WHAT IS CHARITY?

Saturday Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 125, 1 December 1877, Page 19

WHAT IS CHARITY?

A- correspondent sends us the following pastoral of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Hobarton, requesting its publication as an illustration of the true spirit of Christian charity. We have much pleasure in doing so, and we can only add, that if there were more clergymen'in the world like the worthy Bishop, there would be more real practical •Christianity, and less humbug :tti

INDIAN BELIEF FUND. ; i , , ( . ( The following pastoral was read after 'the, service at the Church of Apostles onSiinday •week : , -„,il , hnr

To the Clergy and Laity of the Diocese of Hobarton. 7Dearly Beloved Brethren,—You are no -doubt already aware of the famine which •decimates tbe inhabitants of the, Madras Presidency, India, and of the public meeting at which His Excellency the Governor took the ehair, held at the Town Hall, Hobart Town, on the evening of the Ist inst. for the purpose of raising funds to assist in allaying this terrible visitation. ; ~,/ ; ; ... The most strenuous exertions have been made by the Indian Government and by private' societies in that country -towards'' relieving the sufferers, but' the calamity has grown to so gigantic an extent as to render them-un able-to- cope, -with- it._,„ It,.is„.well ascertained that half a million of people have already died sixjnonths, and that another million and .a half are exposed to its horrors; Hence the Governor -of Madras, the Duke -of Buckingham, has thought it necessary to.appealif-op assistance to the British people. His- appeal has been responded to in a manner worthy.of their generous hearts. Through the Lord Mayor of London an appeal has been made fori the isame purpose to the Australian Colonies, xand his Worship the Mayor of Hobart Town has taken it Up with a promptitude and zeal worthy of all praise. ; 1 ' h • '- 1 In circumstances sq . heartrending as those before us, I feel that we should fail in our -duty to God and our neighbour if ; we did not co-operate with the movement now being Anade to relieve our famine-stricken fellow--creatures. I have had some experience of the people of thfe Madras Presidency, and I -can testify to their sober, industrious, and frugal habits. , They are also charitable, uever refusing assistance to the needy, and the Christian beggar is as welcome to their -doors as. the Pagan or Mohammedan. This -dire calamity which has fallen upon them • does not arise from; their’ own improvidence, but from one of those , long-continued -droughts to which India is occasion ally exposed, and which does not leave a particle of herbage to be xseen on the surface of the "land.

It is true that those afflicted people .are not •of our race, or colour, or country, nor is the vast majority of them of our religion ; but I 41 m sure that a consideration of this kind will not deter any one impressed with a sense of Christian duty, or possessed of any. of .the kindly feelings of human nature, from exercising a {practical sympathy in • their behalf. •Charity knows no distinction of persons. It embraces all God’s creatures in its ample fold, the dusky Indian as well as the fair European. The’one equally, with the other As our neighbour, and tne divine precept enjoins us to love our neighbour as ourselves. It may be useful also'to state that among the famine stricken are to be found many of -our co-religionists ; for it is in Southern India that Christianity has taken its deepest roots and extended its widest branches. It was at Meleapore, near Madras, that St. Thomas the Apostle suffered martyrdom whilst propagating the religion of the 'Gospel, and it was along the Malabar coast that the illustrious St. Francis Xavier pro--duced such marvellous fruit in the conversion of millions, fruit which still remains, :and is widely extended by the labours of missionaries from England, Ireland, France, and Italy. An opportunity is now afforded you, dearly beloved brethren, of performing a work •essentially good. Avail yourselves of it, and he assured that a God of mercy and charity will bless you. + Daniel, Bishop of Hobarton. Hobarton, Oct. 4,1877.