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speak as much as the sick person would like of his illness or does not seem to enter into it-or seems wholly to misunderstand the case, and thinks he can go out when he is longing to do so but cannot-or thinks that he ought to try to make this and many other exertions-or perhaps judges him harshly; then letters become a source of irritation, and it is well if alienation of heart be not produced. Now all these things surely are sent to try us, and are intended for this purpose. Nevertheless we should bear in mind that we ought not to be angry or even annoyed; that our friend meant nothing but kindness, but being at a distance, and unable to see us, could not possibly know our actual state; and wrote, either judging from our own statements, the statements of others, or from having formed an imaginary picture of what state such and such symptoms would probably produce. Even as you do not like to be harshly judged, do not judge your friends harshly. Be very careful not to answer in an irritated tone, or to let an unkind word escape your pen. If you feel unkindly, do not write at once, wait until the first feeling of vexation and its sad after-thoughts have subsided. Ask the God of love to make you like-minded with Himself, and to make this a time for denying yourself, and to enable you to hide from your friend that you have done so. You may naturally and

quietly tell your state; but do not try to make it appear worse or different from what it really is, for that would be but another way of expressing your annoyance. Sick people often expect their friends to write to them as frequently and as fully as if they wrote answers to each letter, which is unreasonable.

It is not likely that people in health should fully enter into the feelings of sick persons about letters; they feel so cut off from intercourse and life, that they often have a craving for letters, but a great disinclination to, or inability for, answering them. A letter steals into the room so silently and quietly that it does not fatigue as visitors sometimes do; it gives great pleasure to find that friends remember us, and do not give over expressing it, even when we cannot acknowledge the cheering they have been to us. People often say, "I do not write to you, because I know how weak you are, and that it only teases you."

This is a great mistake; sick people need letters more, in order to keep up their connexion with others, and value them far more than people in health. If they fear to fatigue them, let them say that they do not expect answers, and will write again, in spite of not receiving any. Let them never reproach sick people for not writing, or think it any proof of want of affection; and, in like manner, let the sick re

member how often their friends abstain from writing to them from truly kind motives; and so let them never indulge in hard or unreasonable or unloving thoughts of them.

Few people know the full enjoyment of a letter, or a message, even those often uncared for messages of love and remembrance, until they have been ill for a long time.

III.

VISITS OF CLERGYMEN.

ANOTHER Source of discontent often arises from the visits of clergymen. You may be living in a large parish where it is not possible for your pastor to visit you often, he has so large a fold and so many sheep to look after. Remember that you are not the only one; that his time is greatly taken up. Be thankful whenever he visits you; and be thankful also when he does not, if you know that it is because he is visiting others, who have fewer means of instruction, and have had but few opportunities of obtaining it.

Or, you may be living in a parish where the people are rarely visited. If so, your case is not peculiar; you have no cause to complain as if you were worse off than others. Pray for

yourself and them, that the case may become otherwise, if so it please God.

Or, the clergyman may visit you, and the conversation may be entirely desultory-about persons, or on general subjects.

Or, he may be very shy and reserved; he may deeply feel that he does not know how to address you; he may have an earnest desire to do it, but feeling this difficulty may make his manner cold or formal. You can say nothing; you had questions you wanted to ask; advice to get from him; but you are straitened; you can ask nothing; he leaves you, and you say in your heart, with bitter disappointment, that your "teachers are removed into a corner."a

Or, he may know nothing personally of illness, and may not have much considered the wants of the sick, which may be learned by an earnest study of the "Service for the Visitation of the Sick." He thinks, perhaps, that all the wants of sick people are alike, their trials all coming under the same class, and that what he says to one will equally apply to every case. Perhaps he is as much surprised that his words do not seem to suit you, as you are that he says nothing which comes home to your heart. He may have a method in his visits, which you would interrupt if you asked any question. You see that it is not agreeable to him, it

a Isa. xxx. 20.

breaks the thread of his discourse, which he cannot easily resume. He has adopted this course with the sick, considerately, believing it to be the plan most likely to edify them. Even when, before he left, he proposed to read a chapter from Holy Scripture, and then to pray with you, he did not perceive your weakness; he did not notice that you could not now listen or follow, as once you could; that you needed that the length of the Scripture read, and of the prayer, should be adapted to your physical condition, if you were to have part in it. Perhaps you were unequal to having more than two or three Collects repeated, the words of which you would be so familiar with, as to require only the one effort of joining in the Prayer, without considering also what words were said, and whether you could offer them. You expected much from this visit, and you are disappointed, and feel more alone and unhelped than before.

Or, the pastor may think something that you say is erroneous, and spend the time of his visit in combating the error, rather than in leading you into truth.

Or, he may expect you to respond to certain words and phrases. You are afraid to express yourself thus; the words do not exactly convey your meaning; you give a wrong impression of yourself; you say that you cannot use such words. He is dissatisfied; perhaps tells you

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