THE

"LITTLE GLEANER" AND

"SOWER" WIDOWS' HOMES.

FACING the first page of our new volume is an engraving representing these quiet free dwellings, erected last year by the united kindness and liberality of our readers. The readiness of mind manifested by our dear readers to join us in different works of mercy seems to draw our hearts together in sympathetic bonds, and we trust will only be a means of stirring us up to labour through the year 1873, should the Lord spare us, with new zeal and courage. Our days are rapidly passing; our opportunities of serving our generation are fast slipping through our fingers. Q for wisdom and grace to "redeem the time," or, as the learned sometimes render the words, "buy up opportunities." May we be willing to be at some expense, both of pains and pay, to get and embrace opportunities of doing good. Our free Homes can hardly be dignified, in the sense that endowed homes are, with the title of "Almshouses;" still, the hearths of their thankful inhabitants have often blazed with coals supplied by the alms of our dear readers, and we trust will still do so. Although Pisgah Cottages and the Widows' Homes are not endowed almshouses, in putting the annexed engraving before our readers we have felt disposed to give them Old Humphrey's "Pithy Paper"

ON ALMSHOUSES.

"I AM fond," said Old Humphrey, "ay, very fond, of almshouses, let them be erected upon what plan they may. Whether built in a straight line, a crescent, a circle or a square; whether stone, brick, cemented, or stuccoed, so that they are almshouses for the widow and the aged, I regard them with heartfelt satisfaction.

"As soon as I see a square or an oval stone in the front of small houses inscribed, 'Dame Dorothy Hunt, of Bocking, in Essex, bequeathed by will the sum of five hundred pounds for the erection of almshouses; or, 'These twelve almshouses were built and endowed A.D. 1871, at the sole cost of Mr. Samuel Harwars, draper and citizen of London ;' or, Mrs. Agnes Aldershaw, spinster, of Whitby, in Yorkshire, erected these almshouses for the reception of sixteen poor women;' or, 'The six almshouses belonging to the Worshipful Company of Girdlers were rebuilt by the said company; or, indeed, with any other inscription of a similar kind, my heart yearns towards the inmates of the place, and I make a pause and call back to my memory some whom I knew of the excellent of the earth, who once inhabited almshouses, but who now, as I humbly hope and trust, are inhabitants of 'a build ing of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens' (2 Cor. v. 1).

"Even now I can see poor widow Winn in her old arm-chair, thanking God for the load of coals which has been just stocked up in her coal-hole. Widow Nokes, too, as lowly-minded and grateful a creature as ever soaked a hard crust in a cup of tea, she is before me, and I, seated on the side of her little bedstead with a friend, am reading to her from her dog's-eared Bible, the fortieth chapter of Isaiah: They that wait upon the Lord shall renew

their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.' Andrew Hollins with his lame arm, and Michael Arrowsmith sitting in the sun, on the bench by the almshouse door, with his crutches beside him, are present to my memory. Weak as they were in body, they were both mighty in the Scriptures and strong in the faith of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Thus it is that when saints are sent for to heaven, they leave behind them, in their example, a token of remembrance on the earth that tends to the glory of the Redeemer.

"Yes! yes! I like almshouses, especially those of the humbler sort. I like the gardens before the doors, and regard with a friendly feeling the spinach, and cabbage plants, the marigolds and sweet margery, the gillyflowers and sweetwilliams that grow in them. I would not even kill a caterpillar in an almshouse garden; by-and-by he will be a butterfly, and pay with interest by his liveliness and beauty for the leaf that he has eaten.

"The old folks that live in almshouses are all favourites with me. As I see them go in and out, whether I speak to them or not, I give them my blessing. Some of them look cheerful, and then they have credit with me for carrying grateful hearts in their bosoms. Others look a little cross; but who can tell what cares may occasion this? they must be borne with. Christian charity 'is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things' (1 Cor. xiii. 5, 7). We must not be severe to mark the infirmities of those whose trials may exceed our own.

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Again I say that I like almshouses, and I like heartily, too, the good old souls who founded them, in spite of the uncouth, antiquated statuary that

does its best to make them look awful and forbidding. The long curly-haired wigs and flowing gowns of the citizen founders, and the prim, starchedup dresses of the dames and spinsters, are a little freezing in their influence, and yet I love even these antiquated effigies. It is not orthodox, and consistent with God's holy word, to put up a prayer for the dead; but it is orthodox and consistent with God's holy word to think kindly of them, and to encourage the hope, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, that their works of charity were the effect of a lively faith in God's mercy, and a love for the Saviour of sinners, as well as the desire to be the friend of the friendless, and to add to the comfort of such as stand in need of assistance and ! support.

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It is an easy thing to say that the founders of almshouses have more desire to get reputation for their charity than to afford comfort to the partakers of their bounty; but is it wise, is it just, is it Christian-like, thus to attach bad motives to good deeds without a knowledge that will justify such a harsh opinion? Human nature is full of infirmity, and almshouse founders are no more free from pride, vanity, and ambition than their neighbours ; but let us not leap to the conclusion that, because they have served others, they must of necessity have been actuated by the desire to serve themselves.

"Is there one who shall read these remarks, whom God has blessed with the means, and who is fostering the intention in his heart to erect at some future day a row of almshouses? If, with a single eye to God's glory and the good of his fellow beings, such is his design, highly do I honour him; but let not such an one think that Old Humphrey will for a moment spare the selfish ambition, the poor pitiful vanity, of doing a deed of apparent

benevolence, that his name may be trumpeted about in the world, and handed down to posterity as a miracle of philanthropy. I will not say with the poet

'Who builds a house to God, and not to fame,

Will never mark the marble with his name.' because, in many cases, it is an advantage, if not absolutely necessary, that the naine of the founder of a charity should be made public, but I do say, that a man should remember, even when he scatters his bounty with the most liberal hand, that he is only bestowing a part of what God has already bestowed upon him; and, therefore, thankfulness, and not pride, should be the mainspring of his actions.

"Some of the sculptured remembrances of the founders of almshouses are ludicrously uncouth. No longer ago than yesterday I was standing opposite one of them. There stood the benevolent man in his flowing robe, long curls, waistcoat half down his thighs, and shoes nearly up to his ankles, with gold collar and gold chain hanging from his neck. His left foot was advanced so much before the other that he seemed to be holding out his leg to call forth the admiration of the spectator; and this, for odd thoughts sometimes come into my mind, set me musing on the words of holy writ: "The Lord delighteth not in the strength of the horse : He taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy' (Psalm cxlvii. 10, 11).

"For the last time, I say, then, that I like almshouses heartily, and that I like those heartily that found them, and those who inhabit them. More than once have I said that active benevolence to man is the soul of thanksgiving to God, especially when exercised towards God's people; and that