half of the fifty years, so that few would be without their share of the land for any great length of time. Lev. 25. Those who had the Land in their possession were not allowed to cultivate or reap it more than six years together; on every seventh year the Land was to have rest. During this -year the Land was the property of the poor, and they

were authorized by God to reap its produce. "Six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard and with thy olive-yard." Exo. 23., 10. 11. During the six years that the owners of the Land were permitted to sow and reap their fields, they were commanded not to reap the whole, but to leave a portion for the poor, "And when ye reap the harvest of your Land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest thou shalt leave them unto the poor and to the stranger: I am the Lord thy God." Lev. 23., 22. "When thou cuttest down thy harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it, it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy hands. When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the father, less, and for the widow. When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the Land of Egypt: therefore I command thee to do this thing." Deut. 24., 19.

The poor were at liberty also to go into their neighbour's fields and gardens, and to satisfy their hunger there, provided they took nothing away; so that none could die of want while any thing remained in the Land. "When thou comest into thy neighbour's vineyard, then thou mayest eat grapes to thy fill, at thine own pleasure; but thou shalt not put any in thy vessel. When thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbour, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thy hand; but thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neighbour's standing corn." Deut. 23., 24. 25.

The poor and friendless had also assigned to them a

portion in the tithes and offerings: the poor were to be present, and to have a share of the provisions in all the feasts which were appointed as occasions of rejoicing and thankfulness to God. "At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates: and the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy hand which thou doest." Deut. 14., 28. 29. "Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn: And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God with tribute of a free-will offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee: and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow that are among you." Deut. 16., 9. 10. 11. "Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine: and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow that are within thy gates.'

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The Israelites were commanded to assist their poor brethren by loans, and yet they were forbidden to take interest from them for what they lent, and at the end every seven years there was a year of release, when every debtor was set free. "And if thy brother be waxen poor and fallen into decay with thee, then thou shalt relieve him yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase." Lev. 25., 35. "If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of