Help for the needy.
I. THIS IS NATURAL. God has made us mutually dependent on one another. In social order there is an interchange of service, and the general life of the community is simply maintained by people helping one another. The cases of extreme distress are those in which the reciprocity breaks down because the hungry and helpless can make no return for what they receive. Still they are part of the body, and if "one member suffer, all the members suffer with it" (1 Corinthians 12:26). The "solidarity of man" is such that the needy are naturally dependent on others for maintenance.
II. THIS IS SIMPLE. Only water and bread are here referred to. These are the most necessary things; but they are also the most accessible. A poor man who cannot give the smallest coin to a beggar may yet offer a cup of cold water. Of course, true sympathy will lead us to desire to help up to the utmost of our powers. But a very great amount of distress might be alleviated without a proportionate expenditure of money; e.g. penny, halfpenny, and even farthing dinners for children give an assistance far beyond what their cost suggests.
III. THIS IS UNCONDITIONAL. At least the one condition is need. We have not to consider merits when we relieve extreme distress. Water to the thirsty and bread to the starving should be given at the mere sight of extreme need, though the recipients are quite undeserving. This we admit by our poor-law. As soon as the immediate and pressing needs are supplied, other and more difficult questions must be considered. If we go further we may pauperize the objects of our charity. It is necessary, therefore, to consider character and methods of help suited to lift, not to degrade, the recipients. Here most complicated problems arise. But the primary help is simple and unconditional.
IV. THIS IS CHRIST-LIKE. Our Lord took pity on the world's sore need. He did not consider whether he could find "deserving cases." He offered his salvation to the most undeserving. Need, not merit, was the call that brought him from heaven. The most undeserving are really the most needing of help, not indeed with lavish doles of charity that will keep them in idleness, but, after the first necessaries are supplied to maintain life itself, by a kind of assistance that will raise them and better them. How to give this help is a most difficult question. We cannot do better than to follow our Lord's example. He raises where he helps. The grace of Christ never pauperizes the soul.
V. THE NEGLECT OF THIS IS A GREAT SIN. Eliphaz was unjust in accusing Job of such a sin. In the eyes of the Oriental, often dependent on casual hospitality for life itself in the desert, to refuse water and bread to the needy was a gross wrong. You may kill your enemy with the sword, but you must not deny him water to drink and bread to eat when he comes to you as a guest. Christianity widens and deepens the obligation. Though in various forms suited to the various circumstances of the world as we find it, brotherly helpfulness is always expected of Christ's people. It is taken as a service rendered to himself. The neglect of it is a reason for rejection at the great judgment (Matthew 25:41-46).—W.F.A.