But the practice so common among benevolent
persons, of giving at least a trifle to all who ask, lest perchance
they may turn away some who are really sufferers, is one which causes
more sin and misery than it cures.
The writer has never known any system for dispensing charity so
successful as the one by which a town or city is divided into districts;
and each district is committed to the care of two ladies, whose duty
it is, to call on each family and leave a book for a child, or do some
other deed of neighborly kindness, and make that the occasion for
entering into conversation, and learning the situation of all residents
in the district. By this method, the ignorant, the vicious, and the
poor are discovered, and their physical, intellectual, and moral wants
are investigated. In some places where the writer has known this mode
pursued, each person retained the same district, year after year, so
that every poor family in the place was under the watch and care of
some intelligent and benevolent lady, who used all her influence to
secure a proper education for the children, to furnish them with
suitable reading, to encourage habits of industry and economy, and to
secure regular attendance on public religious instruction.
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