t 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
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Return this book on or before the 
 Latest Date stamped below. 
 
 University of Illinois Library 
 
 L161 — H41 
 
PAUPERISM IN GREAT CITIES : ■ 
 
 THE DUTIES WHICH IT IMPOSES, WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR 
 
 ITS CURE. 
 
 PR K ACHED IN THE 
 
 THIRD REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH, 
 
 SUNDAY EVENING, JANUARY 11, 1857. 
 
 OX I5KHALF OP THE 
 
 llorfjjerii join t for JfrienOlcss Cljrfbreit, 
 
 By REV. JOHN JENKINS, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE CALVARY PRESBY T BRIAN C H U RCH. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 HENRY B. ASHMEAD, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, 
 GEORGE STREET ABOVE ELEVENTH. 
 
 1857 . 
 
 
a .n hv^ ^ 
 
 % 
 
 The following Discourse was not written with a view to publication. The 
 Trustees of the Institution on whose behalf it was delivered, have preferred a 
 request for the manuscript in such terms as the author could not reasonably 
 disregard. If their expectations be realized, and its extensive perusal 11 prove 
 of great value to the interests of their growing institution and of the commu- 
 nity at large,” he will not regret having yielded his own judgment to theirs. 
 Especially will he rejoice if his remarks on u Pauperism in Great Cities ” call 
 forth a practical discussion of this most difficult subject. 
 
 January 22, 1857. 
 
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 372225 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/pauperismingreatOOjenk 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 t 
 
 A FATHER OF THE FATHERLESS IS God IN HIS HOLY HABITATION. — 
 
 Psalm lxviii. 5. 
 
 Judge the fatherless. — Isaiah i. 17, 
 
 Oppress not the fatherless. — Zechariah vii. 10. 
 
 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this ; to visit 
 the fatherless in their affliction. — James i. 27. 
 
 The theory of religion is better understood than its 
 practice, its doctrines than its laws. No less true is it 
 that those requirements of Christianity which relate 
 directly to the Creator, are more intelligently appre- 
 ciated than those w r hich relate to man. These facts, by 
 no means creditable to the Christian community, are not 
 to he ascribed to any lack of instruction upon these 
 practical questions in the Bible, but rather to over- 
 sight and negligence on the part of the pulpit. Those 
 who have occupied the place of public religious teachers 
 have seemed more anxious to instruct men in doctrines 
 than in precepts ; to excite their hearers to sectarian 
 rivalry rather than to Christian duty. We have taken a 
 deep interest in Creeds and Confessions, and have over- 
 looked that which is the fruit of faith — practical obe- 
 dience to divine law : or when we have set ourselves 
 to explain Christian obligations, we have been more 
 ready to insist upon the duty of prayer and Bible read- 
 ing and communing, than upon those requirements 
 
6 
 
 which are laid upon the Christian in the relations which 
 he sustains to commerce, to society and to the family. 
 This is a great error, and it calls for instant correction. 
 We need in the present day a ministry that will go forth 
 and tell men what they ought to do , as well as what they 
 l ought to believe; to tell them their obligations to their 
 1 fellows, as well as their duty to God. 
 
 I have intimated that there is no lack of such instruc- 
 tions in the Bible. You can scarcely conceive of a rela- 
 tion in life for whose most minute and delicate compli- 
 cations the code of Christianity does not provide. The 
 politician and the private citizen, the ruler and the gov- 
 erned, the merchant and the mechanic, the master and 
 the servant, the parent and the child, the rich and the 
 poor may find in Holy Scripture the minutest regulations 
 for the discharge of their several duties. 
 
 It will be conceded that every man, that is, Christian 
 man, for it is of such and to such alone that we now 
 speak, owes obligations to society which he cannot 
 neglect without sin. The Creator of all things has con- 
 stituted society ; it is his Providence which has thrown 
 men together and placed them in their several relations ; 
 and he has fixed upon the human community this law, 
 ^ “ No man liveth to himself.” Such is the influence of 
 mind upon mind, of character upon character, and such 
 the power of the example of one over the conduct of an- 
 other, that it is not possible for a man to remain unin- 
 (fluential: he must exert an influence, if not for good 
 1 certainly for evil. 
 
 It will be conceded that the requisitions of Chris- 
 tianity from men in their social relations, depend upon 
 the accidents (using the word in a logical sense) of life. 
 That there are duties, for example, enforced upon parents, 
 
which are not looked for from children ; upon masters, 
 which are not demanded from servants ; upon the rich, 
 which are not enjoined upon the poor. To' present 
 this thought in another form, there are duties from 
 which some are exempted, neglect of which by others 
 would be sin. A child might not inflict punishment 
 upon a criminal brother, whereas correction for the fault 
 would be incumbent upon their common parent. An 
 utterly destitute man might with impunity behold a 
 widow or an orphan in the depths of poverty with- 
 out affording personal relief ; but for a rich man to do 
 likewise would be a grave dereliction of duty. We owe 
 social obligations then, varying according to the several 
 positions which we sustain and to the differences that 
 may exist in our circumstances and relations. This is 
 equal to saying that power to do this or that — and when 
 I speak of “ power,” I use the word in a comprehensive 
 sense as including authority, ability and opportunity — 
 presupposing the existence of a knowledge of law, is that 
 standard of moral obligation by which man will be here- 
 after judged. An illustration will make my meaning 
 clear : Here are two men of wealth ; one of them pro- 
 poses to leave his country and to reside in another ; he 
 sails in a ship in whose hold he deposits his entire pro- 
 perty; a storm arises, she is driven on a desolate island; 
 of all the voyagers he alone is saved. He begins to pro- 
 vide for his sustenance, wanders along the shore in 
 search of food, and when the storm subsides repairs to 
 the wreck ; his treasures of silver and gold remain undis- 
 turbed ; he recovers them, and is as rich in possessions 
 as he ever was ; but who will say that this man is under 
 obligations similar to those which Christianty would have 
 demanded had Providence permitted him to fulfill his 
 
8 
 
 original intention of residing in a populous country? In 
 the latter case the law of Christ would require him to 
 expend his substance in doing good ; in the former, he 
 has not the power to aid a single living man, and he 
 justly claims exemption from this duty. The castaway 
 will be judged on very different principles from those of 
 his rich neighbour whom he left behind in the midst of 
 a large and needy population; or more correctly they 
 will both be judged on one general principle, a principle 
 which will guide every final decision of the Judge of 
 all; — the acceptance of a man “ according to that he 
 hath, [of knowledge of power of opportunity,] not 
 according to that he hath not.” 
 
 These general principles it may be well to apply. 
 
 I might show you that in relation to the world at large 
 there is no discovery, geographical, historical, scientific ; 
 no new development of idolatry or of general crime ; no 
 new information respecting the wants or the distresses 
 of a country, which does not impose obligations, the 
 neglect of whose discharge by us would be morally 
 wrong. Let me give you an example from a branch of 
 discovery with which, perhaps, we would be least likely 
 to connect a Christian duty. The Assyrian researches of 
 ^ Layard created the duty (which rested upon every man 
 who had the opportunity) of becoming acquainted with 
 the bearing of those researches upon the history, and 
 therefore upon the evidences of the Bible, that he might 
 be the better able to defend the Christian system 
 against the attacks of infidels, or to settle the doubts 
 and aid the investigations of persons who are inquiring 
 after the Truth. An earthquake burying its thousands 
 and impoverishing its myriads; a pestilence or a famine 
 multiplying the number and the distresses of widows 
 
{) 
 
 and orphans, a war between two nations devastating* 
 countries and destroying armies, create duties ; — the 
 duty especially of practical sympathy, if we have it in 
 our power, the duty at least of exerting influence to 
 alleviate the sufferings of general humanity. 
 
 I might demonstrate to you, in like manner, that in 
 relation to one’s country, there is no new phase of its 
 passing history, there is no new development in the 
 sphere of national morals, there is no wrong committed 
 towards persons or classes or sections, there is no change 
 of principles in a political party, there is no creation of 
 a new one, which does not involve the discharge by the 
 citizen of new requirements. Who doubts that the 
 republican character of the institutions of a land whose 
 political creed is that 6t all men are equal,” imposes upon 
 citizens a duty which could not devolve upon the sub- 
 jects of an absolute monarch? That the acquisition of 
 territory, or the reception into the Union of a new state 
 lays obligations upon every citizen (if he has the power,) 
 to advance its political and religious interests? — Or that 
 the existence of slavery, with its confessedly great evils, 
 does not lay upon Christian citizens everywhere in the 
 land, obligations which they would not know if it no 
 longer remained an incubus and a blot upon the country? 
 
 This principle will hold good if we still narrow down 
 the sphere of our observations and confine them to the 
 city, to the circle of friendship, or to the family. 
 
 But I am specially desirous at this time to show you 
 that the circumstances of the city in which we live, that 
 every new feature in its history, that every changing 
 phase either encouraging or otherwise, of the morals 
 and condition of the people, call for the discharge of 
 obligations to which otherwise you would be strangers. 
 
 9 
 
Tfie drunkenness of the city imposes upon every citizen 
 the necessity of exertions on his part to diminish the 
 power of this parent vice. The profaneness of the city 
 requires us to employ every means within our individual 
 ability to lessen and wipe away this stain upon the 
 population. The religious destitution of certain por- 
 tions of the city loudly calls upon us to establish Sabbath- 
 schools and to build Missionary churches. Yea, there 
 is not a single case of destitution, there is not an indi- 
 gent widow or an unprotected orphan or a sick and needy 
 laborer, whose case does not call for distinct and sepa- 
 rate action — or at least does not demand individual 
 efforts to relieve or to seek to relieve its necessities. 
 
 Especially does the pauperism of this city impose 
 upon the inhabitants generally, and chiefly upon its 
 Christian inhabitants, obligations whose instant dis- 
 charge is imperative. The interests of humanity, the 
 morals of the city, the progress of religion among the 
 people, are intimately associated with the subject of 
 pauperism. For one, I am persuaded, that more impor- 
 tance should be attached to this question, than to any 
 other which calls for the consideration and action of 
 Philadelphians, as such. I know that to deal with pau- 
 perism aright, especially in populous communities, re- 
 quires wisdom integrity and resolution on the part of the 
 authorities of a city, which are seldom evinced, and which 
 it seems scarcely possible to secure by a popular vote. 
 But surely the citizens of Philadelphia ought to know 
 to what we are tending by the system which at present 
 prevails — a system which none approve but those whom 
 it enriches — a system which is a premium upon idleness 
 and filth and crime. I speak not here of the enormous 
 tax which the system imposes upon holders of property, 
 
11 
 
 — this is a question for council chambers and newspa- 
 pers. Its moral aspects only belong to the pulpit and 
 the preacher, and to my mind they assume a serious- 
 ness and a gravity which it seems difficult to describe 
 and even to appreciate. The speaker is a firm believer 
 in the doctrine that each city and town should provide 
 for its own poor. He believes that the amplest relief 
 should be extended to the indigent sick, that the case 
 of indigent lunatics should not be passed by, and that 
 some means should be devised for the protection of poor 
 widows, and for the withdrawing of the fatherless and 
 the orphan from the debasing influence of pauperism. 
 The sick, the lunatic, the widow usually, and the or- 
 phan, come not under the class of “ paupers.” They are 
 poor — involuntarily poor, and their condition is to be 
 traced up to the arrangements of a Providence, which, 
 while they are eminently bountiful, are at the same time 
 deeply mysterious. But these are a small proportion, com- 
 paratively, of those who are thrown year by year upon 
 the voluntary or involuntary bounties of citizens. The 
 mass of the relieved in that gigantic pile which over- 
 shadows the western portion of Philadelphia, are the 
 slaves of indolence, and they are nourished in this crime 
 by the system which is perpetuated, if not purposely 
 persisted in by those who have been entrusted with the 
 civic government. Where there exists an institution 
 into which able bodied men and women, in any number, 
 are introduced and fed and warmed and clothed month 
 by month, winter after winter, without being required to 
 labor, there will never be wanting a sufficient number of 
 individuals to fill it — a sufficient number willing to de- 
 grade themselves by voluntary dependence upon others. 
 It cramps the energies, and blunts the enterprise, and 
 
demoralizes the aims, and destroys the provident fore- 
 thought of a large class amongst us, to know that how- 
 ever reckless of expenditure they may be in the months 
 of summer, that however given to drunkenness and other 
 no less pernicious vices, an extravagant city will feed 
 and clothe and house and nurse them in slothfulness for 
 a whole winter. This prospect it is which rivets families 
 of the very poor class to our large eastern cities, and their 
 unfortunate children perpetuate among us the pernicious 
 habits which they acquire from their indolent parents. 
 
 Now if it were well understood by our poor that no 
 unremunerated relief would be available in summer or 
 winter, except for the infirm adult and the friendless 
 child, but that every one competent to execute a day’s 
 work would be required to do so on pain of punishment, 
 that idleness persisted in w ould be treated as a crime 
 against the State and visited with imprisonment, then 
 not only would these pauperized families be compelled 
 to go out into the western portions of the country and to 
 seek for labor, but the pauper institutions of the city 
 would become self-sustaining, if not remunerative. The 
 example which has been set by New Haven, might be 
 advantageously followed by the more populous Eastern 
 cities. In that city, the pauper establishment has been 
 more than self-sustaining. Farming and horticultural 
 pursuits have been successfully carried on, and the citi- 
 zens have been relieved from a financial burden which 
 presses upon other cities ; while they have checked, by 
 their wise measures, the progress of an evil which is a 
 blight and a curse upon almost every other large com- 
 munity in the country. Every Christian and every 
 philanthropist has a duty to discharge in relation to our 
 almshouse system, and that is to break it up; to produce 
 
IB 
 
 the most radical change in its measures and in its plans : 
 for the pauperism which it engenders is a source to the 
 city of ignorance, of filthiness, of intemperance, and every 
 other vileness and crime : it taints the whole city, it 
 stays the progress of education, it cripples the success 
 of moral and religious effort, and it communicates its 
 terrible evils to families and neighborhoods, which but 
 for its existence, would he characterized by at least 
 ordinary thrift and comfort. 
 
 / There is another duty which the pauperism of the 
 city imposes upon citizens, namely, the most resolute absti- 
 nence from indiscriminate almsgiving. This, I am per- 
 suaded, is the most fruitful of all the causes of pauperism. 
 The individual citizen who bestows charity upon the 
 beggar in the street or at the door, without taking the 
 trouble to inquire into the merits of the applicant, inflicts 
 a serious moral and religious injury upon the city in 
 which he resides, and is responsible, in no less measure 
 than they w T ho support the almshouse system, for the 
 perpetuation and increase of this great civic curse. If 
 it were generally understood among the poor, that 
 no relief would be afforded to any street beggar by 
 the respectable inhabitants of the city, those paupers 
 who now subsist upon the door-to-door system, would 
 be constrained in most cases to rely upon their own 
 resources, or to repair to other cities. Will not our citi- 
 zens see this to be greatly to their interest ? Will they 
 not understand that the systems of relief which now 
 prevail will in a short time bring ruin upon the whole 
 community ? I know not to what results the pauper 
 statistics of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania w T ould lead, 
 but I imagine that so far at least as Philadelphia is con- 
 cerned, they would not greatly differ from those of the 
 
14 
 
 State of New York. There I find that in 1831 there was 
 one pauper to every one hundred and twenty-three per- 
 sons ; that in 1841 there was one pauper to every thirty- 
 nine persons; and that in 1851 there was one pauper to 
 every twenty-four persons ! Should the same ratio con- 
 tinue fifteen years longer there will be in the State of 
 New York (not the city) one pauper to every five per- 
 sons ! ! A startling result, and one which imperatively 
 demands the most strenuous interference on the part 
 of intelligent citizens both Christian and simply philan- 
 thropic. 
 
 There is another obligation which the pauperism of 
 the city lays upon the Christian community, and that is 
 the support of those great voluntary institutions which 
 have been established among us for the discriminating 
 relief of the poor and friendless. These institutions 
 are valuable in proportion to the amount of scrutiny 
 with which their operations are conducted — valuable as 
 tending to a diminution of the evil whose cure every one 
 of us most earnestly desires. I need not enumerate 
 these institutions or applaud either their patrons or their 
 managers ; they are known far and near, their praise is 
 everywhere spoken of, their acts of charity and self- 
 denial have gone up before heaven with acceptance, and 
 have been rich in beneficial results to thousands of sick 
 and otherwise distressed poor. But there is a class of 
 institutions which demand from us, in this connection, 
 earnest consideration. I refer to the “ homes for friend- 
 less children ,” which have been established in our city. 
 Here it seems to me we are beginning to meet the diffi- 
 culty which the great question of the extermination of 
 pauperism has so long presented to us. These “ homes,” 
 could they be sufficiently enlarged or multiplied, would 
 
diminish, to an almost incredible extent, this monstrous 
 evil. No able-bodied pauper is fit to be entrusted with 
 the management of his children, and could we but with- 
 draw them while they are young from the pernicious 
 influence which surrounds them, pauperism could no 
 longer be propagated in the community ; it might be in- 
 troduced from other countries, but it could not be repro- 
 duced to any great extent in the United States. This is 
 what is being done in this city and in New York by in- 
 stitutions similar to that whose interests have convened 
 us this evening; and with every feeling of friendship 
 towards our sister institution in the southern part of 
 the city, with all admiration of the efficient manner in 
 which it is conducted, and with the fullest appreciation 
 of the great benefits which it confers upon the commu- 
 nity, we yet claim for The Northern Home a high place 
 in the consideration, in the liberalities, in the affections 
 and, let me add, in the prayers of the Christian com- 
 munity. 
 
 Reflect for a moment or two upon the fact that a large 
 number of our adult street-beggars have been engaged in 
 this miserable calling from their youth. The little girls 
 and boys av ho noAV Avait at our back-doors from day to 
 day, and Avho assail every respectable person that walks 
 our streets, are the future adult beggars of the city. 
 They acquire the habit of begging ; they are taught that 
 it is more easy and indeed more lucrative to beg than to 
 work, as unfortunately it is made to be by the indiscrimi- 
 nate liberality of our citizens, and this habit and opinion 
 cleave to them, until having arrived at mature age, they 
 live and die in beggary and want, and sink doAvn hope- 
 lessly into the grave. Some of these young beggars are 
 orphans, or foundlings, or children Avho have been stolen, 
 
and they are sent out into the streets to shiver and to beg 
 for their masters and mistresses, those beggar lords and 
 ladies who sit in comfort and laziness, and eat and drink 
 luxuriously in their filthy homes. Others of them are 
 children of these unnatural parents, whose only care for 
 them and of them is excited by the most selfishly low r 
 considerations ; for were it not for their pauper street- 
 earnings, they would be abandoned and allowed to perish. 
 It is sometimes asked, “Can it be right to sever, even in 
 these circumstances, children from their parents?” Our 
 reply is that in every natural and moral aspect, these 
 little ones are without father and without mother. Will 
 you tell me that that little girl who is kept by her parents 
 to beg for their support, who is kept only for this, who is 
 cruelly beaten when she is not successful, and is treated 
 to liquor when she takes home large gains, — will you tell 
 me that such a child is not fatherless ? — is not an orphan ? 
 Yea, verily, her father and her mother have forsaken her. 
 If some persons are so incredulous as to doubt the exist- 
 * ence of such cases of unnaturalness, of worse than bru- 
 tality, on the part of parents, I have only to refer them 
 to the records of this Association. Here to the shame 
 of our common and, be it said, noble humanity, will be 
 found examples of parental dereliction and degradation 
 far deeper and more appalling than anything which I 
 have mentioned this evening. You can find here the 
 proofs that “a mother may forget her sucking child,” 
 and that a child can have parents and yet be an orphan. 
 What is to be done with these children? We say, 
 wherever you have the opportunity rescue them from 
 the pernicious influence and example and habits which 
 now enthral and threaten to destroy them ; give them 
 the blessings of cleanliness, of intercourse with other 
 
17 
 
 children, of religious as well as moral instruction, and, as 
 soon as it can be done, send them into Christian families 
 to be indentured or adopted, and so trained to be useful 
 and respectable men and women, and to be by the grace 
 of God earnest and devoted Christians. This is pre- 
 cisely what “ The Home” is doing. Who will say that it 
 is not a legitimate, yea, holy work to pluck up these 
 young neglected degraded creatures from the pit into 
 which their parents have cast them to struggle in the 
 mire of pauperism ? I would extend this system ; I 
 would fill the institutions which at present exist, and I 
 would then multiply them until this element of our 
 social city life shall become entirely absorbed. 
 
 I think I have shown you with a clearness sufficient 
 to produce conviction, that as citizens merely, you 
 have a duty to discharge in relation to this Home ; that 
 your individual interests as property' -holders should lead 
 to its liberal support by you; that anything likely to 
 check, though it should be in only a small degree, the 
 pauperism of this great city should be thoroughly sus- 
 tained. 
 
 But there is a Christian aspect in which I desire to 
 place before you this merciful institution. 
 
 In the first place, the cause of the orphan and other- 
 wise friendless child is the cause of religion — of the reli- 
 gion which you profess. It is inseparably associated 
 with every phase and form of true Christianity. Yea, it 
 belonged to the system of religion which preceded Chris- 
 tianity, and of which it was the precursor. I know not how 
 it has struck you, but me it has deeply impressed that no 
 class of duties was more urgently enforced by the Jewish 
 prophets, and that no negligence of duty was more se- 
 verely denounced, than that which related to the care 
 
18 
 
 and the relief of the widow and the fatherless. The 
 passages into which this subject is introduced, are very 
 numerous : — “ Thy princes are rebellious,” exclaims the 
 son of Amoz, “and companions of thieves; every one 
 loveth gifts and followeth after rewards ; they judge not 
 the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come 
 unto them.” His exhortation, too, in connection with 
 the promise of pardon is very striking : “ Wash you, 
 make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from 
 before mine eyes : cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek 
 judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, 
 plead for the widow.” “Wo unto them that take away 
 the right from the poor of my people,” he again cries 
 out, “ that widows may be their prey, and that they may 
 rob the fatherless.” Jeremiah is still more severe : 
 “ They overpass the deeds of the wicked, they judge 
 not the cause of the fatherless.” But I need not multi- 
 ply quotations ; you know, your very instincts tell you, 
 that it is irreligious to neglect the suffering, and espe- 
 cially the helpless suffering. “ Pure religion and unde- 
 filed before God and the Father is” — what ? — not or- 
 thodoxy — not order — not show — not a loud profession — 
 not a name for wealth, for endowments — not many and 
 long prayers, — No ! but “ to visit the fatherless and the 
 widows in their affliction.” Godlike religion ! for “ a 
 father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widow, is 
 God in his holy habitation.” Godlike, indeed ! for 
 when the father and the mother of a child “ forsake it, 
 then the Lord takes it up.” 
 
 There are in this city, thousands of deserted children, 
 and no man till lately has cared for them. Now, the 
 religion of the city begins to assume the divine model, 
 and to take up into its arms forsaken children. The 
 
19 
 
 Christian women of the city have gone out after them, 
 and now in this single Institution, there are nearly one 
 hundred little ones, rescued from indigent and indifferent 
 and slothful and vicious parents. Or if they have no 
 parents, rescued from the baser and more pernicious 
 example of wicked patrons, who only keep them for 
 purposes of gain. We will suppose these precious chil- 
 dren destitute of this home : Where now would be those 
 infants that have been left on the commons or the va- 
 cant lots, to perish in the cold? Where now would be 
 those children whose parents have had to suffer the pen- 
 alty of civil law for crime ? Where now would be those 
 bright little ones who have been adopted by Christian 
 men and Christian ladies in different parts of the coun- 
 try, and are now enjoying the blessings of civilized life, 
 of social intercourse, and of Christian education ? Where 
 now would be those children who have been apprenticed 
 to various callings, and who will mostly grow up to ha- 
 bits of industry, many of them to wealth ? Where now 
 would be the scores of children who have this day en- 
 joyed the blessings of the Sabbath in yonder “Home?” — 
 who in cleanliness and comfort, have sung together 
 praises, to which heretofore their lips and their ears 
 have been wholly strangers. — have “ sung of heaven and 
 # learned the way” to that blessed world ? Where ? — In 
 the hovels of your city-beggars, surrounded by intox- 
 icated beasts in the form of men and women, listening to 
 profaneness of the basest kind, and observing the com- 
 mission of crimes whose very mention would appall you. 
 Where ? — In the streets, at your doors begging — lying 
 — swearing — corrupting those bright, elegantly attired 
 children whom you send out for exercise and for air. 
 Where? — Swelling the vast aggregate of pauperism 
 
20 
 
 which threatens to dry up the financial and moral re- 
 sources of the city. Praise God, for a religion which 
 teaches us the laws of kindness, and which commands 
 us to care for the children who are forsaken ! It is the 
 Lord who has taken up these little children. You are 
 hut instruments whom he employs to do his work ; He 
 put it into your hearts to go out after them ; He put it 
 into your hearts to build that beautiful house and to in- 
 vest it with the brightness and the beauty and the com- 
 fort of a Christian home ; He put it into the hearts of 
 your patrons to aid you in this labor of love, and He will 
 still support you and sustain you and encourage you 
 and bless you in your work — in His work rather — His 
 work — it is His, not yours ; and it must and will be car- 
 ried on. 
 
 There is another Christian aspect of this work : I refer 
 to the direct personal religious instructions which these 
 children receive. I know how young they are when they 
 leave you for their new homes ; but who shall say how 
 much may not be accomplished, even in these early years, 
 in relation to the subject of personal godliness ? Who 
 will say that the grain of mustard seed, deposited in the 
 youthful mind, and committed to the keeping of God, 
 shall not by-and-by vegetate and bring forth? And 
 then these children, as far as possible, are placed under, 
 moral influences after they leave “ the Home” — and they 
 are followed by the prayers of these Christian women, 
 w T ho have labored to rescue them from vice and idleness 
 and beggary. The love of souls , then, should constrain 
 you to lend a helping hand to this institution, and to 
 send up to heaven earnest supplications for its success. 
 But you need only go to this Home, and visit it, and see 
 for yourselves this great work, to induce you to contri- 
 bute liberally towards its support. 
 
21 
 
 I wish I could read to you the minutes of “the commit- 
 tee of admission” from the beginning to the end. It has 
 given me such a view of the importance of this* work, as 
 I could not otherwise have obtained. You must allow 
 me to supply an extract under date, July 15th, 1856. 
 “M. W., a relative of J. D., released him to the 
 managers by virtue of a special resolution of the com- 
 mittee, at a previous meeting. She stated her utter 
 inability to support the child, and that unless we were 
 willing to receive it into the Institution she would leave 
 it on some stranger’s door-step. It was expressly stated 
 to her, before agreeing to receive her boy, that we would 
 probably have him immediately adopted by a person at 
 a distance, and she would never again, in that event, 
 have an opportunity of seeing him. She willingly agreed 
 to the arrangement, and released him. On the same 
 afternoon Mrs. P., of S. County, Virginia, applied to 
 adopt the child ; she was accompanied by Dr. K. of this 
 city, whose application on her behalf had been decided 
 favourably. J. D. was sent in the morning to the Girard 
 House where Mrs. P. was stopping. On the next 
 morning she left for Virginia with her adopted son.” 
 
 “ Since then the most satisfactory information has been 
 received of the welfare of the child, and the increasing 
 ^interest which is taken in it by both its foster parents.” 
 
 I will not extend these quotations. The merits of 
 this scheme are fully known, and the Christian managers 
 and trustees of this “ Home for Friendless Children,” cast 
 themselves upon the Christian sympathy and the gene- 
 rous bounty of their friends. I am no beggar. I should 
 be ashamed to beg. I am here to show you what is 
 your duty to God in this matter. I am here to tell you 
 that if you are created in the image of God by the Spirit 
 
22 
 
 of regeneration, you have a heart and a will to help 
 those whom God helps, and in whom he takes so special 
 an interest. I am here to entreat you to be “ merciful 
 as your Father in Heaven is merciful.” I am here to 
 teach you that as God is the Father of the friendless 
 child, you too ought to become its father and its friend. 
 I am here to assure you that what you contribute to- 
 night for this cause, is not given but lent, — lent to the 
 Lord, with a promise under his own hand that he will 
 pay it again. God has blessed you, my hearers ; he has 
 not left your children friendless. — Look at them as they 
 sit round your table, and as they adorn and beautify the 
 domestic and social circle — like flowers in a green-house ; 
 look at them amply fed and clothed, elevated by educa- 
 tion and refinement, cheered and brightened by friend- 
 ship; and then, think of these wanderers of our city — 
 these children of want — and say whether they shall be 
 left in their destitution to become a curse to the city 
 and at last to go down to death, eternal death ! God 
 has blessed you — many of you — with wealth : tell me an 
 object which calls for your present liberalities more 
 divine than this ; tell me a feature in the religion of 
 Christ more Godlike than that of visiting the widow, the 
 fatherless and the friendless. Shall these friends plead 
 in vain ? I hope you will not allow the cause to suffer 
 from any defect in the nature or earnestness of the 
 appeal of him whom they have selected to be their advo- 
 cate, but that this evening the Institution will receive 
 from you that support which its growing necessities 
 demand. Do not be afraid to give to a cause which 
 commends itself to all denominations of Christians, and 
 to every religious heart. Do not shrink from giving by 
 hundreds; — give it a place, too, in your wills, that 
 
23 
 
 children, when you lie rotten in the grave, may call you 
 blessed. “Forasmuch as ye have done it unto one of 
 the least of these, ye have done it unto me.” * 
 
 I cannot dismiss you without a direct reference to the 
 matter of personal religion. I have been pleading the 
 cause of the fatherless and the friendless. My hearers, 
 are you the children of grace — are you regenerated by 
 the Holy Spirit ? — have you made your peace with God, 
 and does he now accept you ? If not, you are orphans, 
 and have no friend; you are wandering about without 
 a home — destitute and in rags. — 0 thou prodigal! 
 Come ! come to the home which has been prepared for 
 thee — a home for a friendless sinner, such as thou art ! — 
 A kind reception awaits thee — a hearty pardon — a new 
 dress — sufficient food — a home, the Church — and by- 
 and-by a second home, another adoption into the home of 
 angels and of God. Whither art thou going? Art thou, 
 like one of those destitute children, wandering hopelessly 
 through time and the world ? hast thou not a Father in 
 heaven ? hast thou no delight in a father s smile ? no joy 
 in a father’s walk as he takes his children by the hand 
 and leads them forth? Why should it be so? God is 
 ready to become thy Father; — God is ready to receive 
 thee into his own arms, and to take thee up to inter- 
 course and fellowship and sonship into his own divine 
 bosom. 
 
foa tljc '§entkknt public. 
 
 The Northern Home for Friendless Children is very 
 much in need of funds to carry on its highly salutary 
 charitable work ; especially so, as the City Councils have 
 reduced their annual appropriation to one-half the amount 
 received in previous years, in consequence of the em- 
 barrassed condition of the finances of the City. 
 
 The Managers appreciate and most gratefully acknow- 
 ledge, the liberal aid which they have heretofore received 
 from many of our citizens. They believe that there is 
 no Institution in this community, that has a firmer place 
 in the affections of all classes than their own : and they 
 are conscious of employing their humble efforts, and ap- 
 propriating the contributions they receive, in the most 
 judicious manner and for the best interests of the help- 
 less, friendless little children, which are the special ob- 
 jects of their care. 
 
 Contributions and subscriptions are respectfully and 
 earnestly solicited. They may be sent to 
 
 THOMAS EARP, President, 
 
 North-east corner Seventh and Arch Streets. 
 
 JOHN W. CLAGHORN, Treasurer, 
 
 No. 383 Arch above Tenth Street, — or to 
 
 McGREGOR J. MITCHESON, Secretary and Counsel, 
 
 No. 152 Walnut Street below Sixth, or Coates west of Fifteenth Street. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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BROWN AND TWENTY-THIRD STREETS. 
 
 •• When my father and my mother forsake me. then the Lord will take me up. ’ 
 
 Psalm xxvii. 10. 
 

 
 
 
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