Dr. John

“ John seated himself by the bed, and taking the sick man’s hand, spoke kindly to him in a gentle voice. How powerful is the force of kindness! Those calm words soothed the mind of the youth, and he remained more quiet, while John endeavoured to discover his disease. Exposure and neglect, it seemed, had brought on a fever, which threatened to be fatal. John gave him some medicine, bathed his burning temples, smoothed his pillow, and fanned him until he sank to sleep. Antonio brought from the schooner some tea which he prepared ”

“ Although the manliest man among my forty, he said, "Yes, ma'am," like a little boy; received suggestions for his comfort with the quick smile that brightened his whole face; and now and then, as I stood tidying the table by his bed, I felt him softly touch my gown, as if to assure himself that I was there. Anything more natural and frank I never saw, and found this brave John as bashful as brave, yet full of excellences and fine aspirations, which, having no power to express themselves in words, seemed to have bloomed into his character and made him what he was. ”

“ Before John reached Carsham it was so dark under Sir Henry Smith's large trees that he lighted his lantern, being afraid of missing Mary by the way. Long before he entered the town, he could hear the discordant noises and see the flashing lights of the fair. At the near end of the bridge his hurried steps were suddenly checked by Mary's rushing up to him and clasping her two hands round his arm.
"O John!" she said in a low voice, which trembled on the edge of a sob. "Oh, some good angel's brought you! Have you heard? have you met mother? what shall we do?" ”

“ He does bless you, and He will bless you."
The night preceding his death, the doctor passed about two hours in his chamber. In a plaintive tone he said, "My poor John, sir, is worn down with fatigue, and has been compelled to go to bed. A most attentive substitute supplies his place, but neither he nor you, sir, are like John; he knows where to place his hand on any thing, in a large quantity of baggage prepared for a European voyage." The patient was greatly distressed in breathing, in consequence of difficult expectoration. ”

“ I am more than sad thereat! In brief time now the surgeon will be here. The French retreat—pushed from Elvina far. MOORE That’s good! Is Paget anywhere about? COLBORNE He’s at the front, Sir John. MOORE Remembrance to him! [Enter two surgeons.] Ah, doctors,—you can scarcely mend up me.— And yet I feel so tough—I have feverish fears My dying will waste a long and tedious while; But not too long, I hope! SURGEONS [after a hasty examination] You must be borne In to your lodgings instantly, Sir John. Please strive to stand the motion—if you can; They will keep step, and bear you steadily. ”

“ John says I musn’t lose my strength, and has me take cod-liver oil and lots of tonics and things, to say nothing of ale and wine and rare meat.
Dear John! He loves me very dearly, and hates to have me sick. I tried to have a real earnest reasonable talk with him the other day, and tell him how I wish he would let me go and make a visit to Cousin Henry and Julia. ”

“ I dare not say take him yourself: children are noisy, and your health is imperfect; but place him where you can be sure that he will be well done by. Will you undertake this, Mr. St. John?"
"Why do you ask this?" was the reply of Isaac St. John. "Is it a new thought--a sudden thought?"
"It is a new thought, imparted to me chiefly through a conversation I had yesterday with Pym, our surgeon and old friend. He does not think it well that Benja should be left under the absolute control of Mrs. St. John, as he is not her own child. ”

“ Faithful John was his best-beloved servant, and was so called because he had served the King faithfully all his life long. When he came near the bed, the King said to him, "Faithful John, I feel my end drawing near, and my only care is for my son; he is yet of tender years, and does not always know how to shape his conduct; and unless you promise me to instruct him in all his actions and be a true foster-father to him, I shall not be able to close my eyes in peace." Then answered Faithful John, "I will never forsake him, and will serve him faithfully, even though it should cost me my life." ”

“ His being much given to country amusements is all that we know. At length he tired of having no profession, and his brother William’s success attracted him to London. He begged that he might pay a visit to him, and be his assistant in anatomy, if possible. The request being acceded to, John arrived in London in September 1748, was at once set to work upon a dissection of the muscles of the arm to illustrate his brother’s lectures, and succeeded beyond expectation. He was now established in his brother’s dissecting-room in the winter, and in the summer attended Chelsea Hospital under Cheselden. ”

“ “Good-night, Dr. John; you are good, you are beautiful; but you are not mine. Good-night, and God bless you!” ”

“ My great vent is that I can pour out my love upon you, John, without stint. Now that I know you are mine, I have some one whom I can deluge with it. Do you know, John, I believe that when God made me He collected together the requisite portions of reason, imagination, and will,—there was a great plenty of will, John,—and all the other ingredients that go to make a human being. ”

“ John, who had been standing perfectly still upon the patch, meek but unabashed, experienced an odd sensation as he witnessed this manoeuvre. It was dramatic and as if some presence were in the room which the Elder had not expected to find there. Yet, notwithstanding this, the apostle of the status quo turned level, accusing eyes upon John across the tiers of chairs, and began to advance down the aisle upon the right where Sister Nelson had seated herself. John, at the same moment, began a strategic forward movement upon his own account, so that the two met midway. ”

“ And the holy man John gave the news to her husband, and said unto him, “If thou didst only know the grace of God, for behold, a son hath been born unto thee this day, thou wouldst praise God, for his mother hath suffered in no small degree. Behold, thou shalt go and shalt find the boy to be seven days old on thine arrival, and thou shalt give him the name of John, and when he hath grown up, and hath been instructed, and is seven years of age, thou shalt send him to the solitary monks in the desert.” ”

“ A singular paleness crossed the deeply religious face of John. As the vessel rose on the waves, he passed his hand hurriedly first across his brows and then over his high-buttoned clerical waistcoat, that visible sign of a devoted ascetic life! Then murmuring in his low, deep voice, "Brandy, steward," he disappeared below. ”

“ John wishes to draw our attention. If Christ's other signs testified that there is an invisible power at work in all the springs of our life,—that there is a Fountain of life from which those springs are continually refreshed and renewed,—did not this sign testify that there is a potency and virtue in the very commonest things; that God has stored all nature with instruments for the blessing and healing of His creatures? The mere miracle-worker who draws glory to himself wishes to dispense with these things, lest he should be confounded with the ordinary physician. ”

“ John observed him intently, as I have said. He saw him lower himself on to the grass with the slow deliberate movement of a stoutish man, saw him gazing straight in front of him. From his position John had a view of his face in something less than profile, but it was the dejection of his attitude, rather than his face, that at the moment impressed our John. He watched him, intent, absorbed.
“Something,” observed John mentally, “has recently upset his equilibrium. Like a wise man he has come into the open to gain restoration of balance.” ”

“ In the distance John saw the Figure again. In awe and reverence, and with a fixed gaze, "John was standing, and two of his disciples; and he looked upon Jesus as He walked, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God!" The exclamation was in part that which they had heard in the presence of the multitude; but that was not enough. It was as if John had said, "Behold the Messiah for whom our nation has waited so long; Him of whom our Scriptures have told us; Who has been the theme in our homes from childhood; of whom I have been the prophet and herald. ”

“ They all began to laugh when John set off running down the road. He looked a very rough object in his working clothes, no hat on his head, face and hands grimy. He was carrying an iron bar which he had forgotten to throw down, and this gave him a fierce and threatening appearance.
In the school door stood the schoolmistress, a delicate young woman, looking anxious and pale. ”

“ Open your eyes. Speak to me, John! oh, for God's sake speak to me! Give some little sign that you live," but John was silent. "My God, my God! Help, help! Will no one help me save this man? See you not that his life is flowing away? This agony will kill me. John, my lover, my lord, speak to me. Ah, his heart, his heart! I will know." She tore from his breast the leathern doublet and placed her ear over his heart. "Thank God, it beats!" she cried in a frenzied whisper, as she kissed his breast and turned her ear again to hear his heart's welcome throbbing. ”

“ I knew Doctor John's heart far better than Martha Riddell could know anybody's; and I knew there was nothing of the old bachelor in his nature. He just had to wait for the right woman, that was all, not being able to content himself with less as some men can and do. If she never came Doctor John would never marry; but he wouldn't be an old bachelor for all that.
He was thirty when Marcella came to Bridgeport—a tall, broad-shouldered man with a mane of thick brown curls and level, dark hazel eyes. ”

“ It is better to care for the living than for the body of my relative. For I know that by turning to the Lord and saving my soul John will not refuse to raise the dead." And John rose from his place and went to that which the relative of the priest had occupied with these thoughts, and, taking him by the hand, he said, "Were these not thy thoughts, as thou earnest to me, child?" And he answered tremblingly, "Yea, lord!" and fell down at his feet. And John said, "Our Lord is Jesus Christ, who will prove His power on the body of thy relative by raising him." ”

“ John conducted classes for his disciples, in the course of which he instructed them in the details of their new life and endeavored to answer their many questions. He counseled the teachers to instruct in the spirit as well as the letter of the law. He instructed the rich to feed the poor; to the tax gatherers he said: "Extort no more than that which is assigned you." To the soldiers he said: "Do no violence and exact nothing wrongfully—be content with your wages." While he counseled all: "Make ready for the end of the age—the kingdom of heaven is at hand." ”

“ John tried his pick and shovel again. But they were thick with rust and very heavy. And the wounded doctor had just brought him a crutch—saying that as he was having one made for himself he had also had one made for John—though he could do without it. He smiled a little then and put away forever his old and faithful tools. For a living he did what he could. It was not much, and he and hunger came to be rare intimates.
But that youthful hope which Betsy’s last words had wrought, and its almost savage vigor to do for her, did not depart from John. ”

“ And John, who perceived this afterward, said to him, "My beloved child, what art thou doing, when upon leaving the bath thou goest alone into thy bed-chamber? Do I not pray with thee and the other brethren? Or dost thou hide something from us?" Thus speaking, he entered into the room with him. And he saw the crowned picture of an old man, and beside it candlesticks and an altar before it. And he said to him, "Lycomedes, what does this picture mean to thee? Is the painted one of thy gods? I see that thou art still living like a heathen!" ”

“ Exeunt FRIAR, RALPH.
ROB. H. Heard'st thou not, Little John, the friar's speech,
Wishing for rescue or a quick reprieve?
LIT. JOHN. He seems like a good fellow, my good lord.
ROB. H. He's a good fellow, John, upon my word.
Lend me thy horn, and get thee in to Much,
And when I blow this horn, come both, and help me.
LIT. JOHN. Take heed, my lord: that villain Warman knows you,
And ten to one he hath a writ against you.
ROB. H. Fear not.
Below the bridge a poor blind man doth dwell,
With him I will change my habit, and disguise:
Only be ready when I call for ye ”

“ Well aware that the clergyman was rarely given to any form of exercise on foot, John was a little surprised when he came upon the tall, stooping, pallid man with what Ann Penhallow called the "eloquent" eyes. He was lying on the bank lazily throwing stones into the river. As John broke through the alders and red willows above him, he turned at the sound and cried, as John jumped down the bank, "Glad to see you, John! I have been trying to settle a question no one can settle to the satisfaction of others or even himself. ”

“ SCENE II. Enter ROBIN HOOD and MATILDA at one door; LITTLE JOHN and MUCH the Miller's son at another door.
MUCH. Luck, I beseech thee, marry and amen!
Blessing betide them! (it be them indeed)
Ah, for my good lord and my little lady! [185]
ROB. H. What, Much and John! well-met in this ill time.
LIT. JOHN. In this good time, my lord, for, being met,
The world shall not depart us till we die. [186]
MAT. Say'st thou me so, John? as I am true maid,
If I live long, well shall thy love be paid.
MUCH. Well, there be on us, simple though we stand here, have as much love in them as Little John. ”