Page:The collected works of Theodore Parker volume 7.djvu/63

Rh debasing those little ones, but lifting thorn up. Will you cause thorn to perish; you? I know you will not. Will you lot thorn perish? I cannot believe it. Will you not prevent their perishing? Nothing less is your duly.

Some men say they will do nothing to help liberate the slave, because he is tar off, and "our mission is silence!" Well—here are sufferers in a nearer need. Do you say, I can do but little to Christianise society! Very well, do that little, and see if it does not amount to much, and bring its own bleasing—the thought that you have given a cup of cold water to one of the little ones. Did not Jesus say, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me?" Since last we met, one of our number has taken that step in life commonly called death. He was deeply interested and active in the movement for the perishing classes of men. After his spirit had passed on, a woman whom he had rescued, and her children with her, from intemperance and ruin, came and laid her hand on that cold forehead whence the kindly soul had fled, and mourning that her failures had often grieved his heart before, vowed solemnly to keep steadfast for ever, and go back to evil ways no more! Who would not wish his forehead the altar for such a vow? what nobler monument to a good man's memory! The blessing of those ready to perish fell on him. If his hand cannot help us, his example may.