"Miranda never lacks compassion, even to common beggars--especially towards those who are old or sick, or full of sores, or who want eyes or limbs. If a poor old traveler tells her that he has neither strength nor food nor money left, she never tells him that she cannot relieve him because he may be a cheat or because she does not know him. But she relieves him because he is a stranger and unknown to her. Miranda considers that our blessed Savior and His apostles were kind to beggars--that they spoke comfortably to them, healed their diseases, and restored eyes and limbs to the lame and the blind. Miranda, therefore, never treats beggars with disregard and aversion, but she imitates the kindness of our Saviour and His apostles. Though she cannot, like them, work miracles for their relief, yet she relieves them with that power which she has.
'It may be,' says Miranda, 'that I may often give to those who do not deserve it, or who will make an ill use of my alms. But what then? Is not this the very method of divine goodness? Does not God make His sun to rise on the evil and on the good? Do I not beg of God to deal with me according to His own great goodness rather than according to my merit? Shall I, then, be so absurd as to withhold my charity from a poor brother because he may not deserve it? Shall I use a measure toward him which I pray God never use toward me?
You will perhaps say that by this means I encourage people to be beggars. But the same thoughtless objection may be made against all kinds of charities, for they may encourage people to depend upon them. The same may be said against forgiving our enemies, for it may encourage people to do us hurt. The same may be said even against the goodness of God, that by pouring His blessings on the evil and on the good, on the just and on the unjust, evil and unjust men are encouraged in their wicked ways. But when the love of God dwells in you, when it has enlarged your heart and filled you with mercy and compassion, you will make no more such objections as these.'"---William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life: Edited and Abridged for the Modern Reader, pp.56-58
