Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1882 — The Golden Ladder of Charity. [ARTICLE]

The Golden Ladder of Charity.

There are eight degrees of steps, says Maimonides, in the duty of charity. The first and lowest degree is to give, but with reluctance dr regret. This is the gift of the hand but not of the heart. is. to give cheerfully, but tt poipiktißjafely to the distress of the fferw. The third is to give cheerfully and proportionately, but not until we are solicited. The fourth is to give proportionately, ; cheerfully, and even unsolicited; but to put it in the poor man’s hand, thereby exciting in him the painful emotion of shame.- - The fifth is to give charity in such a way that the distressed may receive the bounty and know their benefactor without their being known to him. Such '■ iriis th'6 'donduct ot some of bur ancestors who used to convey their charitable gifts 'lnto poor people’s’dwellings, taking care that their own persons and names sb quid remain unknown. The seventh is still more meritorious, namely, to bestaßghngtejn such a way tbatthe beneiactor -inaynoi know 'the rel?Wted nor they the name of their benefadMEk as was dbhe by our charitable foxmfcthers during theexistencerlf the female. For there was in that holy bfiflF(hng a place called the Chamber ofyeilence or. Inostentation, whCTfein thb gbod deposited secretly whatever their, generous hearts suggested, and from which the most respectable poor families were maintained equal secrecy. "• Lastly, the eighth and the most meritorious of all is to anticipate charity, Ky preventing poverty; theAieduced brother a considerabre gift, or a loa n hf wyattfe nr by teaching him a trade, Or by pulfeng him in the way of business, so that he may eatn an honest livelihood, and not be forehfl to the dreadful alternative of holding np liis hand for charity.— the I alm ud. ■ ■