THE SHADOW OF DEATH 



other ills are then but trivial. When the parting 

 comes, the emptiness of life, the aching void, the 

 absence of the one that is gone, nearly breaks the 

 heart. The closer the tie that bound our lives together, 

 the deeper the sorrow in their severance ; very many 

 have prayed then for their own death many have 

 sought for and found it. When the dying one has 

 suffered much, death is often welcomed as a release 

 both to the dying and to the living. -The one to be 

 at rest; the others to know that his sufferings are 

 ended. On the eve of a long separation, the one who 

 suffers most is he who stays in the deserted home ; 

 the departing one leaves for new thoughts and scenes 

 in the life beyond; so should we try to think of those 

 who cross before us, to the unknown shore. 



The Evolution of knowledge within the last hun- 

 dred years has not only done much to mitigate suf- 

 fering to the living, but has saved from death and 

 returned to a continued long and happy life hun- 

 dreds of thousands of those who in the olden days 

 must have died inevitably. Vaccination, discovered 

 and introduced by Dr. Jenner, has nearly extirpated 

 one of the most frequent, frightful and fatal diseases 

 that ever afflicted man. The germicidal treatment 

 introduced by Sir Joseph Lister in Surgery has kept 

 a countless number from an early grave. Anaesthetics 

 have taken away pain and the fear of pain from the 

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