DEAR loving sirs! Behold, as ye pass by, The poor sick people with a pitying eye: Let pains, and wounds, and suff'rings of each kind, Raise up a just compassion in your mind; Indulge a gen'rous grief at such a sight, And then bestow your @3talent@1, or your @3mite.@1 Thus to bestow is really to obtain The surest blessing upon honest gain: To help th' afflicted, in so great a need, By your supplies, is to be rich indeed: The good, the pleasure, the reward of wealth Is to procure your fellow-creatures health. In other cases, men may form a doubt, Whether their alms be properly laid out; But in the objects, here, before your eyes, No such distrust can possibly arise; Too plain the miseries! which well may melt A heart, sincerely wishing them unfelt. The wise consider this terrestrial ball, As Heav'n's design'd INFIRMARY for all, Here came the GREAT PHYSICIAN of the soul, To @3heal@1 man's nature, and to make him @3whole:@1 Still, by his SPIRIT, present with all those, Who lend an aid to lessen human woes. A godlike work; who forwards it is sure That ev'ry step advances his own cure; Without benevolence, the view to self Makes worldly riches an unrighteous pelf; While blest thro' life, the giver, for his love, Dies to receive its huge reward above. To them who tread the certain path to bliss, That leads thro' scenes of charity like this, Think what the Saviour of the world will say— "Ye blessed of my Father, come your way; "'Twas done to me, if done to the distress'd: "Come, ye true friends, and be for ever blest. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BROKEN PITCHER by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN CHANSON INNOCENTE: 2 by EDWARD ESTLIN CUMMINGS THE MODERN MAJOR-GENERAL, FR. THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE by WILLIAM SCHWENCK GILBERT IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 54 by ALFRED TENNYSON THE JESTER'S SERMON by GEORGE WALTER THORNBURY |