But besides this she exhorts the rich to almsgiving for sweet mercy's sake. She commands them in the name of Christ, and she threatens them in the words of Holy Writ, saying: " Go to, now, ye rich — weep and howl in your miseries. Your riches are corrupted, your garments moth-eaten; your gold and silver cankered, the rust whereof shall be for a testimony against you and eat your flesh like fire; you have stored up wrath for the last day; for the alms you gave not cry out against you and their cry hath entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." The Church presents herself to the rich as the divinely appointed channel through which their superfluous wealth may flow down into the hands of the deserving poor. Lastly, the Church holds up to rich and poor alike the doctrine of the life here and of the life hereafter. Pointing to the life here she asks, After all, where are we to look for real happiness and contentment? Among the ungodly rich? No, but among the Christian poor. Why, even Christ Himself sought and found happiness in a lowly cabin, and His miseries began only when His mission forced Him thence into the homes of the rich and the palaces of kings. Where do we find the true heroes and heroines of our age? Among the great ones of the earth? No, but among the humblest of the humble. The Christian's King was a carpenter's apprentice, and His lowly followers are the true Christian nobility. O God bless the poor and the lowly for their cheerful dispositions, their tender sympathy for each other's ills and their ready willingness to share the
