Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

61

Life in the Sick Room.

EXHORTATIONS.

DEARLY BELOVED: Know this, that Almighty God is the Lord of life and death, and of all things to them pertaining, as youth, strength, health, age, weakness, and sickness. Wherefore, whatsoever your sickness is, know you certainly that it is God's visitation. And for what cause soever this sickness is sent unto you; whether it be to try your patience for the example of others, and that your faith may be found in the day of the Lord laudable, glorious, and honorable, to the increase of glory and endless felicity; or else it be sent unto you to correct and amend in you whatsoever doth offend the eyes of your heavenly Father; know you certainly, that if you truly repent of your sins, and bear your sickness patiently, trusting in God's mercy, as his dear Son Jesus Christ hath taught us, and render unto him humble thanks for his fatherly visitation, submitting yourself wholly unto his will, it shall turn to your profit, and help you forward in the right way that leadeth unto everlasting life.

You know and confess that God beareth the affec

tion of a father toward his children. You know also, that a father, whether he dote upon his child, or whether he chasten him, continueth a father in both cases; and loveth him in the one no less than in the other.

Think the same of God, as touching yourself: that while he gave you good days, he loved you; and that now he sendeth you some evil, he loveth you still; and would not have sent you this evil, but to be a cause unto you of greater good; that, being called home thereby, you might be at peace.

Take, therefore, in good part the chastisement of the Lord; for as St. Paul saith, Whom the Lord. loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? Furthermore, we had fathers of our flesh, who corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. These words are written in Holy Scripture for our comfort and instruction; that we should patiently, and with thanksgiving bear our heavenly Father's correction, whensoever by any manner of adversity it shall please his gracious goodness to visit us. And there should be no greater comfort to Christian persons than to be

made like unto Christ, by suffering patiently adversities, troubles, and sicknesses. For he himself went not up to joy, but first he suffered pain; he entered not into his glory before he was crucified. So truly our way to eternal joy is to suffer here with Christ; and our door to enter into eternal life is gladly to die with Christ; that we may rise again from death, and dwell with him in everlasting life.

SOME RULES IN SICKNESS.

At the first address and presence of sickness stand still and arrest thy spirit, that it may, without amazement or affright, consider that this was that thou lookedst for, and wert always certain should happen, and that now thou art to enter into the actions of a new religion, the agony of a strange constitution; but at no hand, suffer thy spirits to be dispersed with fear, or wildness of thought, but stay their looseness and dispersion, by a serious consideration of thy present and future employment. Every man, when shot with an arrow from God's quiver, must then draw in all the auxiliaries of reason, and know that then is the time to try his strength, and to reduce the words of his religion into action, and consider that if he behaves himself weakly and timorously, he suffers never the less of sickness; but if

he returns to health, he carries along with him the mark of a coward and a fool; and if he descends into his grave, he enters into the state of the faithless and unbelievers. Let him set his heart firm upon this resolution, "I must bear it inevitably, and I will, by God's grace, do it nobly."

Resolve to bear thy sickness like a child, that is, without considering the evils and the pains, the sorrows and the danger; but go straightforward and let thy thoughts cast about for nothing but how to make advantage of it.

Do not think that God is only to be found in a great prayer or a solemn office; he is moved by a sigh, by a groan, by an act of love, and therefore when thy pain is great and pungent, lay all thy strength upon it to bear it patiently. When the evil is something more tolerable, let thy mind think some pious, though short, meditation. We must not think man is tied to the forms of health, or that he who swoons and faints, is obliged to his usual forms and hours of prayer. If we cannot labor, yet let us love.

Treat thy nurses and servants sweetly, and as it becomes an obliged and necessitous person. Remember that they trouble not thee willingly, that they strive to do thee ease and benefit, and are glad if thou likest their attendance; that whatsoever is amiss is thy disease, and the uneasiness of thy head or thy side, and it will be an unhandsome injustice to be

troublesome to them because thou art so to thyself, to requite their care by thy impatient wrangling and fretful spirit. He will be very angry with God's smiting him that is peevish with his servants that go about to ease him.

Let not the smart of thy sickness make thee to call violently for death. They are not patient who are not content to live. Wherever the general hath placed thee, stir not from thy station till thou beest called off. Do not impatiently long for evening, lest at night thou findest the reward of him that is weary of his work; for he that is weary before his time, is an unprofitable servant.

DUTIES OF THE SICK ROOM.

I cannot quite subscribe to what a friend said to me not long ago, to whom I had spoken of the duties of sickness. "One of the chief duties of a sick room," he said, "is to forget duties, lay aside responsibilities, and so rest the will. Sickness should be like sleep in this regard. The best thing about sleep is not that it rests the body, but that it rests the conscience. We are not under law in sleep, nor are we in sickness." This is a striking statement, perhaps a taking one, but is it true? Will not its adoption and carrying out end in mak

« AnteriorContinuar »