SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE. 



» XV 



judgment to discern disease, and skill to treat it ; and crown with thy favour 

 the means that may be devised for recovery ; for, with thine assistance, the 

 humblest instrument may succeed, as, without it, the ablest must prove 

 unavailing. 



" Save me from all sordid m.otives ; and endow me with a spirit of pity 

 and liberality towards the poor, and of tenderness and sympathy towards 

 all ; that I may enter into the various feelings by which they are respectively 

 tried ; may weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice. 



" And sanctify thou their souls, as well as heal their bodies. Let faith 

 and patience, and every Christian virtue they are called upon to exercise, 

 have their perfect work : so that in the gracious dealings of thy Spirit and 

 of thy providence, they may find in the end, whatever that end may be, that 

 it has been good for them to have been afflicted. 



" Grant this, heavenly Father, for the love of that adorable Redeemer, 

 who, while on earth, went about doing good, and now ever liveth to make 

 intercession for us in heaven. Amen." 



One cannot help being struck with the resemblance of character between 

 the great Boerhaave and Dr. Good ; but that excellent man Baron Haller 

 resembled him still closer. This great and learned physician in the early 

 part of his life, likewise, had doubts concerning the objects of the Christian 

 faith. " But these doubts were dispelled by a successful application to 

 every branch of science on the one hand, and by a candid examination of 

 the sacred oracles on the other. The first, by purging his soul, according 

 to his own emphatic language, of arrogance and pride, filled it with true 

 poverty of spirit. The second convinced him that the Divine Revelation 

 conveyed in the Holy Scriptures is a boon worthy of the merciful Author 

 of our nature to give, and such as is fit for guilty mortals to receive with 

 humble gratitude and reverence." 



The parallel betw^een these great and good men, devoted as they were 

 to the work of doing good to the bodies and souls of their fellow-men, is 

 still greater, from the circumstance that Dr. Good, like Boerhaave and 

 Haller, had envious and malignant enemies. But he never regarded calumny 

 and detraction, nor ever thought it necessary to confute them. He adopted 

 the sentiment of Boerhaave, who said, " They are sparks which, if you do 

 not blow them, will go out of themselves. The surest remedy against scan- 

 dal is, to live it down by perseverance in well-doing ; and by praying to 

 God that he v/ould cure the distempered minds of those who traduce and 

 injure us." 



After a life of virtue and consistent piety, such as characterized Dr. John 

 Mason Good, the reader may anticipate a peaceful termination, even in the 

 light of nature itself. But, illuminated as were the dark valley and shadow 

 of death by the resplendent light and glory of the Christian revelation, his 

 path seemed, like " that of the just," to " shine brighter and brighter even 

 to the perfect day." 



Mark the humility, devotion, and faith which were exhibited in the hour 

 of hiv approaching (lissolution. He called the members of his family around 

 his bed, and thus addressed them : " I have taken what unfortunately the 

 generality of Christians too much take — I have taken the middle walk of 

 Christianity — I have endeavoured to live up to its duties and doctrines, 



