more holy in the sight of God, and more charitable towards your neighbour. What the event of your present sickness may be, as to life or death, is certainly known only to God: what it may be, as it regards the state of your soul and your prospect of Heaven, is far more in your own power to foresee and to provide; for should it please the Sole Disposer of all events to restore you to health and yet continue you in the land of the living, it should be your first care, as it is your best interest, so to avail yourself of all the means of improvement in holiness afforded on a sick bed, and so patiently to demean yourself under the Divine visitation, that you may go forth into the world a better Christian, and be able to say, that however "before "I was troubled, I went wrong, now have "I learned thy statutes." But should the Prophet's declaration to good King Hezekiah be to be fulfilled in you," set thine "house in order-for thou shalt die and "not live," then is the call upon you fearfully urgent indeed: the day—short

enough even at the best for the great work in hand-is to you far spent, perhaps unprofitably spent the night is at hand, in which no man can work; to be remiss now, or to neglect any known duty that you are able to perform, would argue a madness of which few can be guilty: and in the assurance of this I shall con‐ clude with leaving on your mind, the advice of the great Apostle on another subject, strictly applicable to this" None of "us liveth to himself, and no man dieth "to himself. For whether we live, we "live unto the Lord; whether we die, we "die unto the Lord; whether we live "therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. "For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be "Lord both of the dead and living."

66

ADDRESS

TO THE

ATTENDANTS ON A SICK PERSON.

Ir may at first sight appear necessary in thus suggesting a few short rules, for the better discharge of your awful and distressing duty, to ascertain whether you are a relation or friend of the sick person, or an hired nurse or servant; since the motives which would animate the one, and make her anxiously attentive, could not, generally speaking, be expected in the other, who may, therefore, be supposed to stand more in need of advice and caution---but as my present purpose is to remark and advise on those parts of your duty which it has too frequently been my lot to see neglected, or inconsiderately, and therefore to the sick

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'person painfully, performed, equally by both classes-this discrimination is not requisite.-Your office is one which like every other may be well or ill discharged-and in which, even with the best intentions on your part, you may, for want of a little thought and caution, defeat your own end-give pain to the body, or do hurt to the soul of him whom you are attending. For the spiritual condition no less than the bodily may be more affected by your judicious or injudicious attendance, then you are perhaps aware of. The Minister of the Gospel, and especially one who has a large flock of Christ committed to his care, can of necessity be only occasionally present with each individual among the sick members thereof; the Medical attendant has too many claims on his time to allow him to remain, except perhaps in extreme or urgent cases, any lengthened period with his patient. You, on the contrary, are his constant companion, and it is, therefore, in your power effectually to co

operate both with the one and the other, towards the attainment of their respective objects. The truth of this will be acknowledged generally, by the most heed-less observer of what passes in a sick, room-to prove it particularly, and at the same time to help you in the same, is the purpose of the following cautions-which, having thus briefly bespoken your attention to them, I shall now proceed to lay down..

AND first of all, no common discretion on your part is requisite as to the propriety or otherwise of informing the sick person that danger is apprehended; for, as in some cases to do so, would be little less than signing his death-warrant—so in a vast majority of others, the communication may be made with safety as to his bodily state, with unspeakable benefit to his spiritual. I am aware, that the generality of people will say that on no