Shut not thy purse-strings always against painted distress.

Shut not thy purse-strings always against painted distress.

Our lives are to be used and thus to be lived as fully as possible, and truly it seems that read more

Our lives are to be used and thus to be lived as fully as possible, and truly it seems that we are never so alive as when we concern ourselves with other people.

Pity the sorrow of a poor old man,
Whose trembling limbs have brought him to your door.

Pity the sorrow of a poor old man,
Whose trembling limbs have brought him to your door.

Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.

Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.

In misery's darkest caverns known,
His useful care was ever nigh,
Where hopeless Anguish pour'd his groan,
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In misery's darkest caverns known,
His useful care was ever nigh,
Where hopeless Anguish pour'd his groan,
And lonely want retir'd to die.

Alas! for the rarity
Of Christian charity
Under the sun.
Oh! it was pitiful!
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Alas! for the rarity
Of Christian charity
Under the sun.
Oh! it was pitiful!
Near a whole city full,
Home had she none.

A kind and gentle heart he had,
To comfort friends and foes;
The naked every day he read more

A kind and gentle heart he had,
To comfort friends and foes;
The naked every day he clad
When he put on his clothes.

His house was known to all the vagrant train,
He chid their wanderings but reliev'd their pain;
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His house was known to all the vagrant train,
He chid their wanderings but reliev'd their pain;
The long remembered beggar was his guest,
Whose beard descending swept his aged breast.

He scorn'd his own, who felt another's woe.

He scorn'd his own, who felt another's woe.