The institution of this order at least makes plain one fact: that numbers of poor can be well supported from the waste of the rich. It ought also to put to silence those who scoff at the idea of an overruling Providence--the _living_ God rather, who cares for the raven and the sparrow, and is constantly working miracles under our eyes, whereby the hungry are fed and the naked clothed.
Madame Guizot de Witt, a-Protestant lady, says: "Every time I visit one of the houses of the 'Little Sisters,' and see their bands of old people--aged children, so neatly dressed, so well taken care of, occupied and amused in every way that age or weakness allow, I seem to hear the voice which says, 'Go, and do thou likewise.'"
This band of noble workers is coming among us, to gather the abundance that falls from our tables, often wasted, or thrown to dumb beasts, while souls made in the image of God look on with hungry eyes.
How shall we greet these servants of God? If we receive the "Little Sister" kindly, giving of our plenty when she asks, she will thank God; if we turn away with cold questioning, she still thanks God that she may bear trial for his sake.
To the thrifty American mind, this scheme of beggary will, no doubt, appear to some as a nuisance, and call for the interference of the laws against begging; but there are others whom the hand of God has touched; these will welcome to the freedom of our land a band of sisters whose charity beareth all things, endureth all things, and hopeth all things. But however we receive them, they will still go on, and if they are turned away from one town or city by the iron hand, they will bring a blessing upon another, both now and in that day when the Judge shall say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye covered me: ... for as long as ye did it to one of my least brethren, ye did it to me."
List Of The Houses Founded By The Little Sisters Of The Poor.
_In France_.-- The novitiate at Latour; St. Joseph, near Becherel, (Ile et Vilaine;) Rennes; St. Servan; Dinan; Tours; Nantes; Paris, Rue St. Jacques near the Val de Grace; Besançon; Angers; Bordeaux; Rouen; Nancy; Paris, Avenue de Breteuil; Laval; Lyon, á la Vilette; Lille; Marseilles; Bourges; Pau; Vannes; Colmar; La Rochelle; Dijon; St. Omer; Brest; Chartres; Bolbec; Paris, Rue Beccaria, Faubourg St. Antoine; Toulouse; St. Dizier; Le Havre; Blois; Le Maus; Tarare; Paris, Rue Notre Dame des Champs; Orleans; Strasbourg; Caen; St. Etienne; Perpignan; Montpellier; Agen; Poitiers; St. Quentin; Lisieux; Annonay; Amiens; Roanne; Valenciennes; Grenoble; Draguignan; Chateauroux; Roubaix; Boulogne; Dieppe; Beziers; Clermont Ferrand; Lyons, La Croix Rousse; Metz; Nice; Lorient; Nevers; Flers; Villefranche; Cambrai; Niort; Paris, Rue Philippe Gerard; Les Sables d'Olonne; Troyes; Maubeuge; Nimes; Toulon; Tourcoing; Cherbourg; Valence; Périgueux; and one just now beginning in Dunkerque.