Scotland/Scots > Licht frae the smiddy o' Saunders Dinwuddie

CHRISTIAN KINDNESS TO MINISTERS.
the plate on the Sabbath and never cast in a
doit. Queer Christians ! A shabby Christian is a
very unseemly character.”
“ Want of means or want of thought must be
the apology for such defaulters, Saunders.”
“ For the puir I ha’e great sympathy, Sir. They
maun and will be seen to, but for the thochtless I
ha’e nane. When does the thochtless man forget
himsel’? Forget wha and what he will, he’s aye
at hame, and his thochtlessness may be but greed
and gracelessness after a’. Mony that mak’ a puir
mouth, and ha’e naething to spare to the house o’
God, ha’e aye eneuch to gi’e to the synagogue o’
Sawtan. Let pleasure—sinfu’ pleasure—come to
their door in the shape o’ a fiddler, a dancin’
master, a juggler, a spaewife, a showman, or a
playactor, their hearts are open at ance, and sax-
pences and shillin’s are flung into the wallets o’
the idle and unprofitable vagabonds in great
abundance. But when religion comes attended
by her handmaids faith and love, and peace and
hope and joy, and wi’ them a lang train o’
sufferers, the puir and needy, widow and orphans,
the sick, the blind, the halt, the maimed,
and a great multitude wha hae nae helpers, she
meets wi’ a cauld welcome. The men o’ the world,
ay, and a gey cum even o’ kirk-gaun folk, hand
up their hands, look sour, shake their heads, and
glowerin’ wi’ a gruesome astonishment, they say
to religion, ‘ Gae wa’, puir body; ye’re aye
seekin’. Gae wa’, we’re a’ as puir here’s yourseP.
Ye canna be ser’d, sae gang your wa’s, and feed
yoursel’ and your bairns on deaf nits, or on the east
wind, but there’s nae amous for ye here. ’ Religion