"CHEERING" THE SICK

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 47, 23 August 1930, Page 8

"CHEERING" THE SICK

: ♦- The Auckland Hospital Board has been worried by a complaint concern- v ing religious services in the wards, and this complaint has brought to light some interesting opinions on the difficult question of ministration to the sick. It is said that the visits of some ministers are appreciated, but others are not. One can quite understand this, for it is not every visitor who can cheer or comfort the sick. The distribution of tracts bearing the title "Is There a Hell?" would seem to be on wrong lines, as suggesting, by inference, that the recipient may soon be in a position to supply the answer himself. Unless the tract gives a comforting reassurance in the negative this suggestion may not promote bodily health or mental ease. All cannot exhibit the philosophical calm of Lord Holland, who, on his deathbed, anticipated the visit of an acquaintance who had the habit of attending executions. "If Mr. Selwyn calls (he said) let him in: if I am alive I shall be very glad to see him, and if I am dead he will be very glad to see me." The regulation of religious ministrations in hospitals must certainly take account of the different temperaments of patients and of their inability to leave if the service is disturbing. Fortunately, there is ,a means, by radio, of enabling all who wish to listen to public services; and intimate private ministrations can be more easily arranged.