JAN 
 
 sec 
 
ORATION, 
 
 DELIVERED ON 
 
 THE FORTY-EIGHTH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 THE ORPHAN HOUSE 
 
 IN CHARLESTON, S. C. 
 
 OCTOBER ISth, 1837. 
 
 v^ 
 
 BY REV. TeOITIAS SIWYTH. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE COMMISSIONERS. 
 
 CHARLESTON : 
 
 PRINTED BY J. S. SURGES, 
 
 No. 85 East Bay. 
 
 1837. 
 
ORATION. 
 
 Halle is a large town of Prussian Saxony, situated on both 
 sides of the river Saale- It contains twenty-four thousand 
 inhabitants and many objects of attraction. Among these 
 are its cathedral, the tower of w^hich is higher than two hun- 
 dred and sixty-eight feet, and its famous university, which is 
 even yet attended by six hundred students, and has sent forth 
 some of the most eminent German Scholars. 
 
 But the celebrity of Halle depends on a different cause. 
 The traveller who enters this town, as he casts his eyes around, 
 is attracted by a large pile of buildings sufficient to fill both 
 sides of a court eight hundred feet long. On inquiry he is in- 
 formed that this is the Orphan House, and that it was built by 
 one who had himself, by the early loss of his father, known 
 what it was to be left an orphan in a friendless world. 
 
 The Rev. Augustus Herman Francke was a man remark- 
 able for his piety and benevolence. When he came to live in 
 Halle as a Professor in its university, it was customary for 
 the poor to go round on certain days and receive from the in- 
 habitants whatever assistance they might be disposed to ren- 
 der. Francke was struck, not only with their poverty and 
 squalid wretchedness, but much more by their moral degra- 
 dation. Though himselt poor, he determined out of his pov- 
 erty, to make an effort to befriend them by taking charge of 
 some children and having them educated. Being encourao-ed 
 and assisted in this attempt he finally resolved, in dependence 
 upon that charity which God might awaken in answer to his 
 prayers, to attempt the erection of a large building, where 
 these orphan children might be received, provided for, and in- 
 structed. By a series of the most wonderful and almost in- 
 
credible interpositions of divine providence, he completed that 
 establishment which has perpetuated his fame, given celebri- 
 ty to the town, and rendered incalculable benefit to the coun- 
 try and the world. His birth-day is still yearly celebrated at 
 the institution, which commands the undiminished interest of 
 the inhabitants. 
 
 In the year 1727, w^hen Francke died, there were in all the 
 schools connected with this establishment two thousand and 
 two hundred pupils. One hundred and thirty-four of these 
 were orphans who hved in the Orphan House, and who with 
 one hundred and sixty other children and two hundred and 
 fifty indigent students, daily ate at the pubhc tables of the 
 establishment without charge. 
 
 Connected with the institution, Francke had erected seve- 
 ral departments in which children intended for any kind of 
 business received an appropriate education. In the year one 
 thousand six hundred and ninety-eight, an apothecary's shop 
 was opened, and simple and popular medicines manufactur- 
 ed, which brought in at one time an income of not less than 
 thirty-six thousand rix dollars. Another department is the 
 book store, the printing for which is done in the establish- 
 ment, which has become one of the most extensive in Ger- 
 many, and a source of considerable revenue. The Orphan 
 House possesses also a library of twenty thousand volumes; 
 a museum of natural science — and a chemical laboratory. 
 In this institution also is located the celebrated Canstein Bi- 
 ble estabhshment, whose object it is to send abroad through 
 Europe the word of God by printing it so cheaply that all may 
 purchase. From this society have been issued two millions of 
 Bibles and one million of New Testaments. Since the com- 
 mencement of the institution, four thousand five hundred or- 
 phans alone, of whom three fourths were boys, have been 
 here educated. 
 
 This vast estabhshment, which has for a long time entirely 
 supported itself, although it still receives benefactions, took 
 its rise from three dollars and a half, which was given to 
 Francke, and from the invincible faith, energy and persever- 
 ance of this one man. "Better to have such an eulogy as is 
 contained in the history of this Orphan House, than to be the 
 
conqueror of the world. Better to be embalmed as Francke, 
 in the grateful recollections of thousands, than to sleep under 
 the proudest monument that has ever covered the remains of 
 earthly greatness." Well may the benevolent traveller turn 
 avi^ay from the curious monuments of St. Ulric, the Town 
 House with its relic of the Imperial Constitution, the neigh- 
 boring mines and manufactories, and feast his soul on this mi- 
 racle of charity, this wonderful achievement of Christian faith. 
 
 And perhaps, my fellow-citizens, you will not think the brief 
 account which 1 have given of an institution renowned 
 throughout the world, an uninteresting or unappropriate in- 
 troduction to the address to be dehvered on this Anniversary 
 of your Orphan Asylum. The perfection of this institution 
 being your great desire, some hints towards this consumma- 
 tion may be derived from the course pursued in one so emi- 
 nently successful. The spirit of an honorable emulation may 
 well be awakened, and the talents of some consecrated, per- 
 haps, to this glorious undertaking. 
 
 1 was led to these reflections by the correspondence of the 
 emotions excited ia a recent traveller on his visit to Halle, and 
 my own when I firs^ came to this city. My attention was 
 soon attracted to yonder building, large and yet simple, in 
 good and careful repair, evincing attention and interest and a 
 high estimate of its importance, with its spacious grounds and 
 gardens, throwing around it the smihng aspect of pleasure 
 and comfort, rather than of confinement — and with its modest 
 spire and chapel pointing heavenward, informing me that it 
 was consecrated to the genius of piety and prospered under 
 the fostering care of heaven. It was unnecessary to inquire 
 into its nature, for it bore enstamped upon it the image of 
 charity, while its lettered front told me that this was the 
 home of the Southern Orphan. And does it not speak to the 
 stranger's heart, whose father or mother or both may lie slum- 
 bering under the sod of some distant island in the far off 
 ocean, with a sweeter and more touching voice than any or 
 all the other buildings which may adorn your city? 'Well,' 
 said I, 'a man may come here a foreigner and an alien, he 
 may be unknown, he may contend with the fierceness and 
 treachery of disease, and he may fall in the midst of his hopes 
 
a victim — but his children have found a home. They will not 
 be outcasts. Kind voices will address them, and kind hands 
 lead them; and here they will be nurtured in the lap of care, 
 of knowledge, and of religion. Glory be to him who is known 
 as Abbe Yetomim, ,the father of orphans, who has led to the 
 erection of such an Asylum." 
 
 Fifty years ago, and no such retreat for the homeless chil- 
 dren of penury was found in this city. Then might they be 
 seen clad only in the livery of misfortune, wandering about 
 the streets, seeking a support from casual charity, or cast up- 
 on the bounty of some good Samaritan, who might be touch- 
 ed with their distresses. For them no cheerful fireside pre- 
 pared the accustomed seat. No parent's voice conveyed to 
 them the lessons of admonition. No restraining authority 
 kept them back from the paths of destruction and the snares 
 of vice. They became accustomed to crimes before they 
 knew that they were evil, exhibiting childhood without child- 
 hood's innocence. They grew up as weeds in the garden of 
 society, spreading around them their pestiferous influence. 
 Without character, with no interest in the public happiness, re- 
 garding themselves as outcasts from all the advantages, they 
 spurned at the restraints of law, and thus became enemies of 
 the peace and burdens upon the prosperity of the community. 
 Then might be seen the poor widow with her numerous 
 offspring, possessing the name without the power or the re- 
 sources of a guardian, left by her husband's death in an un- 
 provided home, with no habit of personal exertion, no ability 
 to meet the harsh selfishness of the world, and no knowledge 
 of any means whereby she might procure subsistence for her- 
 self or family. 
 
 Death! thou art always terrible! Thick darkness rests upon 
 the grave! And fearful are the terrors which encompass the 
 dreary valley of death! Trying is even the temporary sepa- 
 ration of loved companions, but when by the ruthless hand 
 of death it is made final and unchangeable, oh! is it not in- 
 deed dreadful? But when this calamity comes down like an 
 avalanche upon some family, dependent for their daily bread 
 upon their daily labor; when it overwhelms in its ruins, the 
 head of such an infant community; when it carries blight over 
 
every coming prospect, and scaths every present means of 
 comfort and enjoyment; there is added to those pangs which 
 rend the heart of true affection, the hopelessness of a dark 
 and dreary future in a pitiless world. To be bereft of a fond 
 husband or of an affectionate father, even when he leaves his 
 widow well provided for, and his children comfortable, is to 
 enter the depth of human wretchedness; but to be deprived 
 then of this only remaining stay against the floods of earthly 
 sorrow; to have this only light shut out from their darkness, 
 is to be sunk into a deeper depth of unutterable misery. Who 
 that has not experienced such misfortune can conceive or de- 
 scribe it, can enter into those waiUngs of despairing sorrow, 
 which become the natural language of the helpless widow, 
 or those shrieks of terror which instinctively break forth from 
 the fatherless and portionless orphan? 
 
 Such, however, were the scenes then witnessed, and not 
 unfrequently in this city, and such the sorrow which was then 
 endured in this Christian community. How many and how 
 aggravated they were, those ministering spirits can alone say, 
 who hoovered over these habitations of calamity, not as in the 
 hour of Egypt's doom, that they might destroy, but that they 
 might bind up the broken heart, and pour the oil of consola- 
 tion into the bleeding wound. 
 
 It was about the year 1786, that the City Council of Charles- 
 ton requested a gentleman to present before them a plan of 
 the Orphan House in Georgia, erected through the exertions 
 of the celebrated Whitefield. The subject was not acted up- 
 on until three years after, when owing to the zeal and perse- 
 verance of Mr. John Robertson, then a member of Council, 
 an ordinance was passed for the erection of a similiar institu- 
 tion, under the care and protection of the city. This was on 
 the 18th of Oct. 1790, forty seven years ago. And here let 
 me say, for the encouragement of all, who are disposed to 
 engage in plans of usefulness, that the individual we have 
 named was of comparatively humble standing in the com- 
 munity, and indebted for his success in this business, wholly 
 to his spirit of persevering benevolence. A temporary house 
 was obtained for the accommodation of the children, and on 
 the 12th of Nov. 1792, was laid the foundation of the present 
 Orphan House. 
 
8 
 
 Charleston has been often aroused to deep and universal 
 excitement — when, invested by the enemies of her country, 
 she awaited victory or destruction — when the fierce hurricane 
 swept over her in devastation — when the flames seemed com- 
 missioned to lay waste and utterly destroy — but never per- 
 haps was she filled with such an universal spirit of sympathy, 
 and so animated as it were by one soul — as when she poured 
 out her population in solemn and joyful procession, accom- 
 panied with the stirring sounds of pealing music, to witness 
 this event. Proud and glorious triumph of the spirit of Chris- 
 tianity — the spirit of charity — when a whole community were 
 seen assembled in the presence of the God of the Bible, that 
 they might publicly proclaim to the houseless orphan, "Be- 
 hold your home;" to the friendless, "Behold in us your friends;" 
 to the fatherless, "Behold in us your father." 
 
 In the year 1794, on this day, the 18th of October, the same 
 community were seen again assembled to receive into the bo- 
 som of yonder asylum, their collected orphans, and year by 
 year have they come together on this memorable day, that 
 they might sing the praises of charity, rejoice over their 
 adopted family, and give thanks to the author of all mercy 
 and the giver of every good and perfect gift. 
 
 We have said that in the erection of this Institution, and in 
 the circumstances connected with it, there was a noble tri- 
 bute to the power of Christianity, and the goodness of its all 
 merciful author. Before proceeding to the further considera- 
 tion of this institution, let us dwell a little upon this point. 
 For it is a first principle of duty, to render unto God the things 
 that are God's and essential to acceptance with him, that in 
 all our ways we should acknowledge him, giving unto him 
 the glory that is his due. 
 
 M. Constant has beautifully said that Christianity is the 
 epoch of pity. Heathen philosophers considered children as 
 beneath their notice or attention — the God of the Bible alone 
 is not ashamed to be called their Father, and in the person of 
 his Son, to take them up in his arms and bless them. Com- 
 passionate regard to the poor or destitute or helpless, formed 
 no part of the teachings of the Pagan philosophy. You might 
 have traversed, as has been said, the Roman empire in the 
 zenith of its power from the Euphrates to the Atlantic, with- 
 
out meeting with a single charitable asylum, for the widow 
 the orphan, or the diseased. Monuments of pride, of ambi- 
 tion, of vindictive wrath, were to be found in abundance, but 
 not one legible record of pity for the poor.* Not only so, 
 children were abused and made subservient to every foolish 
 and hurtful superstition. "It is a common practice," says 
 Justin in his apology, to the Roman Emperor, "to expose in- 
 fants in your empire; and there are persons who afterwards 
 bring up these infants for the business of prostitution. — 
 Throughout all the nations subject to you, we meet with none 
 but children destined for the most execrable purposes, who 
 are kept hke herds of beasts, and upon whom you levy a tri- 
 bute." This was in perfect accordance with their treatment 
 throughout the heathen world, in past and present times. The 
 custom of exposing infants, or sacrificing them, especially 
 orphans, prevailed among the Egyptians, Latins, Greeks, Ro- 
 mans, and other ancient nations. The Caribees were accus- 
 tomed to salt and eat their children.! In New Spain, chil- 
 dren were put to death on the first appearance of green corn, 
 when it was a foot high, and when it had grown two feet.^ 
 The Aboriginal inhabitants of Virginia sacrificed children to 
 the devil. In Mexico, five or six thousand children were an- 
 nually sacrificed to the numerous Idols, while as many as ten 
 thousand are supposed to be now annually exposed to death 
 in the capital of China. The Japanese are instructed by their 
 religion that the sick and needy, including orphans, are odious, 
 and devoted to the gods, and they are accordingly sacrificed 
 or left to perish. Before the time of Mahomet, the Arabs re- 
 fused to widows and orphans any share in the property of their 
 deceased husbands and fathers. The alteration which he 
 made in this law he derived from his acquaintance with the 
 gospel. 
 
 The condition of the poor and needy was incomparably 
 bettered by the Jewish dispensation. It is declared that 
 among the Jews according to their laws, orphans should be 
 considered by them as their brethren; that each family should 
 
 * See Homer's touching descriptioiv of the pitable condition to which by the 
 death of Hector, his son Astyanax was brought. II. 22. 1, 620. &,c. 
 t See Ryan on Eff. of Relig. p. 273. t Ryan, p. 273. 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 adopt one; and that the child thus adopted, should eat at the 
 table, share m the substance, and be treated as a member of 
 the family. God was known in Israel, as a father of the fa- 
 therless, and a judge of the widow.* These regulations and 
 this spirit of kindness were however practically too much 
 disregarded. The ignorant, the unfortunate, and the wretch- 
 ed, were by the Pharisaic dogmas considered as accursed, as 
 under the frown of heaven, and as undeserving of pity. 
 Schoetgenius has quoted this expression from one of their 
 books — plebeius non est pius, the poor man is not a pious 
 man. 
 
 It is true there may be found in Heathen philosophy and 
 more abundantly in Jewish writers, many rich and glowing 
 sentiments of charity. But these sentiments perished in their 
 birth; they were uttered not to be acted upon but admired. 
 Stoicism or hardened selfishness was the medium through 
 which misery was contemplated, and through which it ap- 
 peared stript of all its gloominess, as a mere necessity of na- 
 ture, which like the storm or the hurricane, beat upon hearts 
 insensible to its fury or self-sustained. 
 
 The lamp that has led us to this true and noblo charity was 
 lighted at the altar of Christianity, and there is not existent 
 and probably never has been, an asylum for the father- 
 less and friendless orphan beyond the influence of this divine 
 faith. Houses have been erected as in India for feeding sa- 
 cred vermin — as in Egypt for the protection and worship of 
 cats and cattle — and temples erected in abundance where 
 children might be immolated and youth consecrated to prosti-* 
 tution and vice — but under the whole reign of Paganism, as 
 its own genuine offspring, there has not sprung up one refuge 
 for the 
 
 Poor orphan in the wide world scattered,' 
 
 As budding branch wrenched from the native tree, 
 
 And thrown forth till it be withered.* 
 
 Christianity is the religion of charity. It adopts as pecu- 
 liarly its own, the poor and miserable and wretched, and blind 
 and naked. It feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, protects 
 the stranger, delivers the captive, and receives the orphan un- 
 
 * See Dent, and Pa. t Spencer. 
 
u 
 
 der its divine paternity. The birth of Christ is one of those 
 appropriate representations which are hung up in the en- 
 trance of those institutions where "children dwell who know 
 no parent's care." Did He not take them in his arms and 
 bless them, saying, of such is the kingdom of heaven? Is it 
 not the will of our Heavenly Father that not one of these little 
 ones should perish? He that receiveth one of these little ones' 
 is he not regarded as receiving Christ, and his charity as giv- 
 en to Christ? It is no longer necessary to ask in despair, 
 "What country hath the poor to claim?" Christianity shall 
 answer, "God's foundlings then are ye." It is the voice of 
 Christianity which is heard addressing us as she points to 
 these young and tender orphans — "Honor these children. 
 Welcome them to your embrace, rejoicing that as the ap- 
 pointed guardians of heaven, they are entrusted in this comr 
 mencement of an endless being to your nurture and admoni- 
 tion. Honor these children." I will not, says the Saviour, 
 leave you orphans. How expressive! I will not leave you 
 in that condition which orphans find themselves in these eas- 
 tern countries, where they are regarded as slaves and obliged 
 to serve their protectors.* The Athenians indeed adopted 
 for the public the children of those who died fighting for their 
 country, educated them until twenty-one, and then giving 
 them a suit of armour enlisted them in their armies; — but 
 Christianity, in the munificence of her charity, throws her 
 protecting arm around them all and claims for them all the 
 kind protection of the good, and extends for the acceptance 
 of them all adoption into the family of heaven. 
 
 What was the first origin of distinct institutions for the or- 
 phan we cannot trace. They are referred to in the praise of 
 Constantine who was very liberal towards them, and who 
 enacted edicts commanding the public to maintain those chil- 
 dren unable to provide for themselves.! Orphans were early 
 regarded in the canons and laws of the Church and of Chris- 
 tian countries. Such houses were common in the West, A. 
 D. 808. Canute is celebrated for his attention to orphans, and 
 many Queens and Princes thought themselves distinguished 
 
 * Calmet Diet. Tom. 3. p. 365. Lond. Edit. 
 
 t Suiceri Thes. Tom. 2. Also Blackstonu'a Com't. vol. 1. p. 95 Chittv's Ed. 
 
12 
 
 by the foundation of a foundling hospital. When Spencer 
 brings his wounded knight to the house of holiness, we are 
 told that of those who came to wait upon the needy appli- 
 cants, 
 
 The seventh now after death and burial done, 
 Had charge the tender orphans of the dead. 
 
 There are very probably three thousand towns out of many 
 thousand in Christendom, in which there are orphan asylums. 
 These will contain on an average one hundred children, thus 
 making the number of orphan children at present under the 
 care and protection of Christians, three hundred thousand. 
 Far greater would be the result were we to compute the num- 
 ber of hospitals and their inmates, colleges and their students, 
 penitentiaries and their refugees, and which are all the pro- 
 ductions of this tree of righteousness which bears twelve man- 
 ner of fruits, and whose leaves are for the healing of nations. 
 Blessed are our eyes which witness her heavenly beneficence! 
 Blessed are our ears which hear her joyful sounds! Blessed 
 are our hearts which are made the fountains of her hfe giving 
 influence!* 
 
 Having thus traced this charity to its source, and presented 
 our thaksgivings unto its beneficent author, let us turn our at- 
 tention to the charity itself. It would appear unaccountably 
 strange that an Institution so simple in itself, in its object so 
 constantly obtruded upon public notice, so accordant to the 
 beneficent feelings of the heart, and at the same time so 
 fraught with manifold advantages to the community in which 
 it exists, should not have suggested itself in every age and 
 country. Nor can any other solution of this singular fact be 
 given than that contained in the word of God, the all absorb- 
 ing selfishness of the human heart, when not renewed by the 
 spirit of divine love. We are thus also practically taught 
 that the religion of the Bible is promotive of human happi- 
 ness, not more when it forbids indulgence in what is evil, 
 than when it enjoins the zealous and self-denying pursuit of 
 what is good. 
 
 Were this Institution not based on the deep foundations of 
 
 * See a touching illustration of this in an account of the Missionary Orphan Asy- 
 lum in India, and the orphan girls found in the streets starving. 
 
 Missionary Register, June 1836, p. 283. There is another in Calcutta. 
 
13 
 
 charity, it would commend itself to our sense of justice. Or- 
 phans by being deprived of their natural parents become the 
 children of the community. What more becoming than that 
 it should act a parent's part? If he who provideth not for his 
 own family is worse than an infidel; if on the contrary, he 
 who watches over the interests of his offspring presents a 
 spectacle so lovely 'as to afford a representation of the be- 
 nignity of heaven; how much more imperative is the obliga- 
 tion and how much more beautiful is the spectacle, of a com* 
 munity covering with her protecting wings the tender brood 
 of orphans! The laws require that in their minority, heirs 
 should be protected by others. There is an equal necessity 
 that the youth of those who are left heirs to the poverty and 
 wretchedness of life should be shielded from present danger, 
 and prepared for future action. But as in this case there is no 
 remuneration, law has left them unprovided for, and charity 
 must take them up. 
 
 Were the claims of the orphan not thus demonstrably a 
 debt of love, and founded on a sense of justice, the necessity 
 of such a provision for these destitute children, would urge it 
 upon us. They are cast upon the community, and cannot be 
 removed except by a practice as inhuman as it is sinful. 
 Their support must be drawn from the bosom of society in 
 some way. They constitute a necessary, irremovable tax. 
 And the question simply is, in what form shall this tax be 
 paid? voluntarily, as a gift, by which the recipients may be 
 laid under the obligations of gratitude — remedially, as a pre- 
 ventive of future ignorance, vice and crime — or involuntarily 
 when it becomes necessary for punishment and self preserva- 
 tion? We must pay this tax through the Orphan House, and 
 the labours of early disciphne and instruction, or through the 
 Poor House, the Penitentiary, and the Hospital. If then by 
 an equal expenditure, or less, we can secure good citizens, 
 instead of such as will be injurious and burdensome, self-inter- 
 est, nay selfishness itself, will plead for its adoption. 
 
 But it is not on these grounds we would rest the claims, or 
 establish the merits of this institution. It is just and necessa- 
 ry that it should exist, it is much more noble, patriotic, be- 
 nevolent and Christian. To have a proper estimate of the 
 
14 
 
 greatness of this charity, consider the extent of that misery 
 which it reheves, the absolute destitution, the abandoned 
 hopelessness of those who are its objects, cast from the wreck- 
 ed vessel of their childhood's home, and left struggling in their 
 helplessness, amid the waves of life's ocean "into tempest 
 wrought." Consider too, the extensive benefits which it conr 
 fers. It finds these children orphans, it provides them with 
 guardians; they are without covering, it decently clothes 
 them; they are destitute of food, it daily nourishes them; they 
 are hable to all the pains and sickness of our mortal state, here 
 is a physician, there is a balm in this Gilead;* ignorant, they 
 are here enlightened in that knowledge which will fit them 
 for entering successfully upon the competition of life; destined 
 to immortality, they are here instructed 
 
 "To think that early he must think at last." 
 
 Their physical, moral, and intellectual well-being is thus ad- 
 vanced. They grow in stature, they increase in knowledge, 
 and they should grow in favor with their God. Nor are these 
 advantages limited to the period of their domestication in the 
 institution; it is extended to them when they make their pe- 
 rilous entrance upon the world beyond. They are followed 
 by the eye of guardianship and kind attention into the rough 
 paths of life, that their asperities may be smoothed as far as is 
 possible in this valley of the shadow of death. Nor is this all. 
 As the gifts of God are imparted without any respect to rank 
 or person, the steel is applied to the flint, that if there are any 
 1 atent sparks of genius they may be elicited, and the charac- 
 ter and value of the stone determined. When nature thus 
 discovers under the rough and unpromising appearance of 
 outward poverty, some hidden gem or pearl of great price, 
 it is not abandoned, but is at once put into the hands of the 
 artist, that it may be wrought into beauty and give forth its 
 splendour. And have not some of the proudest ornaments of 
 society, stars of the first magnitude in the constellation of 
 earthly glory, risen upon the view, from the dark night of 
 poverty and wretchedness? 
 
 * And here let me pay a just tribute to the care and attention of the attending 
 Physician, in view of the remarkable health enjoyed by the children during the 
 past year. 
 
15 
 
 Consider again as characteristic of the greatness of this 
 charity, the permanence of its results. In thus blessing chil- 
 dren it blesses men, for 
 
 Childhood shows the man, 
 As morning shows the day. 
 
 In thus elevating their character, it is exalting the reputa- 
 tion of the^coming age, for here it is emerging into hfe through 
 their life. If these are suffered to pass through childhood 
 unimproved, they will arrive at manhood in the full maturity 
 of guilt ?nd hardy villainy. And not only so,, before you are 
 the future parents of a remote posterity, extending from them 
 in ever widening branches. What do I say? Before you are 
 the future legislators of their country, who will perpetuate 
 her liberties or betray them. In this country, in the munifi- 
 cence of a liberality only equalled by its liberty, you have ex- 
 tended to all her citizens, the equal privilege of controlling 
 her high destinies. This universal boon will be wise, — it will 
 not be certainly and necessarily destructive of all liberty — 
 only by rendering all worthy of the privilege and capable of 
 the duty. The monstrous chasm which in other nations sep- 
 arates the higher from the lower classes has been here filled 
 up, and all may walk abroad in the conscious dignity of be- 
 ing equal among equals in point of civil privilege. But for- 
 get not, oh my country — let it be engraven upon thy councils 
 as if written by the finger of heaven — that the humbler clas- 
 ses, and not the highest, constitute the broad basis of the 
 pyramid of society, and that security exists only so long as 
 it is preserved in soundness, that is virtuous and wise. Even 
 here — in these orphan children, there are entrusted to you, 
 to mould and fashion as you will, a Spartan band, which if 
 imbued with the spirit of piety and its kindred spirit, true lib- 
 erty, may yet throw themselves into some future Thermo- 
 pylae, and preserve the hberties of their country. "These 
 are your ramparts.'' 
 
 Oh my adopted country! while fear and doubt harrass and 
 
 perplex me, as I look out upon the clouds and thick darkness 
 
 which settle over thee, may I offer for thee this prayer — May 
 
 thy youth be numerous as the drops of the morning dew, and 
 
 !*.► f . ^filleci like them with the pure light of heaven. May they re- 
 
16 
 
 fresh and strengthen that Ubery which has been sown in 
 blood, and watered in tears, and reflect thy glory in increas- 
 ing lustre to every nation and to every age. 
 
 How serviceable to the public is this charity! It binds to- 
 gether the rich and the poor. Here they meet each other 
 and embrace, acknowledging their common humanity and 
 equal citizenship. By this giving and receiving, this protect- 
 ing and being protected, they are cemented by an inseparable 
 union of peace and good will. Thus have we seen the earth 
 send up its vapors to the heavens, gathering around them in 
 all the glory and splendor of an evening sky — and those 
 heavens again returning them to the earth in showers and 
 dew, which make glad and fructify the face of nature. 
 
 While we' thus contemplate the future blessings of this 
 charity, let us not forget its present and immediate good. It 
 is before you. Look upon these children. While many per- 
 chance this day are shedding orphans' tears, they are filled 
 with all the sportive joy of life's young dawn. Look upon 
 these children. Are they not yours? Without parents you 
 have taught them to feel the throbbings of filial love and filial 
 piety. Snatched from the lion jaw of stern necessity, they 
 have received beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, 
 and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. By 
 thoroughly, virtuously and religiously educating these child- 
 ren, you will bestow upon them a guide and a comforter 
 through life — you will prepare them to guide and comfort 
 others; you will fit them for a better performnnce of what- 
 ever duty they may be called to discharge; you will send 
 them forth into society, to exert a happy influence on all 
 around them. 
 
 Is not this charity twice blessed? 
 It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes, 
 Itdroppeth as the gentle rain from heaven, 
 Upon the place beneath. 
 
 It rises as a fragrant incense, breathing joy into the hearts of 
 those above. 
 
 This blessing, this joy, members of Council, Commission- 
 ers and Benefactors of the Charleston Orphan House, have 
 been yours. Thirteen hundred and fifty-five children, wuiJa-^^VI 
 
17 
 
 ^^CS'^/fJ^'^^Woyided for by your bountiful exertions. One hundred 
 and fifteen children are here to-day, like wild flowers gather- 
 ed from the desert and transplanted into garden soil, to fill 
 your souls with admiration and dehght. Altogpther, fourteen 
 hundred and seventy captives redeemed from the hard bond- 
 age of misfortune, and restored to their home, their country, 
 and to happiness. Liberality worthy this city of the south, 
 and brightest gem in Carolina's crown of glory! 
 
 In addition to the ordinary means for the temporal and 
 spiritual comfort of these your children, an infant and sab- 
 bath school has been estabhshed, where thty might receive 
 still further instruction, — a commissioners' fund has been 
 formed, which is expended in assisting those who have left 
 the institution, and whose good conduct gives them claim to 
 such relief; the City Council, with that public spirited liber- 
 ality which is the true public economy, have made provision 
 for the preparatory education of a hmited number of boys 
 who may be selected by the commissioners as worthy of a 
 college course, — two boys are supported by the Legislature 
 of the State at its own institution, — while another is pursuing 
 his preparatory studies for professional life by the munificent 
 provision of an individual, who was actuated to this deed of 
 charity by that spirit which was imparted to him while a 
 member of this same institution. There is also a funded be- 
 quest, the interest of which is for the education of a boy of 
 suitable talents and disposition, for the ministry of the Gos- 
 pel, in any Christian community he may prefer. 
 
 Nor have you, respected friends, labored in vain, and spent 
 your strength for nought. While there have been instances 
 of melancholy disappointment, to call forth your sorrowing 
 regrets — and these, as in all similar cases, have stood forth in 
 prominence by the very publicity of their scandal — have not 
 the great proportion of your beneficiaries spent useful and 
 industrious lives, amid the quiet and unobtrusive virtues of 
 domestic life? Are not three of them filling high and impor- 
 tant stations in the navy of their country, and may you not 
 with parental honor claim your sons among the honored and 
 useful members of the pulpit and the bar? 
 
 We rejoice when some vessel which has been buffetted by 
 
18 
 
 the rough tempest, and of whose safety we were solicittouSi ^ V > ^ 
 having ridden out the storm, is seen entering the harbor with 
 her colors streaming in the wind — and shall we not much 
 more rejoice when we behold these goodly spirits saved from 
 that storm in which they must needs have wrecked, and safe- 
 ly harbored in this port of peace? 
 
 We all laud, and justly, the man who by his skill or efforts 
 contributes to the comfort and pleasure of society — and what 
 praises are due to those who deliver it from the sources of 
 moral pestilence and death, and by the same means replenish 
 it with worthy and viituous citizens'? 
 
 The man who by his wealth has founded some institution, 
 or erected some noble building to adorn his city or country, 
 deserves, as he receives, the gratitude of posterity; but how 
 much more available to the beauty and exaltation of society 
 is that expenditure, which fills it with noble spirits, elevated 
 natures, and souls garnished with all the hneaments of virtue? 
 Such reward, friends and benefactors of this asylum, such 
 reward is yours. 
 
 "Think not the good, 
 The gentle deeds of mercy you have done, 
 Shall die forgotten all; the poor, the wretched, 
 The fatherless, the friendless, and the widow, 
 Who daily own the bounty of your hands, 
 Shall cry to heaven, and pull a blessing on you." 
 
 In the bright visions of the future glories of this my adopt- 
 ed country, I see the alumni of this institution enrolled among 
 her brightest sons, and most useful and devoted daughters — 
 filling with noble and high-minded citizens, the marts of com- 
 merce, the plantations of agriculture, the ranks of war, and 
 the seats of legislative wisdom. Is this all a vision of the 
 fancy? Or is it ever to be reahzed? This depends on the 
 continued and increased efforts for the preservation and im- 
 provement of their asylum, of you, Honorable Members of 
 Council, of you, especially, respected Commissioners, on you, 
 still more immediately, though not more truly, officers and 
 instructors, and above all, upon you, the children for whom 
 all these efforts are put forth. 
 
 I have had other and fitter opportunities for pressing upon 
 
19 
 
 you, my dear children, your duty to your Saviour and your 
 God. Let me take this occasion, with all the interest which 
 its publicity affords, to infix within your minds this one en- 
 couraging truth, that to you the successful pursuit of the ad- 
 vantages of social life, is as open, as free, and as hopeful, as 
 perhaps to any other class of youth. The prospect of enter- 
 ing upon the possession of wealth, without personal exertion, 
 too generally enervates the character and deprives it forever 
 of that power of self-government, and that spirit of confi- 
 dence which will undertake and accomplish whatever is at- 
 tainable. It is in the school of adversity, it is under the 
 teaching of stern necessity, it is when there is no other 
 prompter to genius than its own innate aspirations, that these 
 inestimable qualities, which the wealth of CrcEsus could not 
 purchase, are secured. It is good, my dear children, to bear 
 the yoke in your youth. So says scripture. So speaks ex- 
 perience. There is, believe me, no hopelessness around your 
 future. You need not look forward as to darkness and de- 
 spair. On the contrary, there is every thing to breed within 
 you high purposes of future eminence. If, children, you will 
 only now, in the days of your youth, seek God, hear the voice 
 of instruction, improve all the advantages you enjoy, and 
 cherish a spirit of strict rectitude, what is there you may not 
 in future fife attain? Honest, upright, industrious, humble, 
 unassuming and Christian in your deportment, who wdll not 
 rejoice to take you by the hand and help you up the steep as- 
 cent to competence, to wealth, to honor, and to glory? 
 
 Do you wish to become respectable in the mechanic arts 
 of life? Almost all who are or have been so, have pressed 
 their way through the extremest difficulties, have begun on 
 nothing and lived on Uttle, until they have secured to them- 
 selves competence and ease. Or do you pant after the fame 
 of those who have fought their country's battles, and braved 
 for her danger and death? We might point you in addition 
 to others to be mentioned, to Henry Knox and Philip Schuy- 
 ler, both eminent among our revolutionary patriots. Do you 
 cherish the holy purpose of being consecrated to the ministry 
 of heaven? Have not some of its brightest and most burn- 
 ing lights, trimmed their lamps in youthful obscurity, receiv- 
 
20 
 
 ed their education at the hand of charity, or soared aloft on 
 their own unaided wing to the greatest height of usefulness 
 and labor? I might instance Jeremy Taylor, the Milton of 
 the English Church, and in Morrison and Carey, the mo- 
 dern apostles of China and of India/ Do you aspire to emi- 
 nence in the noble science of law? Sir Edward Coke, the 
 author of "the Institutes of the laws of England," and one 
 of the most eminent of her lawyers, was still young when he 
 was left to be his own master. And Blackstone, author of 
 the Commentaries on the laws of England, and the founder 
 of their science, was early in life deprived of both his pa- 
 rents- This loss, says his biographer, "proved in its conse- 
 quences, the reverse of misfortune to our author: to that 
 circumstance probably he was indebted for his future ad- 
 vancement, and that high literary character and reputation 
 in his profession which he has left behind him; to that cir- 
 cumstance the pubhc, too, is probably indebted for the benefit 
 it has received and will receive as long as the law of Eng- 
 land remains, from the labors of his pen."! Do you desire 
 to enrol your name upon the list of philosophers and other 
 scientific and hterary worthies, who shine so resplendently 
 in the intellectual heavens? The father of Adam Smith died 
 some months before his birth, while his own constitution dur- 
 ing infancy was weak and sickly. >< Our own Washington Ir- 
 ving was left fatherless to pursue mis own fame and fortune 
 when very young. And above all, Sir Isaac Newton, the 
 prince of philosophers, was in his nnfancy without a father, 
 was so weakly as to have his life despaired of, and was sent 
 at an early age to a distant school.;^ The celebrated German 
 metaphysical philosopher Kant, was the son of a harness 
 maker, and early lost both his parents. 
 
 Do you emulate the glory of a patriot and statesman? The 
 father of George Canning died the year after his birth, and 
 left his family after having been long oppressed by the hard 
 hand of vexatious need, unprovided and wholly destitute-! 
 
 * Chrysostom, ihe most celebrated of the Fathers, was deprived of his father 
 in infancy. 
 
 t Blackstone, vol. I, p. 5. 
 
 t See Speeches of George Canning, Vol. I, p. 7. 
 
21 
 
 Henry Clay was in like manner early deprived of his father, 
 and owes all his education to a common school. William 
 Wirt, the late Attorney General, lost both his parents young. 
 The father of John Hancock deceased during his infancy, and 
 he was cast on the kindness of a relative. Alexander Ham- 
 ilton, whose life is so interwoven with the history of the Amer- 
 ican Revolution, and with the formation and adoption of the 
 Constitution of the United States, was deprived of his mother 
 when a child, while his father lived in pecuniary dependence. 
 Andrew Jackson's father died immediately after his birth, and 
 his mother while he was yet young. And Washington, the 
 father of his country, was also made to feel in his early youth 
 the want of a father's care. 
 
 If then, children, any of you fail to arrive at competence, 
 honor, or eminence in future hfe, it will be, not because you 
 are orphans, but because you have failed to embrace fully the 
 privileges you now enjoy, or to cultivate the habits and virtues 
 to which you are now so constantly urged. 
 
 And now, children, under the encouraging influence of this 
 truth, you will retire from this scene to the festivities of this 
 hallowed day. Yield your hearts to the pleasures of the oc- 
 casion, and with your joyous acclamations let your bosoms 
 swell with gratitude to Him who has provided for you a home 
 and a parent's kindness in the hearts of Christians; and when 
 you retire this evening to your couch, pray to your Father in 
 heaven that he may make you partakers of his heavenly spirit, 
 adopt you into his heavenly family, and evermore bless and 
 befriend you. 
 
 And now, fellow citizens, need I say more to encourage 
 and stimulate you to continued and increased liberality to- 
 wards this most useful and laudable institution? The first step 
 towards reaction and failure in any design is the supposition 
 that we have already attained. When this takes possession 
 of the mind, it relaxes its energy and checks its further efforts. 
 Think not then, you have completed your institution, but for- 
 getting what has been already accomplished, press forward 
 towards the mark of ultimate and entire perfection. 
 
 What has been done towards the estabhshment of a hbra- 
 ry worthy the Institution? Has it a philosophic and other 
 
22 
 
 suitable apparatus? Are its schools well supplied with all that 
 is necessary to advance their objects? Is it possible or desi- 
 rable to provide for the specific education of the children in 
 the different branches of art and business? Could their labors 
 in the acquisition of such an education be made available to 
 their own support and the enlargement of the plans of the In- 
 stitution? This question I can suggest with more confidence, 
 as ] find it was urged upon your attention by our late Hon. 
 Mayor.* Could any further means be employed for awaken- 
 ing and fostering talent? Could instruction be imparted to 
 the children in that, oftentimes most useful, and at all times 
 most delightful and elevating, art of music? In an institution 
 in Germany, out of two hundred orphans, all except two had 
 acquired this knowledge. Would not a committee of corres- 
 pondence with other similar institutions in this and other coun- 
 tries, and by which their comparative advantages might be 
 known, probably lead to many valuable suggestions? Were 
 the fund of the commissioners sufficiently increased, might it 
 not be found of incalculable importance in assisting, in their 
 entrance upon the business or duties of life, those who have 
 left the Institution, but who are still friendless and pennyless? 
 
 What immeasurable good might in this way be accomphsh- 
 ed! How great is the opportunity still afforded of improving 
 and advancing the interests of this asylum! How boundless 
 the sphere for talent and benevolence! 
 
 And shall these not be forthcoming? Having done so well, 
 will you not still more abound in this labor of love? When 
 the Empress Catharine founded the hospital for foundlings at 
 Moscow, a person unknown sent a box containing fifty thou- 
 sand rubles, accompanied with these words: "He who takes 
 the libeity to offer this, will have completely obtained his de- 
 sire, if, by means of this gift, Russia shall at some future day, 
 have one more reasonable subject, one happy man, one virtu- 
 ous citizen." Let your liberality this day, let your future 
 beneficence while you live and when you come to die, attest 
 to heaven and earth your just sense of the value and impor- 
 tance of this noble and productive charity. 
 
 *Report to the City Council by Hon. R. Y. Hayric 
 
And what a field, my christian friends, is opened to your 
 labors in the Sabbath School connected with the Institution? 
 Is it true? Can it be, that from so many churches, there are 
 not enough of interested, zealous, devoted followers of the 
 Son of God, to hear the cry of the orphan, whose spiritual 
 destitutions are as great as their physical and intellectual ne- 
 cessities, and to impart to them that knowledge in which 
 standeth eternal life? 
 
 Methinks it is enough, after what you have heard, to sug- 
 gest these things to your minds, in order to enkindle there a 
 readiness to do all, and more than all that is desired. The 
 sight of these "poor orphans, whose minds were left as un- 
 clothed and naked altogether as their bodies, and who were 
 exposed to all the temptations of ignorance, want, and idle- 
 ness,"" of whom you are the common guardians, will appeal to 
 your sympathies and call forth charity, more powerfully than 
 any pleas of mine. 
 
 Were there, however, one individual present whose 
 heart was untouched by their misery, or unaffected by their 
 tale of silent suffering, to such an on^ would I say: Hadst 
 thou a mother? Hast thou ever felt the kind warmth of a 
 mother's bosom? — the sweetness of a mother's kisses? — the 
 tenderness of a mother's embrace? — and the unchanging de- 
 votedness of a mother's love? In sickness did she comfort 
 you? In health did she delight in you? — weeping with you 
 when you wept, and rejoicing with you when you rejoiced? 
 Did she live in your life, prosper in your prosperity, and feel 
 every joy doubled by participation with yourself? Has she 
 become to you, as it were, an abiding presence? — a minister- 
 ing angel? — a heaven of the sweetest and purest recollections? 
 a pole-star to guide your weary way through life's toilsome 
 journey? And is the sanctuary above made more dear be- 
 cause it is the dwelHng place of that now sainted mother? 
 These children never knew (or knowing ceased to know) 
 what it is thus to enjoy and bless their mother. Like the or- 
 phan in the Greek tragedy, they may say — 
 
 for the time when in a mother's arms, 
 I in her fondness should have known some joy 
 
24 
 
 Of life — from that sweet care was I estranged, 
 A mother's nurture.* 
 
 Hadst thou a father? — whose name and image you saw en- 
 stamped upon yourself, who looked upon you with pride, who 
 felt in yours his own existence prolonged and his own charac- 
 ter perpetuated,who gloried in struggling with the hard adver- 
 sities of hfe that he might clothe and feed and nourish you, who 
 called you his own son, his hope and promise, who inculcated 
 the spirit of manliness and truth and godliness, and brought 
 you up to usefulness and honor? And did you love that fa- 
 ther? Did you reverence him in your infant days even as 
 God? Did you obey him as an unerring guide? And do you 
 now look back upon him with high and holy thankfulness to 
 God who gave you such a father? These children can never 
 know a father's care. 
 
 No more they smile upon their Sire! no friend 
 To help them now! no father to defend. 
 The day that to the grave the father sends 
 Robs the sad orphan of his father's friends.t 
 
 They are left alone^to pilot their boisterous wa5t-over the 
 stormy sea of lif^^mder an angry sky— in a night of darkness^ 
 with blackening tempest all ahead. 
 
 Like your blessed Saviour, rebuke that selfishness which 
 would forbid these children to come even to your heart and 
 awake your kindliest interest. Take them up in your arms and 
 bless them. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ 
 Jesus. And if there be any consolation in Christ, if any com- 
 fort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any bowels and 
 mercies, fulfil ye this work of heavenly charity to which by 
 the providence of God you are so sweetly summoned. 
 
 *The Ion of Euripides, line 1427-1430. See vol. I, Transl., by Potter. 
 tHomer Iliad, B. 22. 
 
ADDRESS, 
 
 BY THOMAS NEIL, AN ORPHAN BOY. 
 
 COMPOSED BY DR. JOHN B. IRVING. 
 
 "Pure Religion, and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To 
 visit the Fatherless in their affliction." 
 
 The melody of the tuneful choir, the prayer of the ordamed 
 Mmister of God, have already ascended to the throne of Grace! 
 
 Shall I essay, poor little orphan as I am, to add the feeble 
 tribute of my appeal to Him, "from whom alone proceeds 
 every good and perfect gift,*' to incline your hearts yet more, 
 my christian friends, towards the righteous Charity, associ- 
 ated with this most interesting occasion? 
 
 The Orphan's story is soon told. Affliction meets him in 
 the cradle! Sorrow marks him for her own! and the history 
 of one of these httle creatures of your compassion, is the his- 
 tory of us all. 
 
 I know not whether I can relate my own afflictions, but a 
 dark dream has sometimes swept across my brain; a wild — a 
 dismal dream that will not break! 
 
 I was an infant almost when my Father died; but I remem- 
 ber, ere his eyes took an unearthly lustre and did fade, he 
 folded me in his arms, and pressing his pallid lips upon my 
 cheek, told me he had nothing to bequeath his poor boy, but a 
 father's blessing, and a father's kiss! These were his last, his 
 only legacy! 
 
 My Mother, borne down by sorrow, misery, and want, like 
 Hagar with her child, going forth into the wilderness, took me 
 into the wilderness of the world. But alas! she led me not 
 long. In a short time she laid, also, in the stillness of ever- 
 lasting repose! Her hands were stretched in motionless and 
 marble coldness by her side. Yet her face was so serene, 
 life's soft warmth still seemed to hnger on her lips! I kissed 
 her! 'Twas the first time she returned not my caress! I 
 spoke to her, she replied not — yet she was so like my mother 
 still, I could not think that she was dead, until they bore her 
 away, and I stood by the side of her closing grave! I thought 
 my httle heart would break as I turned from that teirible spot! 
 
26 
 
 The earth to me was like one vast and dismal cemetry ! It 
 had closed over all that had fondly loved me, and I was house- 
 less, unfriended, and alone — like the young twig, that had 
 scattered its last leaf to the merciless wind, left to endure the 
 wintry storm without the shelter of the Parent Stem ! 
 
 To the blackest night, however, the brightest morn may 
 succeed ! 'As the sun may carry pestilence in his beams, the 
 night may scatter healing from its sable wings ! 
 
 Seldom does misfortunes visit the world, abstracted from eve" 
 ry quality of good ! When all is most dark and threatening 
 around, the Father of the fatherless, the God of all comfort, in 
 order to bring them closer to himself, graciously permits the 
 weak and perishing creatures of his power to experience his 
 goodness — to see some Star shining in the darkness, to cheer 
 their drooping spirits — to hear some kind voice telling of a 
 home, where the wretched may fly for comfort, and the weary 
 for repose ! 
 
 Here, with choking utterance, I turn to you, my generous 
 benefactors, and ask, but for your timely sympathy and sup- 
 port, where should I have been now — where my little innocent 
 associates ! Alas ! you may as well ask, where the scattered 
 leaves of Autumn lie ; the yellow leaves, that for a moment 
 flutter in the wind, and then settle down amongst their with- 
 ered companions on the cold, cold ground ; the last sad refuge 
 ■•' of the fallen, the faded, and forlorn !" Ah ! well may it be 
 asked, where should we have been now\ but for this blessed in- 
 stitution ! In some hovel of poverty and crime, perhaps, ut- 
 tering blasphemy and lies instead of the Morning and Even- 
 ing prayer you have taught us to pronounce ! Oh ! it is awful 
 to think, into what aa abyss of misery, here and hereafter, we 
 might have been plunged, unless, like the wearied dove, we 
 had found from the destroying deluge of sin, a shelter in this 
 holy ark ! 
 
 I am told the age in which we live, is one of unexampled be. 
 nevolenee — that Angels have assumed the forms of humanity — 
 that the Sick are visited in their affliction — the Poor have the 
 gospel preached to them ! We can bear blessed testimony, I 
 am sure, that God has put it especially into the hearts of the 
 humane, to provide for the destitute and fatherless ! 
 
23 
 
 What is it that prompts you to bestow a thought upon the 
 Orphan ? What is it that makes the heart meU with tender- 
 ness at the cry of the poor and the needy 1 What is it that 
 gives to pity, its sweetest tear— to love, its most dehcious smile 
 — to feeling, its most generous impulse? What it it that pleads 
 for all these little ones so strongly in the bosom of the virtuous? 
 It is thy voice, O Nature ! Queen of a sunny sky, waking up 
 the affections in the coldest bosom, until they bloom and blos- 
 som as the Rose ! 
 
 I feel, we can look to you, generous friends, with confidence, 
 for the means of a temporal education, and for an eternal hope. 
 
 In the temple where we worship, it is written " Suffer little 
 children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is 
 the kingdom of Heaven." It is the mandate of Jehovah. 
 Who shall gainsay it 1 And oh ! what a harvest of merit and 
 of consolation, is thus given you to gather ! Without your 
 mediation, it is easy for our heavenly parent to provide for 
 those whom he has promised " to preserve alive," but he has 
 chosen rather to associate you with Himself, in the beauty of 
 his own hohness ; putting you as Clouds in the midst, to pour 
 down on others, parched by the burning drought of the world, 
 the dews and fertilizing rains you may receive from Him. 
 
 Every encouragement is afforded you to continue your alms 
 and your prayers in our behalf Already has the Almighty 
 blessed our Institution, by sending forth into the world from 
 among our humble band, characters conspicuous for their tal- 
 ents and their worth, and who knows what future Statesmen 
 may exist even now within our walls, to be formed or lost 
 according to the increase or want of your generosity! Let us 
 hope that many signal distinctions are in store for us, and is it 
 expecting too much, that the instruments of good to society 
 will not be confined to one sex alone, but that even from among 
 the more helpless objects of your bounty, there may, also, go 
 forth with the blessing of God, many a modest Rebecca — 
 many a devout Hannah — many an humble and pious Mary — 
 many an affectionate Rachel, that beloved and loving wife, 
 that beautiful mother of Israel ! 
 
 Love, then, these httle Orphans for your own sake. Re- 
 gard them as your brethren. Cherish them as your offspring. 
 
28 
 
 Consinder them, as our blessed Saviour himself did, in order 
 that when he shall appear again in his glory, and all the An- 
 gels of Heaven with him, he may say unto you on the great 
 day : 
 
 "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom pre- 
 pared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was 
 an hungered, and ye gave me meat : 1 was thirsty, and ye 
 ga^ve me drink : naked and ye clothed me !" 
 
 You will wondering say, " Lord, when saw we tliee an hun- 
 gered, and fed thee ; or thirsty and gave thee drink ; naked 
 and clothed thee .?" 
 
 But the King upon the throne of his glory, will answer and 
 say, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have 
 done it unto the least of these my little ones, you have done it 
 unto Me /" 
 
 O R P H A iN ' S HYMN. 
 
 BY MRS. C. GILMAN. 
 
 Oh ! Thou, who hear'st our orphan sighs, 
 When lowly at thy throne we bend, 
 
 Let this our happier hymn arise, 
 And to thy mercy seat ascend. 
 
 Our infant hours began in gloom. 
 No ray of worldly joy was near; 
 
 Cold want destroyed our early bloom, 
 Pale sorrow called our early tear. 
 
 But, Charity, thy genial light 
 
 Burst thro' the shade and cheered our way, 
 And kindlier still, revealed to sight 
 
 The glories of the Gospel day. 
 
 Great God, for those whose fostering love 
 Has gently nurtured our 5'oung powers, 
 
 We pray, that blessings from above 
 May lightly wing their earthly hours. 
 
 And when the solemn day draws near, 
 That calls our rescued souls to thee. 
 
 Together may we all appear, 
 And iningle in eternity.