They suffer, some it may
be for the sins of their forefathers, some from causes of disease which
science cannot as yet control, cannot even discover. They are objects of
unmixed pity and sympathy: they should be so to us; for they are so to
Him who made them. On this disease God does bestow a special
alleviation--a special mark of His pity, of His tenderness, in a word of
His grace. That unclouded intellect, that unruffled temper, that
cheerful resignation, that brave and yet calm facing of the inevitable
future, that ever-fresh hope, which is no delusion but a token that God
Himself has taken away the sting of death and the victory of the grave,
till the very thought of death has vanished, or is looked on merely as
the gate to a life of health, and strength, and peace, and joy:--all
these symptoms, so common, so normal, all but universal--this Euthanasia
which God has provided for those who, humanly speaking, are innocent, yet
must, for the general good of humanity, leave this world for another;--
what are they but the voice of God to us, telling that He loves, that He
pities, that He alleviates; and bidding us go and do likewise? God has
alleviated where we cannot.
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