He was the first who pronounced the
misapplication of it to be a crime, and to be a crime of no ordinary
dimensions. He was the first who broke down the boundary between Jew and
Gentile, and, therefore, the first who pointed out to men the
inhabitants of other countries, for the exercise of their philanthropy
and love. Hence a distinction is to be made both in the principle and
practice of charity, as existing in ancient or in modern times. Though
the old philosophers, historians, and poets, frequently inculcated
benevolence, we have no reason to conclude from any facts they have left
us, that persons in their days did anything more than occasionally
relieve an unfortunate object, who might present himself before them, or
that, however they might deplore the existence of public evils among
them, they joined in associations for their suppression, or that they
carried their charity, as bodies of men, into other kingdoms. To
Christianity alone we are indebted for the new and sublime spectacle, of
seeing men going beyond the bounds of individual usefulness to each
other; of seeing them associate for the extirpation of private and
public misery; and of seeing them carry their charity, as a united
brotherhood, into distant lands.
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