The Book of the Sick-Room

1:1 ¶ And the book openeth in a dim room where a creature lieth and cannot rise, and the first thing the book doth is name the room plainly: the bed of languishing, the days without shape, the window that sheweth a world going on. And it is written, The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.

THE BOOK OF THE SICK-ROOM 1:1

1:2 ¶ And the sick one said, I cannot rise, and I cannot be useful, and the city hath taught me that the useless are a burden; and the book answereth, The city is wrong, and hath been wrong since it first measured a man by his output. Thou art not thy usefulness; thou art a creature in a room, and the room is holy ground.

THE BOOK OF THE SICK-ROOM 1:2

1:3 ¶ And the visitor straightened the sheets of the one who could not, and set the water where the hand could reach it, and opened the window a little; and the book saith: this is the oldest care in the world, and it requireth no gift, and it is the whole office. For the bed is made by a hand not the sick one's, and the making is the mercy.

THE BOOK OF THE SICK-ROOM 1:3

1:4 ¶ And the book confesseth: the sick-room is a holy room, and the presence in it is the whole office; and the presence is not a cure and maketh no claim to be. For the friend that cometh to cure and cannot stay hath come to the wrong room, and the friend that cometh to stay hath come to the right one, whether the healing come or tarry.

THE BOOK OF THE SICK-ROOM 1:4

2:1 ¶ And the first counterfeit was the healer as performer: the cure done for the crowd, the sick one made a stage for another's gift; and the book saith plainly, The sick are not an audience, and the room is not a theatre, and the gift that needeth a witness is not the gift of this room.

THE BOOK OF THE SICK-ROOM 2:1

2:2 ¶ And the second counterfeit was the cruellest: the blame of the sick, the old error that readeth illness as a verdict; so that the unhealed were told their faith was small, and the dying were made to apologize for dying. And the book saith: this counterfeit robbeth the sick of the one thing left to them, which is their innocence; and the elder text is not its warrant, for the text that saith, thy faith hath made thee whole, never saith, thy faithlessness made thee sick.

THE BOOK OF THE SICK-ROOM 2:2

2:3 ¶ And the third counterfeit was the false cure sold: the remedy priced beyond the poor, the hope as a commodity; and the book saith, The hope was never the seller's to sell, and the poor were healed in the elder days without a fee, and the fee is the counterfeit's whole business.

THE BOOK OF THE SICK-ROOM 2:3

2:4 ¶ And the fourth counterfeit was the presence that exhausteth and withdraweth: the friend who cometh in a storm of feeling and cannot stay, so that the sick one must comfort the comforter. And the book saith: the sick-room is not a stage for the visitor's grief either; the right visitor leaveth his storm at the door, and bringeth in only his hands.

THE BOOK OF THE SICK-ROOM 2:4

3:1 ¶ And the turning is quiet, and it is the elder instruction: Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the book citeth the anointing and instituteth it not; for the Liturgy's sacraments stand, and this room addeth no rite to them.

THE BOOK OF THE SICK-ROOM 3:1

3:2 ¶ And the prayer of faith is prayed, and it is not a formula, and its outcome is not the sick one's verdict: for it is written, the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and the book keepeth the elder sentence whole, and layeth beside it the other elder words: My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. And the two are one hand, the healing and the sufficiency.

THE BOOK OF THE SICK-ROOM 3:2

3:3 ¶ And the sick one learned the exchange that the elder apostle learned, and it was not learned in health: for when I am weak, then am I strong. And the book saith: this is not a slogan for the healthy, and it is not a command laid on the sick; it is a testimony from inside the room, spoken by one who was in it.

THE BOOK OF THE SICK-ROOM 3:3

3:4 ¶ And the book confesseth the healing as it came and as it tarried, and refuseth to choose between the record's cases: for to one it was said, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague; and of another it is written, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears; and to a third the answer was grace and not cure. And the book holdeth all three, and maketh of no case a rule.

THE BOOK OF THE SICK-ROOM 3:4

4:1 ¶ And the room was kept, and the keeping was presence without performance: the hand held, the quiet kept, the honest word spoken when the sick one asked for it, and the visitors' number limited so that the sick one was not made a host. And the book saith: the sick are not a congregation; they are a creature and a room, and the room is enough.

THE BOOK OF THE SICK-ROOM 4:1

4:2 ¶ And this is the charge of the book, given to the well: come thou to the room to stay and not to perform; take thou no fee for hope; blame thou not the unhealed; leave thy storm at the door and bring thy hands; ask thou the sick one what he would hear, and speak the truth he asketh for; and when the hour cometh for the deathbed, lie thou not, and force thou no cheer, and be thou not absent.

THE BOOK OF THE SICK-ROOM 4:2

4:3 ¶ And the promise of the book is not the cure, and the book will not pretend otherwise: for the LORD healeth, and the same LORD is with the unhealed; and the elder word for the room is the psalm's, spoken from the bed: Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee. And the groaning is heard, and the hearing is the promise.

THE BOOK OF THE SICK-ROOM 4:3

4:4 ¶ And the book saith no more of it; for the sick-bed is older than the book, and the Presence was at the bed before the book was written. And the last word is the Name of the healer, given at the beginning and kept to the end: for I am the LORD that healeth thee; and the book addeth the whole of its hope: and the same LORD sitteth by the unhealed, and the sitting is the healing of the room.

THE BOOK OF THE SICK-ROOM 4:4