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CHARITY AND CHARITIES
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CHARITY AND CHARITIES . The word " charity," or love, represents the principle of the See also:good See also:life. It stands for a See also:mood or See also:habit of mind and an endeavour. From it, as a habit of mind, springs the social and See also:personal endeavour which in the widest sense we may See also:call charity. The two correspond. Where the habit of mind has not been gained, the endeavour fluctuates and is relatively purposeless. In so far as it has been gained, the endeavour is founded on an intelligent See also:scrutiny of social conditions and guided by a definite purpose. In the one See also:case it is realized that some social theory must be found by us, if our See also:action is to be right and consistent; in the other case no need of such a theory is See also:felt. This See also:article is based on the See also:assumption that there are principles in charity or charitable See also:work, and that these can be ascertained by a study of the development of social conditions, and their relation to prevalent social aims and religious or philosophic conceptions. It is assumed also that the charity of the religious life, if rightly understood, cannot be inconsistent with that of the social life. Perhaps some closer See also:definition of charity is necessary. The words that signify See also:goodwill towards the community and its members are primarily words expressive of the affections of See also:family life in the relations existing between parents, and between See also:parent and See also:child. As will be•seen, the analogies underlying such phrases as " See also:God the See also:Father," " See also:children of God," " brethren," have played a See also:great See also:part in the development of charitable thought in pre-See also:Christian as well as in Christian days. The germ, if we may say so, of the words 4 Xia, fiya7r,t, amor, love; amicitia, friendship, is the sexual or the parental relation. With the realization of the larger life in See also:man the meaning of the word expands. Caritas, or charity, strikes another note—high See also:price, and thus dearness. It is charity, indeed, expressed in See also:mercantile See also:metaphor; and it would seem that it was associated in thought with the word xapcs, which has also a commercial meaning, but signifies as well favour, gratitude, See also:grace, kindness. Partly thus, perhaps, it assumed and suggested a nobler conception; and sometimes, as, for instance, in See also:English ecclesiastical documents, it was spelt charitas. 'Ayawn, which in the Authorized Version of the See also:Bible is translated charity, was used by St See also:Paul as a See also:translation of the See also:Hebrew word hesed, which in the Old Testament is in the same version translated " See also:mercy "--as in See also:Hosea vi. 6, " I desired mercy, and not See also:sacrifice." This word represents the charity of kindness and goodness, as distinguished from almsgiving. Almsgiving, .edagah, is translated by the word €Xenµoo(,v,7 in the See also:Septuagint, and in the Authorized Version by the word " righteousness." It represents the See also:deed or the See also:gift which is due—done or made, not spontaneously, but under a sense of religious See also:obligation. In the earlier Christian See also:period the word almsgiving has this meaning, and was in that sense applied to a wide range of actions and contracts, from
a gift to a See also:beggar at a See also: In religious thought they imply an ideal life, as represented by such expressions as " love (See also:agape) of God." This on the oae See also:side; and on the other an ideal social relation, in such words as " love of man." Thus in the word " charity " religious and social associations meet; and thus regarded the word means a disciplined and habitual mood in which the mind is considerate of the welfare of others individually and generally, and devises what is for their real good, and in which the intelligence and the will strive to fulfil the mind's purpose. Charity thus has no necessary relation to See also:relief or See also:alms. To Five a lecture, or to See also:nurse a sick man who is not in want or " poor, may be equally a deed of charity; though in fact charity concerns itself largely with the classes usually called " the poor," and with problems of See also:distress and relief. Relief, however, is not an essential part of charity or charitable work. It is one of many means at its disposal. If the See also:world were so poor that no one could make a gift, or so wealthy that no one needed it, charity—the charity of life and of deeds—would remain. The See also:history of charity is a history of many social and religious theories, influences and endeavours, that have See also:left their See also:mark alike upon the popular and the cultivated thought of the See also:present See also:day. The inconsistencies of charitable effort and See also:argument may thus in part be accounted for. To understand the problem of charity we have therefore (1) to consider the stages of charitable thought—the See also:primitive, See also:pagan, See also:Greek and See also:Roman, Jewish and Christian elements, that make up the See also:modern consciousness in regard to charity, and also the growth of the habit of " charity " as representing a gradually educated social See also:instinct. (2) We have also to consider in their relation to charity the results of See also:recent investigations of the conditions of social life. (3) At each See also:stage we have to See also:note the corresponding stage of See also:practical See also:administration in public relief and private effort—for the See also:division between. public or " poor-See also:law " relief and charity which prevails in See also:England is, comparatively speaking, a novelty, and, generally speaking, the work of charity can hardly be appreciated or understood if it be considered without reference to public relief. (4) As to the present day, we have to consider practical suggestions in regard to such subjects as charity and economic thought, charity organization, friendly visiting and almonership, co-operation with the poor-law, charity and See also:thrift, parochial management, hospitals and medical relief, exceptional distress and the " unemployed," the utilization of endowments and their supervision, and their See also:adaptation to new needs and emergencies. (5) We have also throughout to consider charitable help in relation to classes of dependants, wl o appear See also:early in the history of the question—widows and orphans, the sick and the aged, vagrants and wayfarers. First in the See also:series come the charities of the family and of hospitality; then the wider charities of See also:religion, the charities of the community, and of individual donors and of mutual help. These gradually assumed importance in communities which consisted originally of self-supporting classes, within which widows and orphans, for instance, would be rather provided for, in accordance with recognized class obligations, than relieved. Then come habitual almsgiving, the charitable endowment, and the modern charitable institution and association. But through-out the test of progress or decadence appears to be the See also:condition of the family. The family is the source, the See also:home and the hearthstone of charity. It has been created but slowly, and there is naturally a See also:constant tendency to break away from its obligations and to ignore and depreciate its utility. Yet the family, as we now have it, is itself the outcome of See also:infinite thought working through social instinct, and has at each stage of its development indicated a See also:general advance. To it, therefore, constant reference must be made. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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