Page:Introductory lecture delivered in the Adelaide Hospital, Dublin, at the commencement of the clinical course, October 31, 1864 (IA b21916433).pdf/23

23 religious oversight of the inmates is not left to the chance visit of some unknown teacher, but a faithful minister of the Gospel has been appointed, whose especial duty it is to visit the wards daily, and going from bed to bed, to administer instruction, comfort, and sympathy to each of the sufferers as he sees their necessity requires. Standing as I do here on this public occasion, I would be guilty of a gross omission, if I did not bear witness to the faithfulness and diligence with which these duties have been performed by the present most excellent Chaplain, and to the good that he has been the means of doing to all classes of the patients.

Every attack of illness, when regarded in its true light, must be looked upon as a personal call to repentance; yet too often the lighter forms of it especially are not traced to their proper source. Samuel in the temple heard the voice of Jehovah calling to him in the dead of night, but it was not until Eli instructed him that he was led to say—"Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." So it often happens with the sick. The providence of God comes to them again and again, it may be with calls of increasing severity; but they do not understand the purpose of the visitation, nor do they meekly bend to receive it. How important then is it that there should be some friendly monitor at hand in such a place as this to interpret the visitation, and teach them how to apply it.

Next to a church, there is not a more sacred spot on earth than an hospital. The feelings with which we enter the wards ought to bear some affinity to that holy reverence with which we go up to worship. God is there in an especial manner, accomplishing his own purposes of mercy, and working really but invisibly in the hearts of His people. How appropriate to such a scene is the language of the patriarch, as he rose from his solitary couch on the plains of Syria, and exclaimed—"Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not." The great Father of the human family takes his erring children aside, each one separately, that he may talk to them in private, chiding them for their faults, and administering correction. With what subdued feelings, with what