CORNWALL HOSPITAL. 151 



in this there is no disagreement. It contemplates 

 no distant object. It is an institution at our own 

 doors, for the benefit of our own poor, and is calcu- 

 lated to confer lasting honors on our towns and 

 neighbourhood. It has no questionable object. 

 The testimony of the usefulness, the propriety and 

 the necessity of such institutions as a Hospital and 

 Dispensary is to be found in every man's own breast. 

 To such an institution the declaration of our divine 

 Master must have an especial application — " It is 

 more blessed to give than to receive." Lives there 

 a man who hath not felt or witnessed the effects of 

 sin in the diseases of the body, as well as in the 

 maladies of the soul? Even where all the means of 

 easing our pains which wealth can command and 

 affection can provide, are ours, a sick bed must be 

 still a sore trial. Is there none present who can 

 speak the language of experience in this matter ? — 

 Are there not many ? Forget not, then, what sick- 

 ness is at the best, you who are blest with this world's 

 goods to procure every alleviation of your ailments 

 — with sympathising friends to anticipate every want 

 or wish — with the hand of duteous attention ready 

 to smooth your uneasy pillow ; with the eye of un- 

 wearied affection to watch your troubled and fitful 

 slumbers through the livelong night. On the soft- 

 est bed have you not complained with Job — " Weari- 

 some nights are appointed unto me." When you 

 have lain down have you not been full of tossings 

 to and fro, crying, " When shall I arise and the night 

 be gone ? " and, when morning has dawned, have 

 you not exclaimed, " Would to God it were evening?" 

 (Job, vii., 4.) And if this be a true picture of a sick 

 chamber, alleviated by all the means and appliances 

 which this world can afford, what must be the situa- 

 tion of those who, in addition to the pangs of sickness, 

 feel the pressure of want ? who, but for the interpo- 

 sition of Christian charity and institutions like the 

 present, would perhaps linger out a life of pain, or 

 perish for lack of that relief which such institutions, 



