Hospitality to Strangers
By Dr. Clarke
“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” In this chapter the apostle inculcates the duty of hospitality, particularly in respect to entertaining strangers; i. e., persons of whom we know nothing, but that they are now in a state of distress, and require the necessaries of life. Some, says the apostle, have entertained angels without knowing them; and some, we may say, have entertained great men, kings, and emperors, without knowing them. By exercising this virtue many have gained; few have ever lost. God, in many parts of his own word, is represented as the stranger’s friend; and there is scarcely a duty in life which he inculcates in stronger terms than that of hospitality to strangers. The Scriptures which more particularly recommend this duty are the following: “He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger in giving him food and raiment. Love ye, therefore, the stranger; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Deut. x, 18, 19. “I was a stranger, and ye took me in.” “Come ye blessed of my Father.” Matt. xxv, 35. “Given to hospitality.” Rom. xii, 13. Neglect not to entertain strangers. Heb. xiii, 2. “The entertaining of unknown strangers,” says Dr. Owen, “which was so great a virtue in ancient times, is almost driven out of the world by the wickedness of it. The false practices of some, with wicked designs, under the habit and pretense of strangers, on the one hand, and pretenses for sordid covetousness on the other, have banished it from the earth. And there are enough who are called Christians who never once thought it to be their duty.” But it is vain to inculcate the duty where the spirit of it is not found; and we shall never find the spirit of it in any heart where the love of God and man does not rule. Benevolent wishes of Be ye warmed, and Be ye clothed, are frequent enough; these cost nothing, and therefore can be readily used by the most parsimonious. But to draw out a man’s soul to the hungry, to draw out his warmest affections, while he is drawing out, in order to divide with the destitute, the contents of his purse, belongs to the man of genuine feeling; and this can scarcely be expected where the compassionate mind that was in Christ does not rule. One bountiful meal to the poor may often be a preventive of death; for there are times in which a man may be brought so low for want of proper nourishment that, if he get not a timely supply, after-help comes in vain, nature being too far exhausted ever to recover itself, though the vital spark may linger long. One wholesome meal in time may be the means of enabling nature to contend successfully with after privations; and he who has afforded this meal to the destitute, has saved a life. “But most who go about seeking relief are idle persons and impostors, and it would be sinful to relieve them.” When you know the applicant to be such, then refuse his suit; but if you have nothing but suspicion, which suspicion generally arises from an uncharitable and unfeeling heart, then beware how you indulge it. If, through such suspicion, a man should lose his life, God will require his blood at your hand. Reader, permit me to relate an anecdote which I have heard from that most eminent man of God, the reverend John Wesley; it may put thee in mind to entertain strangers: “At Epworth, in Lincolnshire, where (says he) I was born, a poor woman came to a house in the market-place and begged a morsel of bread, saying, I am very hungry. The master of the house called her a lazy jade, and bade her begone. She went forward, called at another house, and asked for a little small-beer, saying, I am very thirsty. Here she was refused, and told to go to the workhouse. She struggled on to a third door and begged a little water, saying, I am faint. The owner drove her away, saying he would encourage no common beggars. It was winter, and the snow lay upon the ground. The boys, seeing a poor rugged creature driven away from door to door, began to throw snow-balls at her. She went a little distance, sat down on the ground, lifted up her eyes to heaven, reclined on the earth, and expired!” Here was a stranger; had the first to whom she applied relieved her with a morsel of bread, he would have saved her life, and not been guilty of blood. As the case stood, the woman was murdered; and those three householders will stand arraigned at the bar of God for her death. Reader, fear to send any person empty away. If you know him to be an impostor, why then give him nothing. But if you only suspect it, let not your suspicion be the rule of your conduct; give something, however little; because that little may be sufficient to preserve him, if in real want, from present death. If you know him not to be a knave, to you he may be an angel. God may have sent him to exercise your charity, and try your faith. It can never be a matter of regret to you that you gave an alms for God’s sake, though you should afterward find that the person to whom you gave it was both a hypocrite and impostor. Better to be imposed on by ninety-nine hypocrites out of a hundred applicants, than send one, like the poor Epworth woman, empty away.—Dr. Clarke.