whom the slightest bodily sensation, that is unusual, will make pale with alarm, will often be found calm and resolute when disease has fixed upon some organ and prostrated him upon the bed of sickness. He who foreboded want and poverty, when cheated of a few pence in a bargain, or deprived of some article of furniture, through the carelessness of a servant, will, not unlikely, view unagitated the flames crumbling down his habitation. He who scarcely dare suffer a week to pass, without plying his family with emetics or cathartics, to keep away apprehended disease, may be seen watching around the sick and dying bed of a wife, or a child, with a collected coolness and Christian fortitude.

Apply now these peculiarities to religious experience. The first of them will dispose a man to look intently upon some minute and unfavourable circumstances in his character, or conduct; and to neglect an impartial and comprehensive view of his life. The second, in connection with a melancholy temperament, will fill him with direful forebodings of future and eternal wrath.

It is chiefly this timidity and its peculiarities that produce that indecision and irresolution so common in the character of the nervous invalid. He dare not decide, lest some tremendous consequences should ensue, that would furnish ground for long and unavailing repentance. And so long as he halts between two opinions, whether in his worldly or spiritual concerns, he will remain, not only the most miserable, but likewise the most inefficient of men. For religious exercises are then alone happy, when they are connected with prompt religious action. And how can a man act, who is undecided and irresolute.

The timidity of the dyspeptic will also give a peculiarity to his exer

cises of penitence. He will find that a fear of the consequences of sin will most usually occupy a prominent place among the causes of his sorrow. This, it is true, will not destroy the genuineness of repentance, provided he mourn also on account of the hateful nature of sin. But it will render it more difficult to determine what are the grounds of his penitence for fear is a passion that usually excites too much tumult in the soul, to permit other grounds of action to be very distinctly visible. Hence will the nervous invalid find peculiar difficulty in determining whether his sorrow for sin is like that of Judas, or that of Peter.

:

This same timidity and the attendant melancholy will also deeply affect his Christian fortitude. No virtue suffers more than this from these prostrating maladies. And yet, as we have already remarked, you will often see the nervous man breasting himself with firmness to the attacks of real tangible evils; but when they exist only in anticipation, then it is that his heart seems to have no power to withstand them. And the reason seems to be, that the combination of fear and an excited imagination exhibits these coming evils as more dreadful than any he actually suffers. He sees a dark cloud hanging over the future, and how terrible may be the thunderbolt when it bursts, he cannot tell. His quickened sensibilities have opened his eyes wide upon danger but they have also weakened his power of withstanding them; and we know of no respect in which the strength of disease appears more manifest than in this. The unfortunate man seems like the trembling aspen to be shaken by every breath, and crushed into the dust like a bruised reed, unable to rise from his ruins.Philosophy may teach him lessons of firmness, and religion bid him trust in the overruling providence

:

of God, and wait calmly the event; but alas! how feeble is even religious principle in a soul that seems borne away by an excited sensibility, an overpowering fear, and a gloomy fancy!

We have long since come to the conclusion, that much which gains the admiration of the world as sterling Christian fortitude, would prove, if brought to the trial, to be nothing more than strength of nerves: and that much which is imputed to weakness of Christian principle, is but the inevitable result of nervous maladies. For we have often seen persons thus opposite in their characters, change places with each other, as dyspepsia laid his grasp upon the one, and let the other go free.

We have hence learnt to moderate our admiration of the virtue of the man of apparent fortitude, and rather to congratulate him upon his strength of nerves; while we are more disposed than formerly to pity, rather than blame, the trembling timidity and weakness which a delicate sensibility often exhibits.

Faith is a virtue whose essence is confidence. But confidence, calm and unshaken trust, is, we had almost said, a stranger to the really nervous invalid's bosom. Anxiety, doubt, and distrust, in regard to every thing future, seem to have taken its place. He has lost in a great measure his confidence in himself, and is often defeated in his personal efforts from this cause alone. He will not believe that his plans of lawful business will succeed, simply because he fears they will not. And hence his efforts will sometimes be so palsied by his fears as to make his predictions prove true.

The principle we have kept in view in all our remarks, is, that whenever we perceive certain peculiarities of mind, or of disposition, running through all a man's conduct, in relation to worldly affairs,

something of those same peculiarities will appear in his religious character. That religious principle does not altogether eradicate, but only control, and direct into a new channel, these natural peculiarities of mind, or disposition, is evident from the striking characteristic diversities we perceive in the history of holy men of old, which the Bible exhibits to us: the diversity, for instance, so remakable among the twelve apostles-the inflexible straight-forward firmness and energy of Paul; the impetuosity and rashness of Peter; and the mildness and amiableness of John. We would apply this principle to the case under consideration.— That same disposition which leads a man to distrust his abilities for any particular worldly station, or pursuit, will make him suspicious in regard to his preparation for heaven. And if he fears to trust to the providence of God in the course of nature, for giving success to his ordinary business, that same distrust will prevent him from applying to himself the promises of God to the humble and the penitent. He may have a firm belief that every word of the divine record is true, and yet not believe at all that he has a right to appropriate any thing to himself, but the threatnings and terrors of the Bible. And such a want of faith every one knows to be a characteristic mark of Christians of this description. We do not mean that they never exercise faith: but that it is to them one of the most difficult of all virtues.

There is another very unhappy effect which this timidity and its attendant imbecility of mind produce. The man may have been not only a most rational Christian, but a firm philosopher: yet when subdued by nervous maladies, and in those seasons when there is a feverish excitement of every sense, when as a physician expresses it, "he is all soul within, and all

or

nerve without," he will find himself prone to a degree of supersti tion. His religion and philosophy may both remonstrate against interpreting unfavourable dreams, natural appearances, or remarkable events, as prognostics of misfortune, sickness, or death: yet when his imagination has been highly excited by such occurrences, he will find it very difficult to divest himself of a secret suspicion, or fear, that he may have been thus forewarned of impending calamities. At least he will find it difficult to rid himself of the impression such scenes have made upon his gloomy fancy. They will haunt him from day to day and produce unhappiness, if they do not triumph over his reason. And if the nervous person is not very much enlightened, and is inclined to superstitious fears by education, he will probably be overpowered by the phantoms of imagination, and may come at length to believe that he is favoured, or rather rendered miserable, by visions and immediate revelations. For on examination it will be found, that in most instances of this kind a disordered state of the nerves preceded the fanaticism.

If the remarks made in this essay be generally admitted, the reader will hardly need to have his attention formally called to the effect of nervous maladies upon the passion of hope. The nervous invalid is too gloomy to hope, he is too timid to hope, for any happiness that is future. We do not mean that this passion is totally quenched in his bosom-for how then would life be tolerable--but his melancholy fears have so neutralized it, that its influence, as a moving spring of action, is almost unperceived. Even in regard to worldly affairs, such a man goes forward in performing the routine of his business, or profession, more from necessity and a sense of duty, than from the

inspiring influence of hope; and in regard to spiritual things, how can we expect the case to be much better? He may have seasons when the hope that maketh not ashamed will break through all the damps and darkness of his heart, and open for him a vista to heaven: but the sweet light soon dies away, and the dark clouds of fear and despondency settle again upon his soul. He has little of the calmness, little of the elevation, and none of the assurance of hope. And how deadening an influence this settled gloom and anxiety must produce upon the Christian character, it needs no argument to show. Such a man may indeed obey the divine commands: but how will he seem like a "slave beneath the throne."

There is one more important effect of nervous disorders, which we have not particularly noticed. They render a man fickle, peevish, and irritable. We are not aware that he is peculiarly liable to change his views of the great principles of action, or the general aim of his conduct: but his fickleness appears most in minor things. We have already made some remarks in regard to the disposition of the dyspeptic to change his physicians and his remedies, and attempted to show that so much fault did not attach to him as is generally supposed. And so in regard to many other things, we think there may be sufficient grounds for the changes he is prone to make. You will find him, for instance, disposed frequently to change his business, or situation. And he may be induced to this from the well known fact, that such changes usually operate most favourably upon nervous maladies. For who would not be willing to make almost any pecuniary sacrifices, if he can thereby gain even a temporary relief from the leaden lethargy and morbid sensibility, which, in succession, renew

their incessant onsets upon the ner vous patient. What though the world charge him with fickleness, and misrepresent his motives? Much easier is it to bear thiswhat is it not easier to bear, than the unceasing pressure of feeble health?

The fickleness of nervous invalids, however, often exhibits itself in forms not so easy to justify. They sometimes find the most unreasonable and unaccountable prejudices rising in their minds against their neighbours or friends. These feelings seem sometimes to rise to real enmity: yet only let the nervous attack pass by, and with it will depart every unkind feeling towards others; and their attachment will be stronger than ever. This strange prejudice or hostility will sometimes be felt towards a man's dearest friend; the dyspeptic himself not knowing wherefore, except that it vanishes altogether when a paroxysm of his disorder has disappeared. Indeed, this seems to be a real, though not a constant symptom of the disease; yet we dare not hazard the assertion that it is not sinful. Certainly it may be in a great measure resisted.

The peevishness and irritability of temper to which nervous persons are liable can hardly have been unobserved by any one conversant with them and it ere long becomes powerfully manifest to themselves. The man of phlegmatic temperament when in health, in whom it was scarcely a virtue to be patient and not easily provoked, and who therefore never placed a guard on this side of his character, after struggling for some years with these disorders, finds himself most unexpectedly betrayed into a hasty resentment of injuries. And ere long he finds that he needs daily watchfulness and prayer to secure himself against this temptation. What he formerly supposed the

strongest part of his character, has become the weakest. He, whom no storm of passion and insult could once move, now perceives a counter tumult rising in his bosom, and ere he is aware, bursting upon his adversary in retaliation. The same irritability produces a fretfulness towards his servants, his companions, and even his friends. But if the man be a Christian, this peevishness and irritability of temper will fill him, in the moments of retirement, with the deepest alarm and anguish. He cannot but perceive that his disposition in these respects is becoming decidedly worse. He once could exercise patience without any great effort. But now he finds himself prone to murmur at the chastisements of Providence, and unable to bear with a Christian spirit the perverseness, or even the weakness and failings of his brethren. True, the physician may tell him that all this fickleness, fretfulness, and irritability, may result from nervous weakness. But they are also precisely what would result from an impenitent heart waxing worse and worse. To which of these causes shall he impute the effect in his own case? If this be not a difficult question to decide, we know of none in the whole history of casuistry.

We are unwilling to close this essay without appending a few remarks which are suggested by the subject.

The statements we have made lead to the conclusion, that there are many peculiar difficulties and trials in the religious experience of the nervous invalid; and that it is no easy matter for him to decide whether he be a real child of God or not. To some, we doubt not, such a conclusion may seem dangerous and unwarranted by the word of God. That word calls upon all, without exception, to try themselves, to prove themselves,

whether they be in the faith; and is it not presumption to endeavour to exculpate any from obedience to this command? And will not such an effort give a resting place to the self-deceived hypocrite; and lull multitudes into a fatal delusion?

We readily admit that the Bible contains no express allusion to the case under consideration, as an excepted one, in the command of Jehovah. We much doubt whether many, if any, of the writers of the Bible had any personal knowledge of nervous complaints. For they seem to have been but little known in former times. God reserved them in that phial of his wrath which he pours upon modern nations for their abuse of the blessings of civilized life. Among savage tribes they are entirely unknown: and almost so, among those classes of men whose pursuits are active and abroad. Of this description, were nearly all the individuals of whom Scripture gives an account. We do indeed read of one, whom Paul exhorts, drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thine often in firmities." If however, Dr. Trotter is correct, when he says, "from the experience which I have had, in some thousands of these cases, under all the variety in which they usually appear, I freely give it as my opinion, that the only means of cure, lie in a total abstinence from every species of spirit or fermented liquor; from every thing that bears any analogy to them, such as tea, coffee, opium, and all other narcotics, &c." we should be disposed to infer that dyspepsia was not the malady with which Timothy was afflicted. But, if we do not mistake, we discover some marks of nervous despondency in the book of Psalms; and if these disorders existed any where among the Jews, we should expect to find them amid the luxury and sloth of an eastern court. A single extract from the seventy-seventh Psalm will be

Se

sufficient, we think, to render our conjecture probable. "In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night and ceased not my soul refused to be comforted: I remembered God and was troubled I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed. lah. Thou holdest mine eyes weeping: I am so troubled that I cannot speak I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my sins in the night I communed with mine own heart and my spirit made diligent search. Will the Lord cast off forever? and will he be favourable no more ? Is his mercy clean gone forever? doth his promise fail forevermore ?Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah. And I said this is my infirmity.”

We have often, likewise, been impressed with the idea, that Paul had the nervous invalid in his eye, when, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, he declares it to have been one object of Christ in taking part in flesh and blood, that he might "deliver them, who through fear of death, were all their life time subject to bondage."

But we are wandering from the point under consideration. The proper solution of the difficulty we have suggested, is, to say that the Bible gives us only general rules, without mentioning, except in some few cases, the modifications they will need in peculiar circumstances. When, therefore, it directs believers to make their calling and election sure, and to prove themselves whether they be in the faith, it does not mean that there can be no case in which it would be quite difficult, or even impossible, to obey the command. We have not stated, however, that any such impossibility exists in the case of the nervous invalid. say only, that such is the influence of disorder upon his mind and heart, as greatly to obscure the

We