come to visit their friend, they have nothing to 6peak of but vanity, nothing that can strengthen his weak hands, or sustain his troubled mind. " Miserable comforters are they all, and physicians of no value." Nor does the sick person himself find it so easy to turn his mind to heavenly things as he once ima- gined. Wlien immersed in the world, he supposed that it would be time enough to think of eternity when he should be laid aside by sickness ; and he concluded that in that season he should feel no difficulty in turning his mind to heavenly contemplations : but he now finds that this is a very unfavourable season for such employments, and that pain or lassitude unfit him for them. He cannot collect his mind; he cannot fix it with any energy on things to which it has been a stranger : and the feehngs of the body almost incapacitate him from attending to the concerns of the soul. Thus, however he may abound in worldly wealth and honour, he is a poor, destitute, unhappy being '\
But the distress of the sick is greatly aggravated, if poverty be added to all their other trials—
[A poor man in a state of health is as happy as his richer neighbours : but when he falls into sickness, his condition is very pitial)le. He is unable to procure the aid which his disorders call for : yea, he cannot provide even the necessaries of life. His family, deprived of his earnings, fall into the extremest want. The little comforts which they have hitherto had for clothing by day and for rest by night, now are sold one after another to supply food for the body, or are pledged never more to be redeemed. Cold, hunger, atid nakedness greatly aggravate the pressure of their disorders ; and the miseries of a dependent family are an overwhelming addition to the weight already insup- portable. The resources which might somewhat alleviate the sorrows of one in opulence, are wholly wanting to the poor : so that, if they have not the consolations of religion to support them in their sickness, they are objects of the deepest com- miseration.]
Let US then consider,
II. What is that measure of compassion which we ought to exercise towards them — -
If we consider only the temporal distress of the sick, our sympathy with them should be deep —
[It is not sufficient to express a fewwords of commiseration, and to send a little relief; we should feel for them as for our- selves ; and bear a part of their burthens in our spirit, no less than in our purse. It \vas in this way that Job exercised this amiable disposition : " Did not I weep for him that was in
VOL. IV. I trouble ?