The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-05

| An interview with the surgeon to the
| bureaus of police and fire in the city
of Philadelphia has appeared in tn,
Philadelphia Press" and is decidedly
| interesting in its way. The surgeon in
| question was apparently chosen as 8
| person likely to know in what frame OF
| mind the average human being meets
| death. He is said to have seen at least
| two thousand people die, during his
thirty seven years of active service; and
| he testities that in not one of all these
cases has the dying person shown ter
ror He says that according to his OBJ
| servation the easiest thing in life is to
| die
| This is an odd contrast to the solem-
| nifty and terrorism of the average re-
| lifious book where this subject is
touched upon. Most people now past
middle life can remember terrifying ad-
| jurations addressed to them in child
! hood and youth, either by their parents
or by some older person, and conveying
to them the impression that unless they
repented of their sins and believed in
| some particular creed they would be
seized, at the approach of death, with a
| terror beyond the power of words to eX-
press. and suffer miseries which no
human creature could in the least allie
viate. The surgeon in question is a
man of strong religious views, which
makes his statement all the more i'm
pressive, and the truth of it is con-
firmed by many eminent physicians.
There used to be story. industriously
spread by interested persons, that Vol
taire and Thomas Paine, and other
died in commissions of fear and horror,
and saw visions of demons and of Satan
himself waiting at the foot of the bed
to pounce upon their unhappy souls;
but these tales are now generally under
stood 10 be pure fabrications. AS a
matter of fact, people do not go through
these theatrical performances on their
deathbeds. If their sufferings have
been protracted, they are usually glad
to be relieved of the burden Of the flesh;
and thev are seldom anxious about their
souls, beirg concerned only for the well
fare of dear ones whom they may be
leaving without sufficient support.
This is, as most sane people will adj
init, decided improvement on the old
convention. Obviously, deathbed re-
pentance is not going to do much good
to the people whom the dying person
may have wronged during his life. The
opinion Of the general public TODAY is
that If a man is fit to live he is fit to
die. and that If he has spent his life in
all sorts of wickedness, he will carry
into the next life, wherever that may
be, the burden of those sins. just as he
would carry them through his life on
earth, whether he repented or not.
There is a growing conviction that jus
tice is not satisfied by a momentary re-
pentance at the time of death, and that
in some way or other the sins for which
person is responsible will be paid for
by himself
There is also growing conviction
that an all-wise Creator can fix the re-
sponsibility better than we can. We
have learned to understand human ma
ture rather better than people did three
or four hundred years ago, and to see
how much of the sin, folly. and misery
of this world is not the fault of the sin
ner so much as of his ancestors or his
circumstances. This change of view
makes the average person more eau
tious about pronouncing an amateur
anathema maranatha. He has begun
to see how difficult it is to know who
really merits such a malediction.
1t is unquestionably better that, If
people are to suffer torment on account
of their sins, they should endure it
while there is still some time left them
to reform. The traditional deathbed
terror was certainly a waste of emo
ton. ii it ever existed, and the fact that
it does not now exist is surely a matter
for rejoicing.