Speech of James C. Jackson, M.D., consulting physician of Our home on the hillside, "The Sanitarium," Dansville, Livingston County, N.Y. : delivered in Liberty Hall, at 10 o'clock A.M., March 28th, 1881, the day he was seventy years old.

  • Jackson, James C., 1811-1895.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Speech of James C. Jackson, M.D., consulting physician of Our home on the hillside, "The Sanitarium," Dansville, Livingston County, N.Y. : delivered in Liberty Hall, at 10 o'clock A.M., March 28th, 1881, the day he was seventy years old. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    standing, I was inexpressibly happy. I was incurably diseased; was nearly helpless; could work at no manual labor; but I had courage, hope, faith, anu love, and such an idea ! The perception of it when it came to me tnrilled me till I sweat, and chilled me till I shivered. All around me the ordinary opacities which make the future cloudy or thoroughly obscure, disappeared. My vision came to be so luminous as to give me sight of things that were to happen. I was not deluded, nor misled, nor befooled, nor becrazed. I knew- what I was about. If others did not, that was not my fault. They might think me fanat¬ ical. If they did, I intended by heaven’s blessing to live and show them that the fanaticism of to-day is the conservatism of to-morrow. Whatever might be the thought of individuals, society, the public, the Church, about me, there had been born into me an idea, of the truth of which I had no more doubt than of my own existence, and which I meant to enunciate, and illustrate, and advo¬ cate, and establish. Just how it was to be done, I did not know; but that it was to be done, I was sure. I saw what was the first step I had to take. It was to put myself into alliance with this truth by placing myself at its disposal, letting it take possession of me, permeating me, filling me full of itself, and making me its talking, walking, writing, exemplary representative. There is, in reality, a wide difference between one’s holding a great truth at his disposal and service, and being held by that truth for its service and disposal. This truth had entered into me, and had made a conquest. My reason, my conscience, my intuition, my will, all went over to its side tumultuously, yet in careful and well-arranged purpose. So I was not constrained, nor bound, nor forced. I was captured because I was captivated; I was subdued because I was attracted. I was no bond slave, but a willing servant ; my heart was not wounded, but throbbed with joy; I was not stricken speechless from fear, I was dumb with delight. I should not die, but live till I had made this magnificent truth known far and wide to millions who were sick and suffering, sad and sorrowing, with faces turned to the wall to die, if not helped, untimely. I cried out in its behalf, as Whittier, in the time of our late war, did for the nation’s flag: “ Let it go forth! the millions who are gazing Sadly upon us from afar shall smile; And unto God devout thanksgiving raising, Bless us the while.” Row, what is this wonderful idea, that so enchanted me as to make me its willing devotee? 1. It is, that God having made human beings alive, intends them to live, and not die till their time comes. 2. It is, that every human being comes into life with a definite capability to live, and that till this is used up, his time to die cannot come. 3. It is, that the working of this constitutional capability into capacity, and so into available force whereby to live, is under law or laws. 4. It is, that these laws, if unobstructed, will work with unerring certainty to the end sought, and that no human being will ever die till his proper time if they are not interfered with. 5. It is, that natural conditions of living insure health with mathematical certainty; and that sickness always arises from a violation of these conditions, self-imposed or super-imposed. 6. It is, that whenever sickness occurs—no matter what its form, or with whom—the true remedy and the only sure one is to bring the sick person into