be a true Christian, and among the happy number of those who love Christ in sincerity!" She had, now and then, complained of not feeling quite well; but little or no attention was paid to this, either by herself or others. I left her house to spend some time with one of my old friends, at a distance of fifteen miles from her. I had been there, I think, not more than ten days, when one morning I received a letter, which informed me that my relative now lay on the bed of sickness, most dangerously ill, and that there was little or no hope of her recovery. The medical attendant, it was added, had advised her husband by no means to send for me, or to let me know of his wife's severe illness; "as," he observed, “it can be of no use to her; and his talking and praying would only disquiet her mind, and probably hasten her departure." Immediately on the receipt of this letter I returned, and found my dear relative rapidly sinking into the arms of death, though quite unconscious that her end was so near. Before I went into her room, I inquired of her husband, if it were correct, as stated to me, that the medical attendant had advised him not to send for me, or to let me know of his wife's illness, from the apprehension of my only causing her uneasiness of mind, and doing her more injury than benefit. He said, It was quite true; and he did not like to send for me, after such an express opinion of one on whose skill and judgment they so confidently relied. But," he added, "I am happy that you are now come, as my dear wife has very often expressed a wish to see you." On my entering the sick room, I was much struck at the very great alteration which disease had occasioned in her features; and she had all the appearance of a person hastening to the grave. After inquiring how she was, and expressing my sorrow at seeing her so ill, I endeavoured, with all practicable delicacy, to draw her mind to think and to feel the possibility that this sickness might be ་་ unto death. As soon as she perceived the tendency of my observations, she looked earnestly at me, and asked, Do you think, then, that I am really in any danger of death? and do you, indeed, think it probable that I may not recover?" I replied, "I would not deceive you for the world. Feeling, affection, duty, and conscience, bid me tell you the truth of your state, the fears of your friends, and the judgment of your medical attendant. May the God of all grace prepare your mind to receive the painful intelligence of your imminent danger, and by his Holy Spirit make your soul ready for his presence in glory! For a few moments she was silent and thoughtful. Then, looking at her husband and her sister, she said, "Could none of you be kind enough to tell me this great truth? Why did you fill me with vain hopes of recovery, if you knew that it was the opinion of Mr. P. that I should not recover?" Then, turning to me, she said, I consider you indeed my kind friend, in dealing thus faithfully with me; as I might, but for you, have been allowed to die without any knowledge that I was dying. Oh teach me how to die; and pray for me, that all my sins may be forgiven, and my soul prepared to meet God." I will not minutely detail the deeply affecting and interesting particulars of the many happy hours we passed in religious reading, conversation, and prayer. She survived only a few days after my return. did not leave the house till her decease; but spent most of my time by the side of her sick bed. She was most humble, and meekly submissive. She had a blessed hope. She clung to the cross of her Saviour, and there lay, as a weeping, humbled penitent, looking unto Jesus only for pardon, peace, and glory. A third instance of the good effect of visiting the sick and dying, in removing ignorance and prejudice from the mind, occurred while I officiated in a parish in the county of BAnopulent farmer, who had been deci 66 dedly hostile to my ministry, was taken suddenly and seriously ill. The very day on which I heard of his illness I called at his house. Soon after my entering, his eldest son came to me. I might be wrong in construing a forbidding austerity and gloom on his countenance into a cold reception. I said, that, "having heard of the sudden and serious illness of his father, I called to inquire how he did, and also to see him, and to pray with him, if he had no objection." He replied, that his father was very dangerously ill indeed, and the doctor did not think that he would be alive many days; but he had particularly desired that nobody should visit him, or talk to him." "If his end is so very near," said I," it will be most unkind to deprive him of that support and consolation which my conversation and prayers might, under the blessing of God, impart." He said, that "he thought very differently from me, and was of opinion, and in this the doctor agreed with him, that I was the worst person who could visit him, as my discourse would only make his mind uneasy and uncomfortable." I was sorry that he should conclude so unfavourably of my object, and was so utterly mistaken as to the nature and probable effects of religious conversation and prayer. I assured him that his opinion was completely erroneous; and that my only view in desiring to see his father was to do him all the good in my power, and to impart such counsel and comfort as his state might require. I entreated him, therefore, by the love, affection, and duty that he bore to his parent, to go to him, and say that I was now in the house, and wished to see him, if he had no very particular objection. He then left me for ten minutes, or more. On his return, he said, "You may go up and see my father; but you must stay but a few minutes in the room.' I went up, and saw lying on his dying bed one who had often and ⚫ severely reprobated my ministry; and if ever I felt love for the soul of a dying sinner, it was then. I had mentally prayed for Divine direction as I ascended the stairs, and that the God of all grace and consolation would enable me to speak a word in season to the dying man, and it accompany with power and blessing to his soul. I sat down by his bed, and, taking him by the hand, expressed my sincere sorrow at seeing him, lately so vigorous and robust, now lying on the couch of affliction. He looked stedfastly at me while I spoke to him, with evidently more pleasure than aversion. I still held his hand in mine, and said all I could, not so much to alarm him at once, as to draw his mind " with the cords of love" to serious thoughtfulness, which might lead his soul to earnest inquiry, self-examination, penitence, prayer, and preparation, through the grace of his Saviour, for his departure. I spoke with the tenderest feelings of Christian sympathy, and with all due delicacy; but I endeavoured to rise gradually in my statements of Divine truth,—of God's free mercy, the love of Christ, the need of true repentance, the promise of the Holy Spirit, the value of the soul, the great importance of a living faith in the only Saviour to prepare us for the kingdom of glory. The time passed rapidly to me, and did not seem long or tedious to the father or the son. A profusion of tears bedewed the old man's cheeks; and, on my proposing prayer, he pressed my hand, and replied, "Yes, I hope you will; it will do me good." I offered up such a prayer as his state seemed to me to require; and included in it some suitable ideas, which I had not ventured at the commencement of my visit to mention in conversation. On rising from prayer, the father said, "What a beautiful prayer! God bless you;" and "Thank you;" to which the son assented, as I saw him wipe away some falling tears; and both said, and in all appearance with altered feelings and in sincerity, "You will come again?' I did repeat my visits several times, during the short period that he survived, and was always received by the family with evident pleasure and cordiality. I cannot speak of any particular change in the mind of this dying man; but he appeared to listen with attention to the word of God; confessed that his past life had been sinful; seemed at times to feel concern for his soul; joined in prayer with me to experience the mercy of a gracious God and Saviour, and to die prepared for heaven. A stupor overpowered his faculties for the last few days of life, and he departed at a moment quite unexpected. It is with heartfelt pleasure that I am able to state, that one decidedly good effect, resulting from my visit to the dying bed of the father, was the removal of a long and deeply rooted prejudice against my ministry from the mind of his son, who succeeded his parent in the occupation of a large farm, and ever afterwards treated me with marked respect and kindness. These facts speak volumes; and they speak for themselves. I will only add a few observations. In regard to the first case, I believe that nothing but a scriptural and consolatory exhibition of Divine truth-the mercy of God to all truly humbled penitents, and the love of Christ to all who anxiously desire, from heartfelt conviction of sin, to partake of the grace and blessing of his great salvation—would, humanly speaking, have saved her life, or have so powerfully tranquillized her mind as to give any probability of success to skill or medicine. In the second instance, it is most decidedly clear that the patient conceived it to be an act of cruelty to keep her in ignorance of her approaching end; and of kindness to inform her of it, that she might become, through Divine grace, prepared for death and glory. In the third case, it is evident how erroneous were the apprehensions of the medical attendant and the dying man's own son, as to what would be the effect of religious counsel and spiritual consolation to one lying on a dying bed.-Cases that are widely different will require different treatment. A very great difference must be made, between those who have constantly heard the Gospel of Christ preached in all its fulness of grace and blessing, and those who have lived in almost entire ignorance of its doctrines and the Scripture plan of salvation. The want of skill and experience in these points has often led to complete failure in our expectations from ministerial fidelity, and, humanly speaking, is the only cause of ill success in our visits to the beds of the sick and the dying. It would be, I conceive, highly useful to your clerical readers, and especially to our younger brethren in the ministry, if some of your able and judicious correspondents would kindly state their own views on this subject, founded on facts, and strengthened by experience of the best mode of treatment in all such cases; and what is the most likely, or what they have found, to be most successful in their visits to the sick room and the dying bed. QUINQUAGENARIUS. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I trust you and your readers will pardon me for accepting your invitation to consider, in reference to Sir Henry Halford's Lecture, "what ought to be the conduct of a medical man, in acquainting his patient with the degree of danger attaching to his maladies;"-a question concerning which there exists a great diversity of opinion. This inquiry is not without its difficulties; but these will best be solved, not by an appeal either to the religious feelings of the physician, if such he has, or to his lamented indifference to this great anchor of his soul, but to the principles of his art. I apprehend that his first duty is, to employ all lawful means within his power for the preservation of life; that he cannot be allowed to have recourse, under any circumstances, to remedies which in his judgment Far, very far, be it from me to justify, or even palliate, the too common cruelty of studiously keeping a patient in profound ignorance of his state, and of presenting to his mind onlythe glowing prospects of recovery: wherever such conduct is pursued, I would stigmatize it as purely selfish or thoughtless, inhuman or demented, antichristian or infatuated, the offspring of ignorance or irreligion. But there is a wide difference between a proceeding of this kind and the exercise of those Christian principles which render it imperative upon the medical man "not to kill;" that is, to employ all lawful means for the preservation of life. might prove immediately destructive fully acknowledge his conviction, that to it, or which might even remotely this force done to nature saved him shorten its duration; that, however he from the severest domestic calamity, may form an opinion as to the probable at a time when the consolations of result of his patient's case, he is not reason and religion would have been gifted with prescience, and would act unavailing. most guiltily if in any way, directly or indirectly, by the means employed, he were to hasten the fulfilment of his own predictions: moreover, that he has not done his duty when he has merely prescribed medicine for his patient, has overlooked his compound nature, and has forgotten to administer medicine to the mind; that, on this ground, he has no right, or even excuse, for deceiving his patient as to the probable result;—but that, in stating that probability, he should always exercise a sound discretion; that he should cling to the side of hope, rather than of fear; that he himself should never know any thing of despondency; and that in all these things he should seek to be guided by the assistance of Unerring Wisdom. Probably some persons may not be satisfied with these principles; and, in the warmth of their anxious zeal for the soul's health, will say that in every instance the patient should be made acquainted with his danger. If this be at all admitted, it must be received with considerable allowance. Hope is one of the most powerful medicines we can employ, and one of the most certain in its effects; and grafted upon this will be confidence in the medical attendant. Now, if we destroy both the one and the other, and we become limited to the employment of the very inferior bodily agents of medicine, we do not do our duty. An anxious countenance from a medical attendant will often be sufficient to destroy the slender thread on which life hangs suspended. Over and over again has the writer of the present article been told, "Nothing but your cheerful countenance has saved my life :" and yet that countenance has been often cheerful when the heart was in its saddest mood. And why was it thus cheerful, but from a sense of duty? and, as a means under God, does he now grate It may be said here, in reply, that if it please God to restore health he will find the means of doing so; and that if he hath otherwise determined, the best-appointed means will fail in producing the expected result. This is most fully granted; but we have nothing to do with the government of the Almighty; neither can we know that, in the order of that government, we are not the appointed agents of effecting a restoration, or the criminal agents of accomplishing the purposes of God, through our neglect: it is ours only to employ the means which have been graciously placed at our disposal; and the medical man is involved in deep criminality, if he voluntarily omit the zealous employment of these means. Some individuals, I am aware, will say that the prospects of Christianity afford the best source of hope. And so they do, to those who can embrace it; to those who have "laid hold of the hope set before them" in the Gospel, as "an anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast." But there are many states of disease in which the veil of physical infirmity is drawn over these prospects; in which it is impossible to realize a distant good, or even to think two consecutive rations of a gracious Providence, ideas; when the physical impression which moves in nature in a mysof hope and of cheerfulness may be terious way, yet in a way in which made upon the nervous system, and goodness, mercy, and love are always may sustain that system through its to be distinguished as the prevailing almost desperate struggle. And sup- attributes. Many proofs of the great pose the case were different, and advantages of this principle are before that the patient cannot rest in hope me. It has pleased God to bless me of futurity; suppose a very common with a large share of the confidence case, that, to the best of our judg- of the neighbourhood in which I ment, present hope and confidence reside: I hope that time, and talent, will bring him through, and that and opportunity have been devoted without this, or such-like props, he to the study of disease, and its means sinks inevitably ;-is it for us to cut of relief; but it is my conviction short his day of grace, by extinguish- that a considerable proportion of the ing hope; or, by employing the usual successful results of my practice is means so graciously vouchsafed by mainly attributable to the influence Infinite Goodness, to endeavour to of this principle: and is such a powersave the life committed to our charge, ful agent of good to be voluntarily that the goodness and mercy of God abandoned, nay, to be refused emmay lead him to repentance, and to ployment, because of a possible or an acceptance of the offers of mercy, probable result, remaining to us unthrough faith in the great atoning known, and resting in the hands of sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ? Almighty Power, whose purposes will Surely the latter is the only safe be accomplished? but, if accomplished conduct, consistent with the prin- through our voluntary neglect, we ciples of our art, which are, to save are not the less criminal for that life, not to kill; and in compliance omission. with that Divine command, which certainly involves, in its uncompromising prohibition, the employment of all possible means for the extension and preservation of life. This line of conduct is not to be pursued at the expense of truth; because we may not commit one sin under the excuse of avoiding another, and that can be no moral duty which involves the forfeiture of another moral duty. But, by an intelligent observer of human nature, of the progress of disease, and of the patient's individual character and present condition, both physical and moral, the two duties will be found to possess in themselves nothing irreconcileable; and a very little tact will enable the medical attendant to perform the one while he does not infringe the other. In fact, the patient is not to be kept in ignorance by a system of mendacious assurance; but the dark edges of the evening cloud are to be gilded by the sunshine of hope and of cheerfulness: and thus are to be imitated the ope Far, very far, be it from me, to justify the absurd system of ever keeping a patient in ignorance of his state, and studiously alienating his attention from the great subjects of religion, and drawing an impenetrable veil over his prospects for futurity, on the principle of not disturbing his present peace, and of crying Peace, peace, where there is no peace." Nothing can be more dangerous in morality; nothing more subversive of all sound reasoning, good practice, or religious principle. But when the trembling balance, held by the medical man, is so wisely adjusted that the slightest weight thrown into the one scale will immediately sink it beyond the possibility of vibration, then I would not only consider it as sinful to throw in that weight, but I would earnestly, sincerely, conscientiously, seek to introduce my share of influence into the opposite scale, so as to maintain power, while the struggle against the destroying cause was continued. A distinction must here be made |