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which is made to depend each year upon the accidental state of the funds in hand, is attended by many of the same evils which are occasioned by gratuitous charity. One penny or twopence on the shilling are quite enough to operate as an encouragement to economy, where such encouragement is needed: sixpence on ten shillings is the allowance at Brighton and Liverpool. Although the supporters of these institutions may not be unwilling to afford their indigent neighbours this trifling charity in its most unobjectionable form, it is a source of great satisfaction to have ascertained that the existence and enlargement of Provident Societies are not necessarily dependent upon the continuance of honorary subscriptions; but that such institutions may be carried on to an indefinite extent, and all their most important objects may be fulfilled, with hardly any gratuitous aid whatever."

[Essays, &c.]

"SICK, AND YE VISITED ME."

THERE are several considerations which make our duty to the sick a very important part of the field of benevolent action.

1. We can very easily afford a great deal of relief, and even of happiness, to the sick; and that safely. If it is only temporary relief and happiness, it is an object worth securing, provided that it can be secured without danger. When we relieve the distresses of poverty by our friendly interposition, we are always solicitous lest we may in the end make more misery than we remove. The distress may be feigned, or may be in some way connected with deception, and our aid, in such case, will only encourage and embolden fraud. Or a man may have neglected to make provision for coming wants when he might have provided for them, and then, when he begins to feel their pressure, we may cut off the influence of a salutary lesson for the future, by the relief which we cannot find in our hearts to deny. It sometimes seems almost cruel to admit such suspicions, but it is only the extreme of inexperience or of folly that can be blind to them.

In cases of sickness, however, they do not apply. All the good that we can do in the chamber of actual disease or

suffering, is, with exceptions very few and rare, a work at least of safety.

And then, besides the safety of it, doing good in a sick room is a very effectual way of doing good. We work there to great advantage. A very little effort gives a great deal of relief or a great deal of pleasure. Perhaps it is owing to the feelings of helplessness and dependence which sickness brings. or perhaps to the effect of disease in awakening the susceptibilities of the mind, and rendering the sufferer more sensitive to kindness, as we know he is to sounds, and light, and pain. The sternest man will be softened if you approach him with relief, or even with sympathy, when he is in sickness or pain.

Thus, if there are, within the reach of your walks, a number of cases of sickness among the poor and unfortunate and neglected, there is no way in which you can spend a few hours in each week in doing more immediate and effectual good, than in seeking out the cases, and carrying to them your relief, or at least your sympathy.

* *

The good which the Christian visitor may do in the sick chamber is not confined to the suffering patient. The family and friends are comforted, and sustained, and strengthened, by the influence of your presence. No one who has not experienced it can tell how valuable is the spontaneous and heartfelt sympathy of a friend, to a family suffering in one of its members, the invasion of alarming or fatal disease. The heart of the wife sinking within her in anxiety and terror at her husband's sufferings or delirium, is refreshed and strengthened as by a cordial, when a kind neighbour comes in to share her watch and her anxious care. And so the hearts of the parents, distressed and filled with anguish at witnessing the last struggles of an infant child, are cheered, and sustained, and comforted, by the presence and the silent sympathy of a friend who watches with them till midnight brings the last breath and the last pulsation, and gives the little sufferer repose. There is, in fact, no end to the variety of modes by which kindness to the sick is effectual in reliev ing pain and promoting happiness. Sickness seems to soften the heart, and awaken all its susceptibilities of gratitude and happiness. Kindness and sympathy are never so longed for and so welcome as here, and never touch the heart more effectually, or awaken stronger feelings of gratitude and

affection. It may be all merely temporary pleasure which is thus communicated, but it is real and great, if it is temporary, and it can be all accomplished with little effort and little danger.

2. By kind attention to the sick, we may gain an influence in favour of piety over the sick themselves, and over the families to which they belong. Piety is, in respect to mankind, love; and in no way perhaps can its true character be more fairly shown than in the sick room. The colours, too, in which it appears there, are all alluring. In ordinary intercourse with mankind, the pressure of business, or the forms and usages of social life, repress, in a great degree, those moral manifestations which shine out spontaneously in the sick room, and exhibit the character of submission to God, and kind interest in man, which the Saviour.commands us to let shine as a light in the dark world of sin.

Thus, in many many instances, a cold, heartless, unbelieving, and perhaps vicious father, has been led to see the reality of religion by his intercourse with the Christian friend who has come to visit his sick child. In fact, sickness seems often sent, as it were, to open a door of admission to an ungodly family, by which the Gospel may enter in. The family are first grateful for the kindness, then they see the moral beauty of the character which exhibits it. The religious conversation which is offered in a kind, conciliating, and unassuming tone, in the sick chamber, or around the fireside of an adjoining room, is listened to with a respectful attention, though perhaps under no other circumstances could it have found an access to those ears. These first steps may not be very important ones, but it is something to bring the soul, which is utterly hostile to God, to a parley. The reading of proper religious books,-an occasional, and at length a regular attendance at the house of God, are perhaps the succeeding steps; and when a family is brought thus far, by the gentle and unassuming moral influence which may, without great difficulty, be exerted over them, it is safe to expect that the change will go further. It is into such a family that the Holy Spirit loves to enter and complete the work, which, without his aid, could even have not been begun. Reader, is there not within your reach a family of unhappy wanderers from God, into which sickness has gone and opened a door of easy and pleasant access to you? In

quire and ascertain; and if there is, find your way there without delay, and by kind, unceasing, and delicate attentions, fasten a silken cord of gratitude and affection to their hearts, by which you may draw the inmates to the Saviour and to happiness. * * *

3. By kindness to the sick, we have some hope of promoting the spiritual good of the patient,-though we confess that this hope must be faint and feeble. The good that is done is mainly that specified under the preceding heads; either the present relief and comfort, amounting sometimes to positive enjoyment, which results directly from the effort or the influence in favour of the cause of piety, resulting from the exhibition of its true character, in its own appropriate sphere. These are often overlooked, and the chief hopes of the Christian Visitor are directed to the spiritual benefit of the patient himself, which we have melancholy evidence is very seldom, in any great degree, attained. This evidence, however, though it is melancholy, we ought It is best for us to understand what hopes there are of preparation for death on a sick bed, both for our own guidance in respect to others, and also that we may know what to calculate upon ourselves, in respect to our own last hours.

to see.

"But why," the reader will ask, who is accustomed to think that sickness brings with it peculiar opportunities for repentance, "why is it that we may not hope to promote the spiritual good of the sick? They are then withdrawn from the world. The power of its temptations is destroyed, -eternity, if not actually near, is at least seen more distinctly, and more fully realized. There are many long hours favourable to reflection, and everything seems to invite to repentance for sin and reconciliation with God."

This is all true; and if nothing but an invitation to the favour of God, and urgent alarming necessity for reconciliation with him were wanting, every sick man, conscious of sickness would be sure to be saved. But unhappily it is not all. There is a heart to be changed. A heart which shrinks from God, dislikes communion with Him, and loves sin, is to be so entirely altered in its very fundamental desires, as to seek God eagerly and spontaneously, as its refuge, its home, its happiness, to delight in His presence and communion, and to hate and shrink from sin. Now, the natural effect of

sickness is simply to awaken uneasiness or anxiety, and we can see no special tendency for uneasiness or anxiety, to produce such a change in the very desires and affections of the soul as this.

[From a Modern Author.]

AN AWFUL DEATH-BED SCENE.

THE minister of a district church in one of the most demoralized parts of the metropolis, desires to submit the following statement to the editor of the District Visitors' Record. Should he think it worthy of insertion, it may possibly have the effect of stimulating the exertions of those pious Christians who visit the abodes of vice and misery; it may lead them to reflect, that their timely admonitions, persuasions, tracts, and prayers, may, under God, be the means of rescuing many a poor sinner from such a fearful end as that which is now to be stated.

Returning to my house one evening in November last from my usual parochial avocations, I found that repeated messengers had been sent, summoning me to the house of D, who was stated to be fast dying, and extremely anxious to see me. Having long known this individual as the keeper of a large gin-shop, an avowed infidel, most licentious in all his habits, and a loud brawler at all our parish meetings, I was prepared for an interview of the most painful character. Knowing, however, that the mercies of God are great, and a "place for repentance" might yet be found, I hastened instantly to his residence. Arrived there, I ascertained from his wife and daughters that his friends and acquaintance in the neighbourhood had for many weeks been buoying him up with false hopes of ultimate recovery, and that, up to the very time I had been sent for, he had been continually engaged, when awake, either in listening to the newspaper, or in playing dominoes, to avert the thoughts of death. Now, however, that his latter end seemed fast approaching, these false friends had forsaken him, not wishing probably to witness the dying hours of their old associate. It seemed also as if his conscience was awakened from his long slumber: he had readily acquiesced in the proposal to send for me, and evinced great anxiety till I came.

But fearful is the condition of those who live without the Gospel, and begin to feel their need of it only in the article

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