A Lent in earnest : $b or, Sober thoughts for solemn daysGuernsey, Lucy Ellen
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A Lent in earnest : $b or, Sober thoughts for solemn days
Guernsey, Lucy Ellen
Devotional literature; Lent -- Prayers and devotions; Prayers
Dear fellow-sufferer, if in your sick-room your Lord has sent you a
blessing, cannot you contrive to send that blessing on to some other
sufferer? He has sent you, let us say, a cheering message by a book
or paper. Can you not pass it on to some one else? He has given you a
cheering thought. Can you not give a friend or attendant the benefit
of it? Some one brings you a pattern for embroidery or knitting. It
will do you all the more good if you use it to make a Christmas gift
for some other invalid who does not enjoy as many pretty things as
yourself. A lady of my acquaintance once received from a wealthy and
generous friend a box of very fine forced strawberries. She sent a
part of them to an old lady in a charitable institution, whose failing
appetite could hardly be tempted to take food at all. The sight of a
dish of strawberries in March was such a wonder that it led her to
eat quite a good meal; and a year afterwards she spoke with delight
of "those beautiful berries your mother sent me." I mention this as a
specimen of the way a kindness may be passed on. I believe that act of
thoughtful kindness prolonged for several years a useful life.
There are those who carry an atmosphere of comfort with them wherever
they go. They may not be very brilliant or very accomplished, but every
one is glad to see them. They have something pleasant to say. Such a
person does not tell a rheumatic patient of her grandmother who was
unable to feed herself for years, or suggest to one suffering from a
surgical operation that people in such circumstances almost always go
into a decline. (I have known of these very things being done more than
once.) I once suffered for several months from the effects of a cat's
bite, and I suppose that more than half the people to whom the story
was told said, "I should think you would be afraid of hydrophobia!"
With a nervous or apprehensive person the effect might have been
serious. Oh how many heartaches and tears would be saved to invalids,
if those who visit them would try to think of something pleasant and
cheering to say!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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