Scripture texts illustrated by general literatureJacox, Francis
Religion
Scripture texts illustrated by general literature
Jacox, Francis
Homiletical illustrations
Richard Savage, as Mr. Whitehead pictures him, bitterly conversant with
cold and hunger, a houseless vagrant through the streets by night, and a
famishing lounger in them by day, apostrophises Mr. Overseer in his pursy
prosperity, much as (_mutatis mutandis_) Lear apostrophises pomp. “Turn
out, fat man of substance, and bob for wisdom and charity on the banks
of Southwark. They are best taken at night, when God only sees you—when
the east wind is abroad, making you shake like the sinner who was hanged
for breaking into your dwelling-house. ‘The air bites shrewdly, it is
very cold,’ sayest thou? It is so. But tell me whether, on the fourth
night, when thou liest stretched on thy blessed bed, thy heart is not
warmer than it was wont to be—whether thou dost not pray prayers of long
omission—whether thou wilt not, in the morning, bethink thee of the poor,
and relieve them out of thy abundance? Sayest thou, no? God help thee!”
As Van den Bosch tells the big-wigs of Ghent,
“Ah, sirs, you know not, you, who lies afield
When nights are cold, with frogs for bedfellows;
You know not, you, who fights and sheds his blood,
And fasts and fills his belly with the east wind.”
Diderot rose one Shrove Tuesday morning, and groping in his pocket, found
nothing wherewith to dine that day—which he spent in wandering about
Paris and its precincts. He was ill when he got back to his quarters,
went to bed, and was treated by his landlady to a little toast and wine.
“That day,” he often told a friend, in after life, “I swore that, if
ever I came to have anything, I would never in my life refuse a poor
man help, never condemn my fellow-creature to a day as painful.” As the
sailor says, after the wreck, in one of Mr. Roscoe’s tragedies: “We may
be wrecked a dozen times, for what our betters care; but being aboard
themselves, they see some spice of danger in it, and that breeds a
fellow-feeling.” And, proverbially, a fellow-feeling makes us wondrous
kind.
Mr. Ruskin demands whether, even supposing it guiltless, luxury would
be desired by any of us, if we saw clearly at our sides the suffering
which accompanies it in the world. “Luxury is indeed possible in the
future—innocent and exquisite; luxury for all, and by the help of all;
but luxury at present can only be enjoyed by the ignorant; the cruelest
man living could not sit at his feast, unless he sat blindfold.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account