1

In the Koran almsgiving is often mentioned in connection with prayer; and the Zakât, or alms prescribed by law, is regarded by the Muhammedans as a fundamental part of their religion, hence infidels, who cannot perform acceptable worship, have nothing to do with these alms.2 Among the Muhammedans of India it is common for men and women to vow "that when what they desire shall come to pass, they will, in the name of God, the. Prophet, his companions, or some wullee, present offerings and oblations." One of these offerings, called "an offering unto God," consists in preparing particular victuals, and in "distributing them among friends and the poor, and giving any sort of grain, a sacrificed sheep, clothes, or ready-money in alms to the indigent.' When the destruction of the Temple with its altar filled the Jews with alarm as they thought of their unatoned sins, Johanan ben Zakkai comforted them by saying, "You have another means of atonement, as powerful as the altar, and that is the work of charity, for it is said: 'I desired mercy, and not sacrifice.'" Many other passages show how closely the Jews associated almsgiving with sacrifice. "He that giveth alms sacrificeth praise. "As sin-offering makes atonement for Israel, so alms for the Gentiles.' "Almsdeeds are more meritorious than

4

3

"5

all sacrifices."7 An orphan is called an "altar to God." 8 And as a sacrificer should be a person of a godly character, so it is better to perish by famine than to receive an oblation from the ungodly." Alms were systematically collected in the synagogues, and officers were appointed to make the collection.10 So, also, among the early Christians the collection of alms for the relief of the poor was an act of the Church life itself. Almsgiving took place in public worship, nay formed itself a part of worship.

Gifts of natural produce, the so-called oblations, were connected with the celebration of the Lord's Supper. They were offered to God as the first-fruits of the creatures (primitia creaturarum), and a prayer was said :"O Lord, accept also the offerings of those who to-day bring an offering, as Thou didst accept the offerings of righteous Abel, the offering of our father Abraham, the incense of Zachariah, the alms of Cornelius, and the two mites of the widow." These oblations were not only used for the Lord's Supper, but they formed the chief means for the relief of the poor. They were regarded as sacrifice in the most special sense; and, as no unclean gift might be laid upon the Lord's altar, profit made from sinful occupations was not accepted as an oblation, neither were the oblations of impenitent sinners.' The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of almsgiving as a sacrifice of thanksgiving which continues after the Jewish altar has been done away with.2 Like sacrifice, almsgiving is connected with prayer, as a means of making the prayer efficacious and furnishing it with wings; the angel said to Cornelius, "Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God."3 When the Christians were reproached for having no sacrifices, Justin wrote, "We have been taught that the only honour that is worthy of Him is not to consumie by fire what He has brought into being for our sustenance, but to use it for ourselves and those who need." So, also, Irenæus observes that sacrifices are not abolished in the New Testament, though their form is indeed altered, because they are no longer offered by slaves, but by freemen, of which just the oblations are the proof. And God has enjoined on Christians this sacrifice of oblations, not because He needs them, but "in order that themselves

1 Uhlhorn, op. cit. i. 135 sqq. Harnack, History of Dogma, i. 205.

2 Hebrews, xiii. 14 sqq. Cf. Addis, in Encyclopædia Biblica, i. 119.

3 Acts, x. 4. Cyprian, De opere et eleemosynis, 4. St. Chrysostom, Ho

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might be neither unfruitful nor ungrateful." 1 St. Augustine says, "The sacrifice of the Christians is the alms bestowed upon the poor.'

"2

The objection will perhaps be raised that I have here tried to trace back the most beautiful of all religious virtues to a magical and ritualistic origin without taking into due account the benevolent feelings attributed to the Deity. But in the present connection I have not had to show why charity, like other human duties, has been sanctioned by religious beliefs, but why, in the ethics of the higher religions, it has attained the same supreme importance as is otherwise attached only to devotional exercises. And this is certainly a problem by itself, for which the belief in a benevolent god affords no adequate explanation. That the religious duty of charity is not merely an outcome of the altruistic sentiment is well illustrated by the fact that Zoroastrianism, whilst exalting almsgiving to the rank of a cardinal virtue, at the same time excludes the sick man from the community of the faithful until he has been cured and cleansed according to prescribed rites.3

1 Ibid. iv. 17. 5.

2 St. Augustine, Sermo XLII. 1 (Migne, op. cit. xxxviii. 252).

3 Darmesteter, 'Introduction' to the Zend-Avesta, in Sacred Books of the East, iv. p. lxxx..

CHAPTER XXIV

HOSPITALITY

But

We have seen that in early society regard for the life and physical well-being of a fellow-creature is, generally speaking, restricted to members of the social unit, whereas foreigners are subject to a very different treatment. to this rule there are remarkable exceptions. Side by side with gross indifference or positive hatred to strangers we find, among the lower races, instances of great kindness displayed even towards persons of a foreign race. The Veddahs are ready to help any stranger in distress who asks for their assistance, and Sinhalese fugitives who have sought refuge in their wilds have always been kindly received. Mr. Moffat was deeply affected by the sympathy which some poor Bushmans showed to him during an illness, although he was an utter stranger to them. Speaking of the mutual affection which the Andaman Islanders display in their social relations, Mr. Man adds that, "in their dealings with strangers, the same characteristic is observable when once a good understanding has been established." We have also to remember the friendly manner in which the aborigines in various parts of the savage world behaved to the earliest European visitors. Nothing could be more courteous than the reception which Cook and his party met with in New Caledonia, where the natives guided and accompanied them on their

2

1 Sarasin, Ergebnisse naturwissenschaftlicher Forschungen auf Ceylon,

iii. 544.

2 Man, 'Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xii. 93.

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2

excursions. Forster says of the Society Islanders, "We should indeed be ungrateful if we did not acknowledge the kindness with which they always treated us."1 De Clerque observes with reference to the Papuans on the north coast of New Guinea:-"The inhabitants seemed always ready to help. . . . On our visit to the village. all the male and female inhabitants with their children flocked around me, and offered me cocoanuts and sugarcane; which, for the first contact with Europeans, is certainly remarkable." On the arrival of white people in various parts of Australia, the natives were not only inoffensive, but disposed to meet them on terms of amity and kindness. "In a short intercourse," says Eyre, "they are easily made friends. . . . On many occasions where I have met these wanderers in the wild, far removed from the abodes of civilisation, and when I have been accompanied only by a single native boy, I have been received by them in the kindest and most friendly manner, had presents made to me of fish, kangaroo, or fruit, had them accompany me for miles to point out where water was to be procured, and been assisted by them in getting at it.' Nor must we forget the kind reception which Australian Blacks have given to men cast upon their mercy, and the tenderness with which the natives of Cooper's Creek wept for the death of Burke and Wills, and comforted. King, the survivor. Unfortunately, native races have often received anything but favourable impressions from their earliest interviews with Europeans; and both in Australia and elsewhere prolonged intercourse with white people has, in many instances, induced them to change

1 Forster, Voyage Round the World,

ii. 157.

2 De Clerque, in Glimpses of the Eastern Archipelago, p. 14.

3 Breton, Excursions in New South Wales, p. 218. Curr, The Australian Kace, i. 64. Salvado, Mémoires historiques sur l'Australie, p. 340. Ridley, Aborigines of Australia, p. 24. Eyre, Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, ii. 212, 382.

4 Eyre, op. cit. ii. 211.

5

"4

5 Mathew, Australian Aborigines,' in Jour. & Proceed. hoy. Soc. N. S. Wales, xxiii. 388. Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, ii. 229. Ridley, Aborigines of Australia, p. 22.

6

Jung, Aus dem Seelenleben der Australier,' in Mittheilungen des Vereins für Erdkunde zu Leipzig, 1877, p.

11 sq.