Our city is full of them. They come from the destroying enemy. They have come amongst us to seek homes or places where they will be safe from the barbarisms of the accursed foe. How touching their condition. How sorrowful their position. How desolate their hearts. They have learned by sorrow and distress their dependence on human sympathy. Ere the past few days, wieh the terrors of invasion have fallen on them, many of them could not appreciate the delicate and unhappy situation of the refugee. Now it is their own lot, and they experience all the bitter pangs which a severance of home ties and the sad farewells to their household gods must produce. Their own hearts are chastened with the same feeling which saddened thousands before them.
Their appeals sacred to the skies. All over our bountiful country the cries of the hungry and the prayers of the needy are echoing. Humane and benevolent societies have been established to aid them. Their eloquent addresses teem with philanthropic devotion to charity, and their noble impulses must surely find a living, active response from our generous and large-hearted people. The community of interest which this war has developed, and the benevolence of spirit, and means with which it has necessitated, is so evident to our people, that their appeals for help will surely call from our abundance the talent of gold as well as the mite of poverty.
All are alike interested in this good work of kindness and humanity. There cannot be any despicable people now, to whom this appeal is fruitlessly made. None, surely, will be so careless of the first principles of humanity as to refuse their aid, even though they stint their own comforts to supply the actual wants of the needy refugees.
Reader, deal kindly with them. They are your kith and kin, by virtue of Eternity and blood; by the links that bind us in one common brotherhood for suffering, protection and liberty, we must extend to the stricken ones all the amenities of life and the courtesies of Christian (sic) kindness, and lend our every energy to relieve their sadness and distress.
From abroad, over the teeming surface of the whole land, we hope the people will respond nobly to the humane calls of the patriotic and eloquent appeals of these who are acting the part of the Good Samaritan, noble woman, we ask you to extend the warm right hand of welcome to the refugee in every neighborhood; you know not what necessity may come upon you-The fortunes of war are uncertain; you may be required to flee your own homes are (sic) the end comes, and then your hearts will yearn for the sympathy and charity which we now call on you to exhibit.
The first law of God says unto you, "And as ye would that men should to you, do ye also to them likewise."