Page:The World Beyond.djvu/69

Rh me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me." But as the mass of men have never even had the opportunity to do such things for their Lord, He explains further what He means by this, and says: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." But to those who are on his left hand, to the lost, in remanding them to their destination, He says: "I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick and in prison, and ye visited me not." But as the opportunity to do or not to do so personally to the Lord, may never have been presented, they also receive the explanation: "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." "And these," it is added—that is, they who did not these things—"shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous"—they who did them—"into life eternal."

Now, it is not to be supposed that feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, and ministering to the stranger, the sick and imprisoned, are all the duties of life which qualify us for heaven. But these, as important ministrations of charity, stand for all the well-known duties of life. They stand also for the correlative spiritual duties of ministering to those who are hungry for genuine disinterested love, or thirsty for God's truth;