And when we think of the position in which the patient is commonly seen by the physician, the reasons why religion should reign paramount in the latter become more cogent still. The afflicted are, in some sense, at the mercy of the physician. The skill of the medical attendant is the sheet-anchor of the sufferer. Actions, words, and looks, are carefully watched and scrutinized, as if destiny were in them. The physician has given relief from pain: he has, perhaps, brought back the patient from the verge of the grave; and hence the one feels that the other is, for the time, the very life of his life. Now, for what purpose should all that ascendency be employed? Should it be used merely to amuse the sufferer, or beguile his thoughts for a little away from the prison-house into which sickness has converted his chamber? Ah, no; but for higher, holier ends: if that physician have religion in his own soul, he will use his influence as a means of medicating the soul of the sufferer, by turning his thoughts to Him who kills and makes alive; and where that is neglected, opportunities the most precious are lost--a talent which might reproduce itself more than a thousand-fold is guiltily hid in the earth. ITS USES. Nor should we fail to notice the influence for good which may be exerted over the relatives of the diseased in times of sickness and sorrow. When the ploughshare of trial has torn up the heart, a physician can drop in the seed which bears fruit unto holiness, if he love souls, or be wise to win them. Grief is indulged before him, which is pent up in the presence of others; fears are expressed, dark forebodings appear, which none but the physician is permitted to witness. Confessions also are sometimes made, or secrets disclosed, which throw the door for doing good more open still; and, amid all these things, only one explanation can be given, if the opportunity be not seized--that physician has no love for souls; he does not know their value; eternity is a name to him. True, there is a professional etiquette to which many defer, and which it would be wrong, in its own place, to violate. But that etiquette is worldly or morbid which stands in the way of loving men's souls, or seeking to do them good; and such love will watch for ways for displaying itself amid a crowd of obstacles. THE GREAT PHYSICIAN.