Providing downlaod link to file in non-public section of server

[Flavio58]

I have a number of files stored in a folder outside of the publicly accessible portion of my website. For example, the file \[code\]'abcd.jpg'\[/code\] is stored (in terms of the server) in \[code\]'/home/private_files/'\[/code\] and the website is in \[code\]'/home/public_html/website.com/'\[/code\]When I go to provide a link to view the file, I use \[code\]<a href="http://stackoverflow.com/home/private_files/abcd.jpg">Download</a>\[/code\] however this doesn't work.Any suggestions?