Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/166

 corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvests. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and the stranger." If the reaper dropped a sheaf in the field, he might not return to take it. Whatever olives hung on the bough, or clusters on the vine, after the first gathering, were the property of "the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow." Under the shelter of this law came many a Ruth, gleaning the handfuls of golden corn to carry home to her mother, who was thus saved from utter destitution. By these means the Law kept the poor from sinking to the extreme point of misery. It prevented that hopeless poverty which forces the Irish peasant to emigrate. It kept them in the country. At the same time, by throwing in their path these wayside gifts, it saved them from theft or vagabondage. As a proof of its successful operation, it is a curious fact that, in the five books of Moses, such a class as beggars is not once mentioned! The tradition of caring for those of their own kindred, remains to this day; and it is an honorable boast that among the swarms of beggars that throng the streets of the Old World or the New, one almost never finds a Jew!

In these humane provisions may be traced the germ of those asylums and hospitals for the relief of human misery which now cover the civilized world.

The Law also took under its care all whom death had deprived of their natural protectors: "Ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child." They were sacred by misfortune. God would punish cruelty to them: "If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry unto me, I will surely hear their cry; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless."