But proceeding from the love of God,
it is steady and uniform in its operation, not wayward, not lukewarm, not
affected by starts and fancies, and ministering to more than the bodily
wants of those who are in need.
Paupers, such as we now see, then rarely existed. Bad as it was, the
system of slavery had given a house and a home to the great mass of the
lowest orders. And the laws, which placed the middling classes under the
protection, and at the same time under the control of the more powerful,
prevented all such as really belonged to society, from experiencing any
severe privations in those years when the people were not visited
by any particular misfortunes. But mankind were then subjected to many
calamities, which have been moderated in our times. If crops failed, and
the earth did not bring forth her fruit, vessels arrived not from distant
parts, laden with corn. Hunger wasted the land. Sickness and pestilence
followed, and thinned the remnant who had been left. Families were broken
up, and the survivors became helpless outcasts; for the people of each
country raised only as much grain as was sufficient for their own use, and
could not supply their neighbours. War often produced still greater
miseries.
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