Therefore every shilling that you needlessly spend on your apparel is in
effect _stolen from the poor_! For what end do you want these ornaments?
To please God? No!--but to please your own fancy or to gain the
admiration and applause of those who are no wiser than yourself. If so,
what you wear you are in effect tearing from the back of the naked; and
the costly and delicate food you eat, you are snatching from the mouth
of the hungry. For mercy, for pity, for Christ's sake, for the honor of
his gospel, stay your hand! Do not throw this money away. Do not lay out
on nothing, yea worse than nothing, what may clothe your poor, naked,
shivering fellow creatures.
Many years ago, when I was at Oxford, on a cold winter's day, a young
maid (one of those we keep at school) called on me. I said, "You seem
half starved. Have you nothing to cover you but that thin gown?" She
said, "Sir, this is all I have." I put my hand in my pocket, but found
no money left, having just paid away all that I had. It struck me, "Will
thy Master say, 'Well done, good and faithful steward. Thou hast adorned
thy wall with the money which might have screened this poor creature
from the cold'? O justice! O mercy! Are not these pictures the blood of
the poor maid? See thy expensive apparel in the same light; thy gown,
hat, head-dress!"
Everything about thee which costs more than Christian duty required thee
to lay on, is the blood of the poor! Oh, be wise for the time to come!
Be more merciful; more faithful to God and man; more abundantly clad
(like men and women professing godliness) _with good works_.
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