THE annual offering for the support of the work among the colored people of this country, is taken the first Sabbath in October. This year it comes on the fifth.
The General Conference has made a liberal appropriation for this work; but whether the funds to pay the workers can be sent on, depends upon the liberality of our people.
The Lord is greatly blessing the efforts of our faithful workers. Hundreds are accepting the truth. In "Testimonies for the Church," Vol. IX, pages 225, 226, we read:—
"Let us thank God, dear brethren and sisters, and take courage! God is laying bare his arm to do a mighty work in this mission field within the borders of our own land. He is now giving his people unusual opportunities to extend the message rapidly in the South. Especially should we reveal a spirit of beneficence at the time the yearly offering for the support of the colored work is taken up. God has reposed confidence in us by making us stewards of means and of his rich grace; and he now points us to the poor and suffering and oppressed, to souls bound in chains of superstition and error, and assures us that if we do good to these, he will accept the deed as though done to himself. 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,' he declares, 'ye have done it unto me.' Matt. 25:40.
"Thousands of colored people in the South may now become uplifted, and become human agents to help their own race, if they can receive the help God is calling upon us to give them. . . .
"My dear brethren and sisters, Christ is now saying to you: 'Lift up your eyes and look on this Southern field; for it needs workers—sowers of the seed, and reapers. It needs your means for the maintenance of these workers.' The grace of Christ is unlimited, it is God's free gift. Then why should not this neglected people have some hope and courage and faith brought into their lives? There is sunshine in the heart for all who will accept Christ."
We have had to drop some of our workers this year on account of lack of means. This has been very hard for us to do when the Lord was blessing their efforts, and when so many calls were coming in for help. What we shall be able to do in the future depends upon what our people do October 5. May the Lord impress you all at this time with the needs of this work, and help you to make a liberal donation.
A. J. HAYSMER,
Sec. N. A. Negro Dept.
The English Work in Mussoorie, India
By Percy C. Poley
THE Lord has afforded a unique opportunity for presenting the Sabbath truth in Mussoorie, and we are all praising him for the victory that has been gained.
Situated at an elevation of 6,500 feet above sea-level, on some of the lower heights of the Himalayas, Mussoorie is one of the three largest hill stations and summer resorts for missionaries in northern India.
A good hall was secured for this season's effort in the heart of Mussoorie. It is on the much-frequented main thoroughfare, where the English business firms have their establishments. Brother Pettit, and Sisters Pettit, Shaw, and Jones have labored untiringly, visiting the homes in the station. The attendance at our meetings aroused opposition, and posters were displayed announcing that a lecture would be given, entitled "The Saturday Sabbath, a Jewish Heresy."
Our brethren counseled together, and sent the speaker an invitation to give in the course of his lecture three Bible texts setting forth, respectively, the example of Christ for first-day observance, a first-day commandment, and the abolishment of the seventh-day Sabbath. A printed post-card was then sent to every address in the station, stating what had been our request, and inviting all members of our congregation to be present.
The speaker had therefore a good attendance, and proved himself to be a speaker of good ability. He did not produce the Scripture texts our people had called for, but spent much time in heaping ridicule and accusation upon seventh-day observers, and used some mirth-provoking anecdotes to illustrate the faults of ignorance and prejudice which he professed to see in them. Many an inexactness was launched upon the credulity of those who were willing to hear any representations which would seem to excuse them in a wrong course of action. He concluded by challenging our brethren to answer sixteen propositions.
Ten minutes were then offered to our brethren to make any statement they might wish. Elder J. L. Shaw arose, and was invited to the platform. There was intensity in the few moments' silence, and people leaned forward in their seats. In a calm and impressive manner, Brother Shaw said that, after listening to the arguments which had been made, he still believed that the seventh day was the Sabbath. He took up some of the arguments presented, and showed that they were unsustained by Scripture. He appealed to the infallible Word of God, the Christian's sole guide.
Brother Shaw's well-chosen remarks made a deep impression. It is probable that never before has such a testimony been given in India to a congregation in which were present so many learned missionaries of other societies. It was good to see the expressions of joy and confidence in the faces of some who had recently begun the observance of the Sabbath. It seemed as if a passing gale had swept over the edifice of eternal truth, and examination had shown that not only were the ancient pillars standing, but every pin and fastening was in place. Believers have been strengthened for harder opposition in the future.
Our own meeting two days later for the review of the lecture was well attended. Brother Shaw replied to the charge that Seventh-day Adventists were not engaged in a soul-saving ministry of the gospel. He gave a grand review of our work, aims, and the results accomplished by our denomination since its origin.
It fell to Elders Pettit and Enoch to reply to the sixteen propositions with which we had been challenged. Both of the brethren made constant use of their Bibles. The Lord helped them in a wonderful manner. We felt that the cause of truth had been strengthened, and our denominational prestige raised in the eyes of a number of excellent and intelligent persons who were present.
Our opponent was allowed ten minutes, but failed to make any points. His influence had already been injured by his denial that the world was created in six literal days. He had given the impression that the Bible is unreliable. When that comfortless position is taken, the gospel does not come with assurance and power.
The Sabbath question is a live issue in Mussoorie to-day, and minds are being exercised over the things which have lately come to pass.
PERCY C. POLEY.
Iowa Conference
By Charles Thompson
THE forty-ninth session of the Iowa Conference of Seventh-day Adventists was held August 22 to September 1, in connection with a ten-day camp-meeting in Pilchers Park, near Boone, Iowa.
For three days preceding the opening of the conference, a church officers' institute was held, in which instruction was given relative to revival work in the churches, duties of churches in making effectual the plans of the General Conference, and in carrying forward aggressive missionary work in their respective localities. These meetings were well attended by local elders and the conference workers.
The camp-meeting was attended by about one thousand believers, seven hundred being encamped in the one hundred fifty family tents pitched. The business of the conference passed off harmoniously. Full and free consideration was given to all the resolutions adopted for the advancement of the work.
The same individuals who had borne official responsibility during the past year were reelected, and Brother A. B. Hanson was placed on the executive committee. After the election was past, a request was presented from the General Conference, asking that Elder M. N. Campbell be released, so that he might take the presidency of the Canadian Union Conference. While the delegates were sorry to have Elder Campbell separate from the leadership of the confer18ence at this time, they felt that when a more needy field called, the best was none too good to give.
The General Conference and the union conference representatives present recommended Elder A. R. Ogden, who has faithfully and successfully served North Missouri as president since its organization, to fill the vacancy, and he was unanimously elected. In answer to a telegram, he came and spent a day in getting acquainted with the workers. He also visited the headquarters at Nevada, and returned to attend the North Missouri camp-meeting and close up his work, preparatory to taking charge in Iowa about October 15.
But seven months had intervened since Iowa held her last conference in Des Moines. At that time it was decided to hold the next conference in connection with the camp-meeting. Therefore the reports rendered covered but six months. During this period, however, the conference showed a marked growth. More than one hundred had accepted the truth as a result of the efforts of the laborers. Four new churches were admitted. The tithe and offerings were about the same as last year. The Sabbath-school work showed an encouraging gain in membership, and donations to the amount of $2,775 had been received, an increase of $742.31 over the corresponding period of last year.
The following-named laborers assisted the local conference workers in making the meeting one of the best ever held in Iowa: From the General Conference, Elders A. G. Daniells, W. T. Knox, W. A. Spicer, O. A. Olsen; Dr. W. A. Ruble; Elder S. S. Shrock, of West Kansas, laboring in the interests of the Germans; Prof. M. L. Andreasen, principal of the Danish-Norwegian Seminary at Hutchinson, Minn., and Elder S. Mortenson, of Chicago, laboring for the Scandinavians; Elder E. T. Russell, president of the Central Union Conference, who spoke in behalf of Union College; Brother S. N. Curtiss, manager of the Kansas City Branch of the Pacific Press, and Brother F. E. Painter, of the Northern Union Conference, who presented the interests and importance of the publishing work. Elder W. C. Hankins, Prof. P. T. Magan, and Dr. B. E. Fulmer were present part of the time during the meeting, and assisted in a public way. The labors and counsel of all these brethren were greatly appreciated.
Sister Flora V. Dorcas, in addition to looking after the interests of the Sabbath-school, had charge of the children's meetings. She was assisted by Elizabeth Neal, Mary L. Johnson, and Eva Smouse. These services constituted one of the most helpful and effective series of meetings ever held for children.
The young people's meetings were in charge of Brother Geo. R. E. McNay and Elder J. W. McComas, who were assisted from time to time by the general workers present.
The institutional work in Iowa gave an encouraging report. The Iowa Sanitarium, after writing off several thousand dollars to charity, showed a net gain of $1,800. The Oak Park Academy, notwithstanding that the past year was its first year in operation, and that the building had to be completed during the school term, cleared its operating expenses. These institutions bid fair to make a splendid record.
During the camp-meeting $3,500, cash and pledges, a forty-acre farm, and $290 Sabbath-school offerings were received for missions; and $575 for the Loma Linda medical school.
The spiritual work was strongly emphasized throughout. Both Sabbaths a splendid revival spirit took hold upon all hearts. Many gave themselves to God for the first time, and Sunday evening thirty-eight were baptized.
The meeting closed with the feeling on the part of all that Iowa had enjoyed a blessed meeting. The believers returned to their homes with renewed consecration and determination to do more effective service for their master.
CHAS. THOMPSON.
The Kentucky Camp-Meeting
By S. E. Wight
THIS meeting was held at Elizabethtown, in a beautiful grove in the edge of the city. The attendance from the outside was excellent. Several expressed their belief in the truth, and three decided to keep the Sabbath. By faithful work after the camp-meeting it is hoped to develop a good, strong church.
Elders N. Z. Town, O. Montgomery, E. L. Maxwell, and W. W. Eastman rendered efficient help. The Spirit of the Lord came into all the meetings, and all felt that it was good to be there. The conference work occupied only a few hours. Elder B. W. Brown was elected president. But few changes were made, the officers remaining practically the same as before.
During the last year ninety have accepted the truth, fifty-eight have been baptized, uniting with the church, and two churches and three companies have been organized. The outlook for a large increase of membership is good, as indicated by the report of the Sabbath-school department, which shows the membership of the Sabbath-schools to be eighty-three above that of the church-membership.
Kentucky has suffered from a drought the past year; but notwithstanding this and other discouraging features, the tithe has increased three hundred dollars.
Several said that the best meeting held during this encampment was the one devoted to the raising of money for foreign missions. Three hundred fifty dollars, the entire amount of the deficit on the Fifteen-cent-a-week Fund, was contributed, besides the Sabbath-school offerings for the two Sabbaths, which raised the amount for foreign missions to $432. Also $140 was given for the Nashville Sanitarium, besides money for the expenses of the camp-meeting and for conducting the different departments of conference work. The spirit of liberality manifested was such as we read about in the early experiences of this people.
This conference has fourteen regular canvassers; thirteen of these were in attendance at the camp-meeting, and gave most earnest testimonies with reference to the success of their work. Thousands of dollars' worth of our precious literature is being distributed by these God-fearing workers, and the result will certainly be a call for ministers to follow up the interest created by these message-filled books. From this meeting a large band of canvassers went into the field.
The prospect for the future development of the work in Kentucky seems good. Those attending the meeting were all hopeful, and many decided to enter the work in some branch as soon as they could arrange to do so. They were of one mind, and harmony prevailed throughout the entire meeting.
S. E. WIGHT.
German Work in Southern Illinois
By E. A. Bristol
THE experience our workers have had in starting work among the German-speaking people in this conference has been of more than ordinary interest to us, owing to the extreme opposition they have met in their work.19Last May Brother Henry Hoefft and Prof. P. Hennig began a series of tent-meetings at Maeystown, the home of some of Brother Hoefft's relatives. The people at this place were stirred when he returned to them after accepting the truth. As the meetings progressed, many became interested, and a large congregation was present when the Sabbath truth was presented.
Five began keeping the Sabbath, and Sunday, August 18, Elder C. J. Kunkel and I visited the company to baptize the new believers and organize the church.
When we arrived at Maeystown, Professor Hennig met us at the train. As we rode through the village, a large crowd hooted and made jeering remarks. After holding a meeting with the brethren, we proceeded to the river for the baptism. A large crowd had assembled on the main street, and again greeted us with jeers and slurs, and followed us to the river. We found that notices against trespassing had been put up along the river, although Brother Hoefft had gained permission for us to baptize there.
We went farther down the river to a cross-road, where we found a suitable place for the service. While Elder Kunkel was speaking in German, some of the ringleaders laid plans to fill up the stream with stones, but their plans failed. All through the service it seemed as if the angels of the Lord held the crowd in check whenever an attempt was made to disturb us. Many seemed affected by the service.
Five adults were baptized, one of whom is a leading business man of the place. After the service, we learned that plans had been laid to interrupt the baptism and drive us out of the town; also that a threat had been made against the life of one of our brethren should he be baptized. The town marshal instructed his family not to go to the river, as he expected a riot.
We are truly thankful for the work done at this place, and now that some have not feared to obey the truth, we look for a good, strong German church in Maeystown. E. A. BRISTOL.
Nebraska Camp-Meeting
By R. D. Quinn
THE Nebraska camp-meeting, held August 22 to September 2 in College View, was in many respects a most wonderful meeting. A large number of family tents were pitched for the accommodation of the campers, and a large tent one hundred twenty feet long, in which the public services were held, was pitched on the college campus. The arrangements were perfect, and the surroundings all that could be desired.
The conference was fortunate in securing the labors of Elders E. T. Russell and A. T. Robinson, Dr. David Paulson, and a number of our leading General Conference laborers, among whom were Elders A. G. Daniells, G. B. Thompson, and W. A. Spicer.
The preaching was of an intensely practical nature, and resulted in a great awakening and a definite forward movement. On the first Sabbath of the meeting the Sabbath-school was held in the afternoon, thus giving the whole forenoon to the spiritual interests of the people. This meeting resulted in a great victory for the Lord. Fully five hundred persons came forward to reconsecrate their lives to God, and many came forward for the first time to give themselves to him. Similar meetings were held for the young people, with excellent results.
The leading feature of this remarkable meeting was the deep spiritual tone that seemed to pervade each service. The ten-thirty hour in the morning was given each day to practical instruction. Every day during the entire week a revival followed the preaching of the word, in which hundreds responded by coming forward and giving their hearts to God. This splendid work continued until practically all, old and young, had given themselves to God in unconditional surrender. A genuine reformation took place, in which wrongs were righted, confessions made, and vows fulfilled. If such a deliverance could come to our people in all other places, there is no limit to what God could do, and what he would do.
On the last Sabbath of the meeting over fifty were baptized, and nearly five thousand dollars was given to the work in foreign lands. We bespeak for the Nebraska Conference a great future, and the rapid development of the work in that very important State.
R. D. QUINN.
Medical Missionary Department
Conducted by the Medical Department of the General Conference
GEORGE THOMASON, M. D. - - - - Secretary
L. A. HANSEN - - - - Assistant Secretary
Work to Win
(Class Poem)
BERENICE S. SMITH
As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven,
And returneth not till its work is done,
So may we in the great harvest-field,
Labor for Him till his kingdom come.
Though we find it hard to say farewell,
When for three years we've worked to win,
As we drift apart on the ocean of time,
We will serve in love till the King comes in.
Some will be called o'er the rolling sea;
Some to the mountain heights will climb;
Some the heavy yoke will take,
To heal the sick and lead the blind.
Our hearts are one in his service ever;
As we clasp our hands for the last farewell,
We will pledge to heaven our lives forever,—
The dear old class of nineteen twelve.
Fireside Correspondence School
By W. E. Howell
The Studies We Offer
WE receive frequent inquiry about what courses are offered in this school. At our present stage of development we do not offer courses in the sense that our residence schools do—that of studies grouped together to form a Biblical course, commercial course, literary course, etc. We do not even arrange our studies by grades, but give them all
By Subject
and call each subject a course. For example: our course in grammar starts at the beginning and completes the subject, covering the ground usually occupying two years or more in the grades. On the same plan of working by subject, we give arithmetic, general history, literature, stenography, and most of the twenty-three subjects now offered, except the languages, which are given by the year; as, New Testament Greek I, New Testament Greek II, Latin I, etc.
Our Reason
for giving studies by subject is that the work is all individual—virtually private lessons. In the development of the school, we prefer to give first the subjects that are in greatest demand, until we grow old enough and strong enough to give the entire curriculum. By this plan, too, the student is free to choose the subject that fits his need best, without being hampered by grade or course. The only condition upon his taking up a given subject is that he has done the necessary work preparatory to the subject of his choice.
Courses
The only sense, properly speaking, in which we offer courses, aside from calling each subject a course, is that shown by the following arrangement:—
Course in English: Grammar, Composition-Rhetoric, Literature, Advanced Rhetoric, Journalism.
Course in Mathematics: Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry.
Course in History: U. S. History, General History, Church History.
Course in Bible: Bible Doctrines, New Testament History (Life of Christ).
Course in Commercial Work: Book-keeping, Stenography, Typewriting and Office Routine, Penmanship.
Course in Language: New Testament Greek I, New Testament Greek II, Latin I, Latin II, Hebrew I.
Miscellaneous: Physiology and Hygiene, School Management and Methods.
It will be easily seen that any one who is following a course or grade arranged for the residence school, can select from our list the subjects that fit into his work.
Credits
To those who are interested in presenting our credits elsewhere for acceptance, it is proper to say here that at the most recent general convention of educators held by the Educational Department of the General Conference, at Berrien Springs, in June, 1910, action was unanimously taken whereby all our colleges and academies accept the credits of the Correspondence School. So far also our credits have been accepted without exception by high schools and others not denominational.
Get Ready
A calendar of full information will be sent on request by addressing the school at Takoma Park, D. C. Get ready for our fourth annual opening October 7.
W. E. HOWELL, Principal.
Graduation Exercises
By L. A. H.
THE graduation exercises of the sixth class of the Washington Sanitarium Training-school for Nurses took place the evening of September 5, in the chapel of the Foreign Mission Seminary, a class of fifteen members receiving diplomas. There was also graduated the first class of the Seminary-Sanitarium Postgraduate Course. The occasion was perhaps of sufficient general interest to our people to permit a report of it for these columns.
The attendance of friends from home and away was such as to overcrowd the place. Telegrams of congratulations from others who could not be present were received and read. A number of handsome floral offerings were received by the class and its individual members. Everything indicated a deep interest in the occasion on the part of friends.
The principal address of the evening was given by Elder F. M. Wilcox, who has had long and practical association with sanitarium work. While every other number on the program received applause, and justly so, the address was received with a stillness that spoke of solemn and serious acceptance by hearts impressed with its full-laden truth. Comment can add nothing. We have requested the privilege of having it printed, so it appears in this department under a heading of its own. It will prove interesting and profitable to all readers.
The address to the postgraduates was given by Prof. M. E. Kern, and was filled with earnest counsel to those who would respond to the present-day call for workers of proficiency as well as consecration. Attention was called to the remarkable development of the postgraduate work, especially in connection with20the Washington Sanitarium City Dispensary, where is given such wide opportunity of practical training in clinical and house-to-house experience. Judging from the expressions of those taking the course, great satisfaction is found in the actual doing of relief work as well as in the increased efficiency thus gained. Prospects for the future are promising for this course, and a number of persons are entering it, and others planning to do so.
An unusually interesting class history was given by Dr. H. N. Sisco, superintendent of the training-school. He gave also an apt delineation of the characters of the class members, and foretold the possible future of each, all giving evidence of a close observation of each student nurse. The presentation of diplomas was also made by the doctor, in the absence of Elder W. T. Knox, president of the board of trustees.
Music, instrumental and vocal, was supplied by local talent. A class poem of merit, which is published in this department, was given by a member of the class, Miss Berenice Smith. A class song was rendered by all the members. With lights out, an electrically illuminated class motto, "Work to Win," was shown, arranged by one of the Seminary students, Mr. Henry Transtrom.
The following is a list of the class members, with their States and countries: Anna S. Osberg, New York, class president; Thomas Brown, Canada; Sarah A. Charlton, England; Esther B. Fenton, Canada; Eva M. Faust, Delaware; Jensina E. Hansen, Maine; L. Oleva Ingersoll, Michigan; Eva L. Lindeberg, Sweden; Margaret I. McCullough, Ohio; Hulda E. Olsen, Sweden; Anna F. Pengelly, Canada; Daisy F. Roth, Pennsylvania; Berenice S. Smith, Connecticut; Dorothy J. Spicer, District of Columbia; Elsie F. Sewell, Maryland. The members of the postgraduate class were: Miss Margaret Ramsay, Canada; Miss Evelyn Lothrop, California.
Some of these graduates will leave at once for other fields, while others remain with the Sanitarium. Considerable talent is represented by the class as a whole, and this addition to our force of trained workers should add proportionately to our accomplishments. It would be a great loss indeed to use three years in earnest work, in anxious care on the part of the institutional management, in careful training by instructors, and many hours of study on the part of students, if the results should be lost to our cause. Greater loss would it be should any of these young people drift to the world, in spite of the unusual advantages given them. Sad it is that such as this does happen. May prayer and counsel help to safeguard all these and others who should be responding to the urgent call for consecrated and capable workers.
L. A. H.
Field Notes
ELDER C. A. BURMAN recently baptized six persons at Didsbury, Alberta, Canada.
A CHURCH of fifteen members was recently organized by Elder P. A. Hanson at Brewster, Wash.
ELDER E. A. BRISTOL reports the baptism of five adults at Maeystown, Ill.; and four persons were recently baptized at Charleston.
THREE new members were received into the Twenty-third Street Seventh-day Adventist church, at Indianapolis, Ind., on August 17.
As a result of the Scandinavian tent-meetings which have been held in Duluth, Minn., four persons have been baptized, and others are expecting soon to take part in this ordinance.
FROM Sault Sainte Marie, Mich., comes the word that four persons have accepted present truth, and many others are deeply interested. Three persons have just been baptized at Grand Rapids.
FIVE new Sabbath-keepers are reported from Sheboygan, Wis.; and five persons were baptized by Elder W. W. Stebbins at Janesville on August 17. Two adults have recently taken their stand for the truth at Wausau.
The Work of the Medical Missionary
By F. M. Wilcox
World-Wide Recognition of Its Value
THE fulness of time has been reached for the accomplishment of God's great purpose among the nations of men. The last century has witnessed an awakening of Christian effort. The cry of a lost world has made insistent appeals to missionary endeavor, and on every side we see many and varied agencies springing into existence, prepared to execute the designs of the great Master in the world's evangelization. The preacher of the word, the teacher, the explorer, the empire builder, the commercial promoter, men of every ability and capacity, at some time and in some manner, have been used of the Lord in the promotion of his cause in the earth. Schools and printing-presses, hospitals and dispensaries, and church, philanthropic, and missionary societies, have all contributed to the sum total of Christian effort. It would be difficult to differentiate as to the relative value of all these great forces. In God's providence each has accomplished, and is still fulfilling, its allotted part. There is one agency, however, deserving of special mention on this occasion, the value of which has come to be recognized during the last century. We refer to the work of the medical missionary.
This method of Christian labor is coming to be regarded as more closely conforming to the work of the Great Teacher than any other method of Christian service. The idea is not a new one. It is as old as Christian effort. While meeting its highest exemplification in Christ, who in all his work combined efforts for both the physical and the spiritual well-being of mankind, the idea finds expression in the Old Testament Scriptures as represented in the labors of various prophets and religious teachers. The principles of health and sanitation enjoined by that great Jewish statesman, Moses, were quite as scientific and up to date as the enactments of our modern boards of health.
Modern Christianity has been slow to recognize the value of medical missionary work. Roman Catholic missionaries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries used medical treatment as an aid in mission work. Their knowledge, however, was imperfect, and their methods were crude. Dr. John Scudder, who went to Ceylon as a missionary in 1819, is reputed to be the father of modern medical missionary evangelism. His thirty-six years of earnest service in that needy field furnished many evidences of the value of this method of labor; but it was not until thirty years later that the total number of medical missionaries in heathen lands reached twoscore. From this time, however, this class of workers greatly increased, till in 1885 there were in active service one hundred seventy medical missionaries, and at the present time there are about eight hundred medical missionary physicians laboring in foreign fields. This does not include the large number of medical missionary nurses or native helpers who have been trained for this work.
Dr. Arthur T. Pierson said, "Medical missions are the last but not the least important and valuable of the keys by which God unlocks the doors of hermit nations." In the missionary advance in India, China, Turkey, and the islands of the sea, this kind of Christian labor has proved a key indeed. It was by the labors of medical missionaries that the hermit seclusion of Korea was broken through. The nephew of the reigning monarch had received in the civil war severe wounds which threatened his life. The native surgeons were endeavoring to stanch the flow of blood by pouring in melted wax. Dr. Allen, a devoted medical missionary, arrived on the scene. The native doctors stood back in amazement as they watched him clean and disinfect the wound, tie up the arteries, and apply proper bandages. The success of this effort led the emperor to exclaim, "We must have such medicine and such surgery;" and as a result, came the royal hospital with this young surgeon at its head.
"O rock, when wilt thou open?" were the words of Francis Xavier, in 1552, while trying unsuccessfully to force an entrance into the interior of China. But China's doors have since that time been unbolted to the effort of the gospel missionary, and among the most important agencies that have wrought miracles of saving grace in that mighty empire is the work of the medical missionary. In China, whose inhabitants comprise more than one fourth of the earth's population, there are no native hospitals, no native asylums for the blind, no quarantine regulations, no knowledge of hygienic measures, no knowledge of medicine, surgery, or dentistry. If the untold suffering of the millions of people in that empire is to be relieved, it must be done through the efforts of the Christian medical missionary. At the Hangchow medical mission hospital, and the dispensaries attached thereto, over fourteen thousand new patients are annually treated. This is but an illustration of the work being done in scores of places in that field. Many of these patients are reached by the gospel.
Dr. George E. Post tells of a Christmas festival held in Syria. About two hundred were gathered at this service, a motley company of English and Americans, Germans and French, Jews and Druses, Armenians and Mohammedans, natives from various countries and various fields,—from Jerusalem, the slopes of Lebanon, from Cyprus in Asia Minor, and Turkestan in Central Asia, from Bagdad in Arabia, from the great Sahara, and from the farthermost waters of the Tigris and Euphrates. From all these different sections they had come seeking healing.
James L. Barton says, in his excellent book "Daybreak in Turkey":—
"Medical missions in Turkey are less hampered by officialism and hindered by opposition than any other form of missionary work. Physicians are more generally welcomed, and their benefits more widely appreciated than anything else missionaries do. . . . Missionary physicians, their medical schools, hospitals, dispensaries, and practice among the people, have been a mighty force not only for alleviating suffering, but for breaking down the superstitions of all classes of people. . . . Perhaps the medical work of the missionaries in Turkey has accomplished more in breaking down the benumbing belief in fatalism among the Mohammedans than all other phases of mission work together."
And so we might go around the whole circle of missionary endeavor, to Japan, to interior Africa, to the East Indies, to the islands of the South Pacific, to Central and South America, illustrating the value of medical missionary effort by many pathetic incidents showing how by this means the missionaries have brought healing to the body, and in that way obtained entrance to the soul.21When we come to Protestant lands, to the great city centers of America, Germany, and Great Britain, the value of this method of ministry is fully as evident. A noble work indeed has been done by visiting nurses, treatment-rooms, hospitals, and dispensaries. Alleviation has been brought to many a sufferer. The channels of benevolence and philanthropy have been opened, and the money of the rich has gladly done service for the poor.
The denomination represented by this gathering to-night has not been slow to appreciate the value of this class of workers. Years ago schools for the education of missionary nurses and physicians were established in connection with its leading sanitariums. These, by the blessing of Heaven, have accomplished a noble work in training scores of young men and women for such labor among the needy and suffering millions of the various nationalities of earth. Our own medical missionary physicians and nurses may now be found at work, side by side with evangelical workers, in nearly every country to which our efforts have extended, and the same rich blessings which have resulted from the labors of the medical missionaries of other boards and societies are attending the service of our consecrated workers.