The value of life and charitable institutions : a discourse delivered before the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at their semi-annual meeting, June 11th, 1805. ... / By Thomas Gray, minister of the Church of Christ on Jamaica Plain, Roxbury.

  • Gray, Thomas, 1772-1847.
Date:
1805
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The value of life and charitable institutions : a discourse delivered before the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at their semi-annual meeting, June 11th, 1805. ... / By Thomas Gray, minister of the Church of Christ on Jamaica Plain, Roxbury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to close forever on this beautiful world, and this cheering sun, and to unlock the lips, that were almost sealed up in everlasting silence, to unstop the ears, that were deaf to the voice of friendship* or to the cries of grief, to cause the blood to flow again through the heart, that had now ceas¬ ed to beat, to strengthen the bonds of nature, which death had almost broken, and to change the house of mourning into an house of joy and rapture ; these—-these are the objects, at which, this institution aims. ci The value of life, then, is the criterion of its importance and what makes its continuation desirable for its own sake, for our friends, for our country, or religion, is the triumphant boast of the resuscitative art.’* To behold these obje&s realized, and by our per¬ sonal aid to assist in the benevolent work ; to restore to society a useful member, to a family an indulgent parent, and to humanity a friend ; or, by charitable contribution, to minister to the comfort of the shipwrecked mariner, when the storms have arisen and dashed his vessel on the shore ; there to furnish shelter and prote&ion in retreats eredled by the hand of humanity, and to have the blessing of him, who was ready to per¬ ish, thus coming upon you, must furnish a luxu¬ ry more exquisite, than the epicure can beast, more refined, than language can express, mqre divine, than imagination can conceive. It is a joy, which the heart alone can feel, and which the. stranger to humanity intermeddles not with.