Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 88, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 July 1902 — Christ Healed the “Sick.” [ARTICLE]

Christ Healed the “Sick.”

“In the days of good old Noah” and for a good many days subsequent thereto, clear down through all the ages until King James had the translation made of the bible which is still in general use, if people were sick they were “sick” and not “ill.” Christ “healed the sick” many times, but we never read of his healing the “ill.” Shakespeare mentions many people as being sick, but none that are “ill.” So also all the great poets and writers, and one of Tennyson’s characters says he is “sick of a jealous dread” and another hopes that “some change this sickness yet may take.” So too all the great American authors, and we doubt if any of them were ever guilty of that now almost universal sin against the English language of using ill and illness, for sick and sickness. 11l means bad, and evil things and afilotions, as “it is ill waiting for dead men’s shoes,” or “its an ill wind that blows no one good.” And Hamlet thought it better to “bear the “ills” we have than fly to others that we know not of.” Thirty or forty years ago some snobbish English people started the affectation of misusing “ih” ip place of sick, other snobs on this side of the water followed suit until now the “sick” are no longer sick but wholly dead and the good old words sick and sickness are displaced from their place in the English language, and the other equally good “ill” is changed Irom its proper use and meaning. All of which resulted from a “sickly” imitation of a snobbish affectation.