ON THE MORAL ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES ATTENDANT UPON HEALTH AND SICKNESS.

For the Christian Observer.

WERE the question generally put to the sick, the great, the

prosperous, and more especially to those who are still fluttering and sporting in the beams of youth-" What are your respective estimates of health and sickness?"-they might fairly be expected to reply, "Health is an invaluable blessing, and sickness a very great burden." Nor would that reply be inadmissible, even upon Christian grounds. For, unquestionably, as our senses testify, no earthly enjoyment is comparable to a state of health, and no temporal trial more severe than that of painful and protracted illness. Moreover, such a view as the above is warranted by those parts of Scripture, which represent the one as a curse, and the other as a blessing, to mankind ;-Exod. xv. 26; Deut. xxviii. 60, 61; Isa. lviii. 8.

Yet a view so limited as the foregoing, can scarcely satisfy a reflecting, and still less a religious, mind. To it the ulterior question will, almost necessarily, occur,-"What are the moral tendencies and results of the two very opposite conditions that I am now supposing? Are there no countervailing benefits connected with the pressure of disease, and no disadvantages and dangers attendant on the delights of health ?" Such an inquiry as this, while it admits of a sufficient answer, may, nevertheless, demand of us much thought and not a little Scriptural investigation. To furnish an appropriate reply is the immediate design of the following remarks, written, I trust, in dependence on that Teacher, who alone can guide my efforts to a safe and profitable conclusion.

Of health, then, I would first speak, and with a primary reference to its "moral tendencies and results.' I need not enlarge to prove how ready men are to forget God, amid the buoyancy and unspeakable blandishments of physical vigour and high animal spirits. Some even of the worldly class, and assuredly all who constitute that which is religious, will confess the intoxicating effects of the cup of unmingled health, and the consequent injury which it inflicts on the immortal parts of man. Not seldom does the child of God, when chastened with the rod of sickness, deeply and painfully feel the truth CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 49. B

of the foregoing statement. Doubtless then the high spirits, the strong animal passions, the very laugh, the song, the merriment, if not controlled from above, associated as they are with the absence of bodily affliction, are in fact, if not in theory, unfriendly to our habitual remembrance of the Lord our God. It was in health, and not in sickness, that Hezekiah was induced to display his royal treasures to the messengers of the king of Babylon (Isa. xxxix. 2); but it was of the lessons of the chamber of affliction that he was taught to feel "By these things men live; and in these is the life of my spirit." How fearfully the powers of health, in those who are devoid of restraining and sanctifying grace, minister to sensual indulgence and worldly dissipation, more particularly in the days of youth, is a fact admitted by the reasonable, and bewailed by the spiritual, observer. To mingle strong drink-to pamper appetite-to run "to an excess of riot" in the haunts of debauchery and shame to toil in the shadowy region of miscalled "innocent amusement"-to enter (which, during the past year, was notoriously done, and to their cost, even by some of our young English nobility) the path of midnight violence, as Solomon says of the fool, accounting it "sport," (Prov. x. 23) is alas! if unchecked, the too frequent consequence of that power and activity and spirit, which, for far other ends, it has pleased our merciful Creator to connect with a healthy frame.

Health, on the other hand, when rightly and religiously applied, enables us to do much for the glory of God and the benefit of our fellow creatures. When is it that we can travel without fatigue, and labour without injury; when is it that (like some of our dear brethren who are exerting themselves, both at home and abroad, in the service of religious institutions) we can sacrifice sleep itself, and, on the morrow, speak with animation in the public assembly, and there perhaps eloquently plead the cause of Christ; when is it that, after exertions of no slight magnitude on the platform, we are still able to converse, in private, to the spiritual benefit of others, and even to exhibit a cheerfulness and zeal that appear to be nearly inexhaustible; or when can we labour, as Missionaries, amid the severities of heat and cold?—is it not when health is mercifully allotted to us by God?

So (to notice a lower, but not an unimportant, walk of Christian zeal) in perambulating a district either for beneficent or religious purposes, the blessing of which I speak cannot be too highly estimated. Not only the temporal relief, but even the spiritual happiness, of thousands and tens of thousands of our fellow creatures may thus, under the blessing and grace of God, be effectually promoted. Witness some of the daughters of our nobility periodically going forth, as collectors for the Bible and Church Missionary Societies. Unquestionably, while thus employed in the cause of genuine benevolence, their usefulness, instrumentally considered, must bear a proportion to their health. Among the collateral advantages connected with it, are the increased activity and vigour of their own minds. The same observation will apply to all who undertake the office of district visiting in our land. Health is evidently the lever, without which they would be unable to lift the moral weights that are before them. Great, indeed, should be their thankfulness to "the sovereign Lord of health," for whatever grace He has bestowed on them to labour, for the glory of His name, as coupled with the distribution of

His word and the preaching of His Gospel, and the moral subjugation of the universe to the golden sceptre of His love.

And who can demand proof of the intimate connection between soundness of health and placidity of temper? Whether we look to the infant, or to the man; whether we confine our observations to the worldly, or extend them to the true Christian; we shall not be slow in perceiving those mighty influences of health to which I have now adverted. I will go further and affirm, on the strength of my own experience, that when a pleasant walk, or refreshing ride, the very change of air and scenery, or perhaps some medical aid, has removed those morbid symptoms to which all are liable, the superinduced calmness of temper has been perceptible, not only to the sufferer himself, but to those around him. So that, without admitting for a moment that an uncomfortable state of body can excuse irritability of mind, and without overlooking the mighty operations of the Spirit in the host of our natural corruptions, and in answer to our unwearied prayers, I must still maintain, generally, that the more unimpaired the health of man, the more agreeable is his temper.

For all the purposes of study and intellectual activity health is also a powerful and efficient instrument: whatever may be accomplished in its absence, the mental exercises of the healthy, in the vast majority of cases, are far more vigorous and persevering than those of the diseased! So that the calm nerve, the clear conception, the quick discrimination, the sound memory, the felicitous expression, the fervor and the flow of eloquence, cannot fairly be dissevered from the bodily soundness of their possessor. Possibly with views not dissimilar to the foregoing, and it should seem principally subservient to religious ends, the Apostle John says to his beloved Gaius," that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." (3 John 2.)

Of what value is substantial health to the faithful ministers of Christ, it is scarcely possible to speak in exaggerated terms. When they are strong to labour," and there is "no decay," they are clearly invested with that efficiency, both in their public and private ministrations, of which the unhealthy and the ailing are in fact physically incapable. How diligently, then, should the shepherd of the sheep employ this precious talent in endeavouring, through the grace of Christ, to " strengthen that which is diseased, to heal that which is sick, to bind up that which is broken, to bring back that which is driven away, to seek that which is lost." (Ezek. xxxiv. 4.)

Health, upon the whole, may be regarded as a sweet yet too intoxicating cup-as a flowery path, by which a large proportion of mankind lamentably go astray from God; yet as a species of moral steam, by which the consistent Christian is enabled to do "great things" for charitable and religious ends; and by which the indefatigable student can pursue his valuable toils to the most solid and important purposes, as a friend to temper, as an auxiliary to the minister of Christ.

But it is time to treat of " sickness as to its "moral tendencies and results." Of these, perhaps, one of the most obvious is inactivity, bodily and mental. Notwithstanding that superiority to circumstances, by which certain minds may be distinguished, and whatever be their independence of health, still, generally considered, whenever that blessing fails, our ability to work, mentally and physically, may be

said to fail with it. Accordingly the complaint is heard from the lips of the pitiable sufferer, "now I can do nothing." The true believer will add, "I can no longer visit the poor, the needy, the fatherless, the widow, to relieve, instruct, and comfort them." And oh! how often has the faithful minister of Christ, when disabled by bodily disease, lamented the loss of even the smallest portion of time allotted to him in the days of health, and solemnly determined that, if restored by the hand of God, he would henceforth, through divine grace, more entirely give himself to his responsible and blessed office.

Sickness again separates us, in a great degree, from our beloved friends and relatives. With them, if still residing in the same place and even under the same roof, we can then, comparatively speaking, hold but little intercourse. They themselves are occasionally absent, from a persuasion that their visits would be ill-timed, fatiguing, and perhaps injurious to our frame; or (if impelled by worldly motives) from a certain dread of encountering such scenes as try the feelings, and might depress the heart. Indeed medical orders (sometimes such as are scarcely warranted by circumstances, and are the result of an under-estimate of the eternal interests of man) are a bar to spiritual communication in the time of illness. And who, that is not unacquainted with "the changes of the present life," will deny the difficulty of enjoying the society of our Christian brethren, when laid upon "the bed of languishing?" If time and strength permit, still prudence, and even necessity, may forbid the interview. Never can I forget my own feelings, on being told, some years ago, that, by the strict order of her physicians, I could see but for a few moments a loved and pious sister, then rapidly sinking in her last sickness; or rather departing to "be with Christ."

Illness, moreover, is the not unfrequent source of peevishness and discontent: the fact itself is so notorious, and is so continually brought under the observation of nurses, of physicians, and of ministers, that I need only stop to offer some practical remarks upon the point. How vast, then, is the wretchedness of those who thus oppose the will and provoke the anger of that Being who chastens us for "our profit," that we may be "partakers of His holiness." (Heb. xii. 10.) To pursue so desperate a course is truly to sharpen the thorns and to accumulate the burdens allotted to us in the sick chamber; thus we realize the picture drawn by a prophetic hand, "Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction." (Jer. v. 3.) How awfully such a perverse spirit separates the sufferer from Christ, and unfits us for those heavenly enjoyments which consist in conformity to his will, it is well nigh superfluous to prove. Those who so lamentably resemble the "bullock unaccustomed to the yoke," are not only strangers, but "enemies to the cross of Christ." They at once despise the rod, and reject the consolations, of the Most High.

And, as it regards our last illness, the moral inability that attends it is in fact proverbial. The spectators of such a scene, and still more those ambassadors of Christ who are anxious to be made the instruments of awakening the "miserable sinner" to a saving view of his Redeemer; they, who while they "preach the word," pray that the Spirit may apply it; can testify to the dulness, the forgetfulness, the wanderings of mind, the inaptitude to read, to think, to pray,-and to

that disproportionate, if not exclusive, regard to their bodily relief,— which characterises those who die, to all appearance, in an unrepenting, unbelieving state, and who, even on the borders of eternity, feel not their need of Christ, as their only Mediator and Redeemer.

But I hasten to contemplate the bright side of the subject; namely, the moral benefits to which sickness may be subservient. Of these a fresh sense of our entire dependence upon God is not to be regarded as the least. As the Babylonish monarch learned this lesson in the fields, when condemned to eat grass like the ox; so we, if taught by the Holy Ghost, may derive from the several ailments of our mortal frame such a sense of our own weakness, and of the almighty power of God, as may be rendered profitable to the best ends of our existence. Happy indeed are we if thus we receive chastisement; for then we may be led on by grace to meditate on the fearful cause of all our temporal afflictions-even our apostacy from God, and our consequent enmity to Him, as a being of unspotted holiness.

When our eyes are thus far opened by "the Spirit of God," we may proceed, under His blessed guidance, to contemplate a crucified and more glorified Redeemer. Thus the sick chamber may happily become a school of heavenly wisdom, and a well-spring of unearthly peace. Our thoughts, especially in the silent hours of night, may be made so familiar with the cross, and our affections may be so attracted to him who is the centre of the Christian system, that the pains of illness will then surely bear but a small proportion to its benefits. And it is not easy to imagine a spiritual state more blessed, and therefore more desirable, than that which I am now considering. Thousands who are still "present in the body," and tens of thousands who are now "absent from the body and present with the Lord," will confirm the truth of these and similar remarks on illness. Rare as such results may be, and that because of the sad prostration of mind which is a concomitant of bodily exhaustion (to say nothing of the power and wiles of the great enemy of man) they are indeed most valuable, and may justify the address of an afflicted cottager to myself, now some years ago: Sir, I have more grace in one day's ill

ness than in one month's health."

In

One fact, and that a weighty one, may serve to illustrate the subject of the foregoing observation; namely, the time that is gained in the season of bodily disease, for the highest religious exercises. health we are or we try to persuade ourselves that we are-far "too busy to pray "-to "search the Scriptures "-to meditate on the word, or to commune with our own heart; not so when we lie upon our beds, day by day, as well as night by night, and when perhaps our sleep forsakes us. Then (as Job teaches us, ch. xxxiii. 16, &c.) we may ponder on the one thing needful, till we are roused by the Holy Spirit, from the sleep of sin, and to come to Christ that we "may have life.” However rare the occurrence, still it is among the benefits by which the time of sickness is distinguished from the day of health.

Or take the most advanced Christian-him who is "led by the Spirit" to a throne of grace, and who finds increasing happiness in growing communion with God, whose soul is insatiably thirsty for "the knowledge of Christ,"—and even he will be found to overcome, in the sick chamber, certain hindrances to devotion that beset him in the time of health; --such hindrances as occupations, thoughts, cares