Medical missions : their place and power

Cibrarp of "the theological Seminary

PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY

PURCHASED BY THE
HAMILL MISSIONARY FUND

R722 .02 1886
Lowe, John, 1835-1892.

Medical missions : their place and power

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MEDICAL MISSIONS

THEIR PLACE AND POWER.

BY

JOHN LOWE, F.R.C.S.E.

SECRETARY OF THE

EDINBURGH MEDICAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY
AND SUPERINTENDENT OF ITS TRAINING INSTITUTION

WITH INTRODUCTION BY

SIR WILLIAM MUIR, K.C.S.I, LL.D., D.C.L.

LATE LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR NORTH WEST PROVINCES OF INDIA,

AND PRINCIPAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.

gjcmtum

T FISHER UNWIN

26 PATERNOSTER SQUARE
1886

INTRODUCTION.

I HAVE been asked to write a few lines by way of
preface to this volume. I readily do so because
fully persuaded of the high value of Medical Missions as
an auxiliary to Christian enterprise, and especially in its
earliest stage.

The book contains an exhaustive account of the bene-
fits that may, and in point of fact do, accrue from the
use of the medical art as a Christian agency. Mr. Lowe
is eminently qualified to instruct us in this matter, having
himself been so long engaged in the same field. Some,
indeed, may be inclined to question whether medical
work may not have been too strongly insisted upon here,
as a necessary branch of all Missionary and Evangelistic
agencies ; and it is quite possible, that in enthusiasm for
a grand work which has engaged the labour of his life, this
view may have been pressed somewhat far. But, however
this may be, if we regard medical agencies as the pioneers
of regular missions, our Author has not said one word too
much in praise of them. In so far as these are used in
the breaking of ground yet strange to the Gospel, or
amidst needy and outcast classes anywhere, there can
hardly be a question in any Christian mind as to their
great value. Mr. Lowe has well illustrated this in the
instances he has given of the benefits of the healing art

IV

INTRODUCTION.

in abating suspicion and prejudice, disarming hostility,
and bespeaking the confidence of the people toward our
Missionaries. Such, for example, in the experience
gained from the wonderful mission of Dr. Elmslie in
Cashmere, and the practice of the art by well-qualified
Lady physicians in the Harems and Zenanas of the
East. Throughout Eastern lands, indeed, and especially
amongst Mahometans, the Christian Hakeem is always
respected, and always welcome ; and the Gospel which
he carries in one hand is graciously received, because of
the material benefits held out by the other. And so it
comes to pass, that healing remedies, and kindly treat-
ment of the suffering, become an important means of
making the Missionary popular, and preparing the soil
for reception of the Gospel.

It is, therefore, with high satisfaction, that we learn
from Mr. Lowe of an increasing staff of Medical Mission-
aries springing up — men able and willing to unite the
office of physician with that of the Christian minister.
And herein, truly, it may be said, that they are but
following the example of our Saviour, who Himself, and
through His disciples, healed the sick simultaneously
with the blessed proclamation that the kingdom of
heaven was at hand. It is true that miraculous agency
has passed away, but the same analogy still subsists
between the ailments of the body and the soul, and the
disposition is still the same, as of old, in those who are
healed, to listen to the voice of the physician as a preacher
of salvation. On every ground, therefore, these Medical
Missions are worthy the support of all who have at heart
the success of Missions amongst the poor and in Foreign
lands. W. M.

Jl larch n, 1886,

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE DIVINE METHOD.

PAGES

The Divine ideal of “ Preaching the Gospel ” inter-
preted by our Lord’s Ministry, and that of His
Apostles 1-23

CHAPTER II.

SPHERE AND SCOPE.

The Sphere and Scope of Medical Missions, and the
Medical Missionary’s Qualifications, Status, and
Method of Work 25-50

CHAPTER III.

PIONEER AGENCY.

The value of Medical Missions as a Pioneer Agency —

The Testimony of Travellers, and the Experience
of Missionaries 5 1-87

VI

CONTENTS.

PAGES

CHAPTER IV.

SUCCESS IN INDIA.

The value of Medical Missions as a direct Evangel-
istic Agency, illustrated by their results in India 89-117

CHAPTER V.

SUCCESS IN CHINA.

The value of Medical Missions as a direct Evangelistic
Agency, illustrated by their results in China and
elsewhere 1 19-143

CHAPTER VI.

CLAIMS IN HEATHEN LANDS.

The need of Medical Missions in our Mission Fields
abroad — The claims of the Heathen, of our Con-
verts, and of the Mission Families . . . 1 4 5—174

CHAPTER VII.

ZENANA MEDICAL MISSIONS.

Zenana Medical Missions — The qualifications, training,

and position of the Female Medical Missionary 175-198

CHAPTER VIII.

HISTORY AND PROGRESS.

The History and Progress of Modern Medical
Missions— Sketch of the Edinburgh Medical
Missionary Society 199-230

CONTENTS.

Vll

PAGES

CHAPTER IX.

HOME MEDICAL MISSIONS.

Home Medical Missions ; their place, method, and

power

231-261

CHAPTER X.
CONCLUDING APPEAL.

Conclusion. — Appeal to Young Men, to Students, and

to the Friends of Missions . . . 263-283

FRONTISPIECE,

Medallion Portrait of Dr. John Abercrombie,
First President of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary
Society.

THE DIVINE IDEAL OF “PREACHING THE
GOSPEL.”

CHAPTER I.

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HE missionary enterprise, including the various

methods employed in commending God’s message
of redeeming love to man, is the highest form of Chris-
tian benevolence, and the noblest work in which man
can engage.

The missionary’s theme — the glorious Gospel of the
blessed God — is the one only antidote to all the world’s
sins and sorrows. Its Divine message remains ever the
same, “ God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish, but have everlasting life,” and no circum-
stance of clime or culture, neither degradation, ignorance,
nor prejudice, can weaken its efficacy, or affect its adapt-

4

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

ation to the needs of mankind : “ For the Gospel is the
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth,
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek,” and to make
known this Gospel is the one aim and object of the
missionary enterprise.

The Divine commission, “ Go ye into all the world
and preach the Gospel to every creature,” is, however,
much more comprehensive in its meaning, than many
of even the most intelligent friends of missions, seem
inclined to admit. The late lamented pioneer of African
evangelization, Dr. Livingstone, says truly that “preach-
ing the Gospel to the heathen includes much more than
is implied in the usual picture of a missionary— a man
going about with a Bible under his arm,” indicating,
thereby, the grand intention of its Divine Founder, that
the Gospel should be proclaimed to mankind not as a
mere dogma, but as a life ; that the missionary, while he
should maintain a form of sound words, must strive at
the same time to commend the Gospel by a practical
manifestation of its spirit, and should show to all that, in
its beneficent design, it has regard not only to the life
that now is, but also to that which is to come. “ How
beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that
bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace ; ” like the
fair goddess of whom we read, that, wherever she went,
flowers sprang up in her path, so wherever the glorious
Gospel of the blessed God is preached in its Divine
comprehensiveness, alike by living voice and by loving

THE DIVINE METHOD.

5

deeds, there “ the wilderness and the solitary place
shall be glad, and the desert rejoice and blossom as the
rose.”

A minister, while visiting in his parish in one of the
most destitute and degraded districts of a great city,
after ascending a long, dark, winding stair, opened a door
leading into a cheerless garret room. There on a pallet
of straw, with no covering save her dirty, tattered gar-
ments, lay an aged woman, to all appearance dying.
Forgetting, for the moment, her outward circumstances,
in his anxiety for the welfare of her soul, he inquired
with all earnestness whether she had any hope for the
world to come. “ Oh, sir,” she said, as she stretched out
her naked, withered arm, “ if you were as cold and
hungry as I am, you could think of nothing else.” That
servant of God was taught the lesson that, to succeed in
the highest aim of Christian love, our ministry must
contemplate man in the whole extent of his being 3 that
the disciple of Christ, in so far as he imbibes the Master’s
spirit, will walk in the steps of His holy and comprehen-
sive benevolence.

The Lovedale Mission of South Africa, in connection
with the Free Church of Scotland, with its college, in-
dustrial department, medical mission, and flourishing
native churches, is a model which the friends of missions
would do well to study. We believe that the directors
.and supporters of our missionary societies at home,
father than the agents abroad, need to be taught that

6

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

the great work of evangelizing the heathen ought not to be
restricted to any one method, but that every' mode of
operation that manifests the spirit of the Gospel — every
civilizing influence that the missionary can bring to bear
upon the people, and that gives to Christianity a practical
aspect — every such form of missionary effort, when made
to subserve the one great purpose, lies within the scope
of the Divine commission, and should have its place in
the missionary enterprise.

“ If I were asked to explain the success of Lovedale,”
writes the able Superintendent of that mission, the Rev.
Dr. Stewart, “ I would say that, under God’s blessing, it
is chiefly due to the fact that we proceed on practical lines ,
which are always more difficult and laborious, but also
more permanent in their effects, than those that are not
so ; that the method recognizes man as having a body,
as well as a soul ; that while it gives due place and
fullest prominence to the life to come, it also recognizes
the life that now is, and proceeds on the belief that the
future life can be duly, and best, prepared for, by the
right performance of the duties of the life we have
now. . . . The first preachers were sent to say that the
Kingdom of God had come near ; but in support and
commendation of that statement, they were also com-
manded, as well as empowered, to do much of a lower
kind of good. These subsidiary efforts, which they were
commanded and empowered to put forth, were practical
and tangible in their results, appreciable by the senses.

THE DIVINE METHOD.

7

and suited to the material or bodily necessities of those
who were addressed. The directions in the tenth chap-
ter of St. Matthew’s Gospel are very explicit, and it is
possible that when first given they were even more
detailed.”

And again, Dr. Stewart says : “ If it were possible
that to-morrow the Christian benevolence of Great
Britain, or even of London, in all its varied practical
forms, were to be suddenly compelled to assume only
one form — that of preaching — what would become of
the ignorant, the sick, the hungry, and the helpless, of
all sorts and conditions, who are now benefiting by their
benevolence, taking on a multitude of shapes in addition
to the one which stimulates and perfects them all, and
which gives them a value beyond the present time ?
Would the Christian Church itself be benefited by such
a change ? Or would the experience that has been
gained as to what is necessary to be done, if we would
reach the hearts of the helpless and despairing, in order
to rouse them from the stupor of their misery and gain
their ear, either endorse or accept that view ? The
heathen abroad, in uncivilized countries at least, corre-
spond to the morally helpless and despairing at home ; all
the more closely do they correspond in those countries
that lie adjacent to, or form part of, the territories of
civilization, where their struggle for existence, and con-
tinuance on their own soil, is severely felt ; and where
that civilization comes sweeping in upon them with great

8

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

power, for evil as well as for good, and finds them unable
to resist the one, or ready to accept the other, without
guidance or assistance. This assistance, within certain
limits, in its earliest stages, must be given by the mis-
sionary, if it is to be given at all — just as at home, the
corresponding work is to be mainly done by the Chris-
tian Church, or left undone.”

AVe, at home, can hardly realize the difficulties that
a missionary has to contend with in his efforts to intro-
duce the Gospel into heathen, and often uncivilized,
countries. Here, we are surrounded with every Christian
influence, and with benevolent institutions and organiza-
tions which testify, more emphatically than words, to the
enlightening, humanizing, regenerating power of Chris-
tianity. AVe have our colleges and schools, our hospitals
for the sick, asylums for the insane and for the blind,
refuges for the destitute, homes for the fallen and out-
cast, associations for the relief of the aged and for
improving the condition of the poor, reformatories for
wayward and neglected children, and agencies without
number to counteract almost every form of evil, and to
meet every conceivable requirement. These auxiliaries
to the Church’s aggressive work are everywhere in active
operation, and are generously supported, as the practical
outcome of our Christianity, and are deemed essentially
necessary to the successful prosecution of home mission-
ary work. The missionary to the heathen, on the other
hand, settles down among a people ignorant, super-

THE DIVINE METHOD.

9

stitious, and degraded, it may be, where no humanizing
influences are at work, but where, on the contrary, the
strong oppress the weak — where the sick are uncared for,
or treated with barbarous cruelty — where the aged and
infirm are counted a burden, and either perish from
neglect or linger on in misery — where the arts and usages
of civilization are unknown — where, in short, little or no
vestige of anything but sin is to be seen. Under cir-
cumstances such as these, what can the missionary do ?
“ Preach the Gospel,” we say, for the “ glorious Gospel of
our blessed God ” is the one only panacea for all the
world’s miseries. Yes, the Gospel is the “ power of God ”
— the power which has made Britain a land of greatness,
intelligence, and influence, beyond any other nation on
the face of the globe ; it is the power which, again and
again, has broken the arm of oppression and tyranny,
and, dispelling from the minds of millions the dark
clouds of ignorance and superstition, has raised the
beggar from the dung-hill and set him among princes ; it
is the power which, having tamed and humanized the
savage nature, has chased idolatry from many a heathen
land and from many of the islands of the sea, and
which shall yet, everywhere, cause the “ wilderness to be
like Eden, and the desert like the garden of the Lord.”
Yes, but much more is implied in “preaching the
Gospel ” than the mere proclamation of the Divine mes-
sage. The heathen can best be taught as little children
are instructed in our schools — by object lessons. The

IO

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

Gospel must therefore be preached to them, alike by the
living voice, and by the unmistakable evidence of loving
deeds. Like the Apostle Paul, the true missionary, the
workman that needeth not to be ashamed, must be able
to say, “ By word and deed, I have fully preached unto
the Gentiles the Gospel of Christ.” The Gospel means
“ Glad tidings,” and preaching the Gospel means the
setting forth of the best of all glad tidings — the love of
God to man. To the heathen abroad, as well as to the
godless at home, the most convincing proof of the reality
and power of that love is, that it begets love for man ;
and wherever, in carrying on our evangelistic operations,
this practical demonstration of the power of the Gospel
is withheld, the Gospel is not “ fully preached.” “ If
a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye
warmed and filled ; notwithstanding ye give them not
those things which are needful for the body, what doth
it profit ? Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead,
being alone.” “Faith, hope, charity, these three; but
the greatest of these is charity ” — love to God, begetting
love for man ; and what is the aim and object of Chris-
tian love ? It is the welfare of my brother, the welfare
of his body, the welfare of his soul — his welfare for time,
his welfare for eternity. To hold forth the Word of Life,
along with a practical manifestation of the spirit of the
Gospel, is therefore the true meaning of “ Preaching the
Gospel,” and this is the aim and object of Medical Mis-

THE DIVINE METHOD.

i r

sions, an enterprise which claims alike the sympathy of
the Christian and the Philanthropist. We believe that
the Divine meaning of “preaching the Gospel” implies
something more than the teaching of a dogma, than the
mere proclamation of the Gospel message ; that, as He
who is the sum and substance of the Gospel “ was made-
flesh and dwelt among us ” — that, as He sympathized
with suffering humanity, fed the hungry, healed the sick,
and went about continually doing good, thus manifesting
the spirit of His own religion, and teaching, by loving
deeds, its principles, so His ambassadors must “preach
the Gospel,” not by word only, but likewise by a benevo-
lent, Christlike ministry, performed in Christ’s name and
for His sake.

The evangelization of the world is Christ’s own work,
and those who, as His instruments, are called to engage
in it, are commissioned to represent Christ — to represent
Him in all His tender pity for the lost, His loving sym-
pathy with the afflicted, His care for the sick, His com-
passion for the suffering. We turn therefore to Christ’s-
ministry on earth for the interpretation of His own
commission, “ Go ye into all the world, and preach the
Gospel to every creature.”

In reading the New Testament, one cannot fail to be
struck with the fact, that our Lord’s personal ministry
on earth, as well as that of His Apostles, was pre-emi-
nently the work of the medical missionary.

In the last three verses of the fourth chapter of St

12

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

Matthew’s Gospel, we read: “And Jesus went about
all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching
the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of
sickness and all manner of disease among the people ;
•and His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought
unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers
•diseases and torments, and those that were lunatic, and
those that had the palsy, and He healed them ; and
•there followed Him great multitudes of people from
Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and
from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.”

Jesus was just then entering upon His public ministry.
He knew man’s heart — the way to gain access to it — its
prejudices, and the many obstacles in the way of the
people receiving His teaching; and, knowing all this, such
was the means He employed to reveal His character and
claims, to remove prejudice, and to draw men to Him-
self. By the exercise of His healing power, He gathered
round Him a great congregation, with hearts overflowing
with gratitude, and thus the searching truths of the
“ Sermon on the Mount ” fell as living seed upon a
prepared soil.

Having finished His sermon on the mount, He imme-
diately resumes His ministry of healing, and “when He
was come down from the mountain, great multitudes
followed Him : and, behold there came a leper and
worshipped Him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. And Jesus put forth His hand and

THE DIVINE METHOD.

*3

touched him, saying, I will, be thou clean ; and imme-
diately his leprosy was cleansed.” His first act was to
heal a leper ; His second, to cure the centurion’s servant,
sick of the palsy and grievously tormented ; His third,
to restore Peter’s wife’s mother, sick of a fever; and then,
“when the even was come, they brought unto Him many
that were possessed with devils, and He cast out the
spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick.”

Following the sacred narrative, down to the close of the
ninth chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel we find it to be just a
record (to use modern phraseology) of Christ’s itinerant
medical missionary work, concluding with these words,
“And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching
in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the
Kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease
among the people.”

When we inquire into the character of our Lord’s-
miracles, we find that no fewer than twenty-three, or two-
thirds of the whole, were miracles of healing, and it is-
evident that those which are recorded are but a few,
compared with the many of which no details are given.
When the Pharisees were consulting together how they
might destroy Him, Jesus, we read, “withdrew Himself,
and great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them
all” (Matt. xii. 15). After having cured the daughter of
the woman of Canaan, He departed from the coasts of
Tyre and Sidon “ and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee,
and went up into a mountain, and sat down there ; and

14

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

great multitudes came unto Him, having with them those
that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others,
and cast them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them”
{Matt. xv. 30). Departing from Galilee, “ He came into
the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan, and great multitudes
followed Him, and He healed them there.” (Matt. xix.
1, 2). Having returned to Jerusalem, “the blind and
the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed
them” (Matt. xxi. 14). And again, in (Luke iv. 40), we
read, “ Now when the sun was setting, all they that had
any sick with divers diseases brought them unto Him,
and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed
them.”

If there is one feature more prominent than another
in the record of our Lord’s ministry on earth, it is the
■exercise of healing power which, everywhere and on
all occasions, He displayed. These miracles of healing
are not to be regarded as mere proofs of Christ’s
divinity ; this, they no doubt were, for when John heard
■of His mighty works he sent two of His disciples to ask,
■“ Art thou He that should come, or do we look for
another? Jesus answering, said unto them, Go your
way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard,
how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor
the Gospel is preached.” “ My works,” He said, “ pro-
claim me to be the Son of God, and the promised
Messiah, concerning whom the prophet wrote, ‘ He hath

THE DIVINE METHOD.

i5

anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, He hath
sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliver-
ance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord.’ ” These miraculous
works of healing were unanswerable proofs that He was,
what He claimed to be, the Son of God ; but they were
more — they were living manifestations of the spirit of
His own religion, they spoke a language intelligible to
every human conscience : while they declared Him to
be the Son of God with power, they at the same time
revealed His tender compassion, His loving sympathy,
His incomprehensible love, and in this light His own
disciples regarded them as the fulfilment of the words
spoken by Esaias, the prophet, “Himself took our
infirmities and bare our sicknesses.” Nor is this mani-
festation of sympathy with human suffering confined
alone to our Lord’s miracles of healing. “ Having
compassion on the multitude,” is the key that unlocks
the meaning of nearly all His “ mighty works ; ” and in
many of the parables by which He taught the people,
as in His ordinary familiar intercourse with them and
His disciples, the same deep compassion for, and
sympathy with, human suffering are constantly displayed.

As the Divine Author and Founder of Christianity,
the record of our Lord’s personal ministry must ever be
to us deeply suggestive and instructive. Every feature
of that ministry claims our devout attention. His mode

i6

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

of commending the truth, in so far as it was super-
natural, we cannot imitate, but, in so far as it was in-
tended as a manifestation of the spirit of the Gospel (as
much needed now as then), “ He hath left us an example
that we should follow in His steps.”

This aspect of our Lord’s personal ministry brings us
face to face with the Divine idea of preaching the
Gospel — an idea which attaches very special importance
to the method, and strikingly illustrates the principle of
medical missions ; so much so, indeed, that the impartial
student of Christ’s life must be impressed with the
conviction, that of all the methods employed by the
Church as auxiliaries to her missionary work, this is the
most Christ-like.

We have not only our Lord’s example, but also what
is perhaps more emphatic, His direct command ; what He
Himself did, He commissioned His Apostles and the
first teachers of Christianity to do. “ And when He
had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave
them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out,
and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of
disease” (Matt. x. i). “And after these things, the
Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them, two
and two, before His face into every city and place,
whither He Himself would come” (Lukex. i). To them
He gave a similar commission, “And into whatsoever
city ye enter, . . . heal the sick that are therein, and say
unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you ”

THE DIVINE METHOD.

i7

(Luke x. 8, 9). The manner in which they fulfilled
their commission is fully recorded in the inspired ac-
count of the history of the primitive Church. What,
indeed, is the book of the Acts of the Apostles, but the
first report of the first Medical Missionary Society ?
Therein we find recorded such incidents as : “ By the
hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders
wrought among the people ; insomuch that they brought
forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds
and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by
might overshadow some of them. There came also a
multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem,
bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with
unclean spirits ; and they were healed every one ”
(Acts v. 12, 15, 16). Again, we read, “ Philip went down
to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.
And the people with one accord gave heed unto those
things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the
miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with
loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with
them ; and many taken with palsies, and that were lame,
were healed ; and there was great joy in that city ”
(Acts viii. 5-8). Scarcely had Paul and Barnabas begun
their missionary tour, than we read of Paul healing
the impotent man at Lystra, who “had been a cripple
from his mother’s womb, and never had walked,” and
by the exercise of healing power so arrested the attention
of the people, and drew forth their gratitude, that they

3

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

brought oxen and garlands, and, thinking that Paul and
Barnabas were “ gods come down to them in the likeness
of men,” the priests with the people prepared to offer
sacrifice to them, and thus an opportunity was given to
the Apostles of declaring the Gospel to the Gentiles, and
of urging them “ to turn from their vanities to serve the
living God ” (Acts xiv. 8-18). During our own medical
missionary experience in South India, we have repeatedly
seen this incident almost literally enacted.

Looking to the New Testament, therefore, for guid-
ance as to the methods which ought to be employed by
the Church in her missionary operations, it is, we
think, plainly taught that Christ and His disciples
preached the Gospel “ by word and deed,” and that the
more we incorporate the healing of the sick with our
evangelistic efforts, the more closely do we follow the
Divine example, and the more fully do we obey the
Master’s command.

It may be said, however, that it was by the forth-
putting of His own Divine power that Christ did these
mighty works which spread His fame throughout all
Syria, and that it was in virtue of miraculous endow-
ments (now no longer available) that His disciples made
the deaf to hear, the blind to see, and the lame to walk,
and that therefore their method cannot be intended as
a model for our imitation. Such an inference would be
legitimate, were these miracles of healing intended merely
as attestations to the Divinity of Christ, and as proofs of

THE DIVINE METHOD.

!9

the Divine origin of the Gospel : but, as we have already
seen, they were more than this — they were a practical
manifestation of the compassionate spirit of the Gospel ;
they spoke, in a language that could not be misunder-
stood, of Him who came “ not to destroy men’s lives,
but to save them ; ” and surely, in so far as this was the
object of these “mighty works,” they are recorded for
our instruction, teaching us that, in our missionary enter-
prises, the consecration of the healing art to the service
of the Gospel is not only in accordance with the Divine
method, but actually forms part of the Divine intention.

“ And He sent them to preach the kingdom of God,
and to heal the sick.” “Go ye into all the world, and
preach the Gospel to every creature.” On two different
occasions these twofold commissions were given by our
Lord to His disciples, and through them to us. Is the
one binding upon the Church now, and the other not?
In fulfilment of our Lord's parting commission, the
Church has accepted the responsibility, notwithstanding
the fact that the “ gift of tongues ” is not now, as then,
miraculously bestowed, but the qualification which it
conveyed must be patiently and laboriously acquired.
Shall the command of our Lord in reference to “ healing
the sick,” which formed so prominent a feature of His
own ministry and that of His Apostles, be ignored, be-
cause what He and they did by the exercise of miraculous
power can now be accomplished only by the use of
means ? We shall find, further on, illustration of the

20

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

power of this agency in opening up the way for the
Missionary of the Cross, and, in view of this, such an
argument will have little weight. Nay, rather, the
withdrawal of miraculous endowment renders it all the
more imperative that we cultivate and consecrate, with
the utmost energy and devotion, not only the science of
philology, but also that of medicine, that so we may
fulfil our Lord’s commission in all its breadth and fulness,,
and, following His example, preach the Gospel “by word
and deed.”

Apart altogether from such considerations as these,
may we not find evidence in the inspired record of
ordinary medical skill having its acknowledged place in
the Christian system? In the reference made by the
Apostle James to anointing the sick with oil, and praying
over them, all who are familiar with Eastern manners
and customs know that inunction with oil is the most
common of all native remedies. Lightfoot, commenting
on James v. 14, says, “Anointing with oil was an or-
dinary medicinal application to the sick. If we take the
Apostle’s counsel as referring to this medicinal practice,
we may construe it, that he would have this physical
administration to be improved to the best advantage,
namely, that whereas ‘ anointing with oil ’ was ordinarily
used to the sick by way of physic, he advises that they
should send for the Elders of the Church to do it,
that they, with the applying of this corporal physic,
might also pray with and for the patient, and apply

THE DIVINE METHOD.

21

the spiritual physic of good admonition and comfort to
him.”

Then, again, in the choice of Luke, “the beloved
physician,” as his travelling companion, may we not infer
St. Paul’s recognition of the value of the medical element
in the evangelist? Luke met Paul at Troas on the
Apostle’s journey from Galatia to Macedonia. During
his visit to Galatia Paul suffered from some form of
bodily affliction, and from his allusion to the readiness
of the Galatians to show their devotion to him by pluck-
ing out their own eyes if it had been possible and giving
them to him, it is supposed that his infirmity was some
affection of the eyes. From the “ thorn in the flesh ” he
had again and again by prayer sought miraculous de-
liverance, but received in answer the promise of all-suf-
ficient grace to sustain him in his affliction. St. Paul
was taught that miraculous power is not to be exercised
to make life less a sacrifice and burden to God’s servants.
Jesus Himself never used this power to make life easier
to Himself; consequently when Paul’s trouble was not to
be miraculously removed, what more natural than that
he should avail himself of the best medical skill he could
command ? And hence, hearing of Luke’s conversion and
of his skill as a physician, he seeks the benefit of his
advice, and secures his co-operation in the prosecution
of his mission ; and by and by, when Paul left Luke at
Philippi, where he continued to labour for some seven
years, may he not be regarded as a medical missionary

22

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

placed in charge of the infant Philippian Church ? View-
ing his position in this light, Neander observes : “ His
skill would be very useful in securing many an oppor-
tunity for publishing the Gospel among the heathen.
Christianity, in its earliest stages, used miracles to con-
firm as well as to embody its Divine message of mercy tc>
mankind ; but even in Apostolic times we have indica-
tions that medical skill and devotedness were employed
to open the way for the Gospel messenger.” 1

Thus far have we endeavoured to show that, while the
Gospel is the one only antidote to all the world's sins and
sorrows, to prove effectual it must be proclaimed by living
witnesses to its transforming power, and its Divine energy
must be manifested in a living embodiment of its benefi-
cent design— that He Himself “ went about continually
doing good,” and when He sent forth His disciples to evan-
gelize, He said unto them, “ Heal the sick, and say unto
them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you ; ” that,
indeed, teaching, preaching, and healing the sick are
closely interwoven with the entire history of New Testa-
ment missionary operations. We have tried to point out,
further, that while this ministry of healing was exercised
by miraculous interposition, yet there is no reason why
the Church should neglect this duty j because, in so far
as these “ mighty works ” were performed as the outcome

1 We refer the reader to an interesting and suggestive paper on
this subject, entitled “ Luke, the Beloved Physician,” by the Rev.
Robert McCheyne Edgar, M.A., in the British and Foreign Evan-
gelical Review for April, 1883.

THE DIVINE METHOD.

2 5

and embodiment of the spirit of the Gospel, it is in the
power of the Church still to manifest the same com-
passion by the adoption of the very same means — by the
consecration of medical science to the service of the
Gospel, and, moreover, there is evidence in the sacred
narrative that such is the Divine intention.

THE SPHERE AND SCOPE OF MEDICAL
MISSIONS.

CHAPTER II.

©ije &p\)zx6 rm5> of ipleMcal ptisstunst

mtfc tije ipteMcal ^Ussiunavnj’s tutctlift-
mttcms, stntits, nnt» wtctljrrfr £>f iwrk,

IT might have been expected that the facts referred to,
regarding our Lord’s personal ministry and that of
His Apostles, and which stand out so prominently in the
New Testament narrative, would have naturally suggested
to the fathers and founders of the modern missionary
enterprise the idea of incorporating medical missions with
their earliest efforts. Strange to say, however, medical
missions are yet in their infancy, and although, wherever
established, their value has been abundantly proved, ancl
although the needs of the heathen, as well as of the
missionaries and their families, are so manifest, yet, even,
in this age of practical evangelistic activity, their very
existence is known to comparatively few, and too many of

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

s8

these, we fear, have but a vague idea of what a medical
mission really is. Such misconceptions regarding the
aims and objects of medical missions exist even in our
Mission Boards, that recently, in answer to the application
■of a most promising medical missionary student for an
appointment, the following official reply was given : —
■“ It is not our province to send out and support medical
men in charge of dispensaries and hospitals in our mission
fields. Our agents are sent forth to preach the Gospel to
the heathen.” Such a reply indicates not only a want of
sympathy with the work, but a complete misconception
as to the nature and objects of medical missions. It is
essentially necessary, therefore, that the position and
functions of the medical missionary should be clearly
understood before the claims of his work can be duly
appreciated, and these we shall proceed, as briefly as
possible, to define.

From a merely humanitarian point of view, and as a
purely philanthropic agency, our missionary societies are
not called upon to send forth, nor would they be justi-
fied in supporting physicians, as such, in charge of
hospitals and dispensaries in connection with their
missions. It is for the evangelization of the heathen that
our missionary societies exist ; for this purpose their
resources are provided, and for this object only can they
be legitimately applied. The sacred, solemn trust com-
mitted to the Directorate of these societies, is to discover
and employ such agencies only as bear the stamp of the

SPHERE AND SCOPE.

29-

Divine approval, embody the spirit of the Gospel, and
shall most effectually accomplish the object in view.
Various evangelistic methods have been employed as
auxiliary agencies in connection with the missionary
enterprise, and it is as one of these that we advocate
medical missions.

The function, par excellence , of the medical missionary
is that of the evangelist. He claims to be as truly a
missionary, in the ecclesiastical sense of the word, as his
ministerial brother ; both have been educated and trained,
for the same great work, and both are equally unworthy
of the name they bear if they fail to make evangelistic
work the grand aim and object of their presence in the
mission field. We emphasize this view of the medical
missionary’s sphere and function; first, and foremost, must
be his missionary qualifications, and from a missionary
standpoint the success of his work must be estimated.
This is no theoretical view of the medical missionary’s
position. No trite missionary physician would be satis-
fied with any other, and no missionary society would be
justified in sending forth to engage in this ministry a
missionary physician whose estimate of his work is lower.

Let us not, however, be misunderstood. While main-
taining that the true position and function of the medical
missionary is that of the evangelist, we by no means
under-estimate the importance of his strictly professional
qualifications. In this, as in all other departments of
missionary service, the consecration of the very highest

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

30

attainments is not only desirable, but necessary. Indeed,
none but men whose professional abilities are above the
average should be accepted for this department of service.
The circumstances in which the missionary physician
may be placed, are much more exacting, and necessitate
a far greater amount of professional skill and self-reliance,
than is the case in this country. Here, when compli-
cations and difficulties are met with in practice, the
physican may obtain the help of a brother practitioner,
who will share with him the responsibility — while there, as
a rule, the medical missionary finds himself located where
no such help can be obtained. On the contrary, till
he shall have trained from among the natives his own
assistants, he must act as dispenser, dresser, and nurse;
he must be his own consulting physician and surgeon,
and himself be president, committee, and officer of the
Local Board of Health, architect, master-builder, medical
staff, purveyor, and general superintendent of his hospital
and dispensary. He must be qualified to teach to others
the principles and practice of his profession ; he must be
prepared for^all emergencies, not in one, but in all
departments of his professional work. Probably he will
not be long in the field, before he will be called upon to
treat cases which will tax his skill and self-reliance to the
utmost; and these, it must be borne in mind, are the
very cases which, from a medical missionary point of
view, make their influence felt, either for or against the
•one great object in view — the opening of the door for

SPHERE AND SCOPE.

3i

the proclamation of the Gospel message. It is not the
cases that require little or no skill in their treatment —
not cases which the Hakim or native physician can
somehow cure as successfully, perhaps, as the European
doctor ; but the cases which will pioneer the way for the
missionary, and open the fountain of gratitude, and, with
God’s blessing, prepare the heart to receive God’s message
of redeeming love, are just such as the skilled hand only
can relieve, and the accomplished and thoroughly trained
physician alone can understand and treat. For this
department of service, therefore, no ordinary professional
qualifications will do ; the work demands, and surely it
may claim, the consecration of the best talents and the
highest accomplishments.

We cannot help here deprecating, very strongly, the
plan adopted by some missionary societies of giving
their students a very partial training in medicine and
surgery, and sending them forth as medical missionaries.
In no department of service is it more true than in the
practice of medicine, that “ a little knowledge is a
dangerous thing.” It is no light responsibility to under-
take the treatment of disease, especially in circumstances
such as these in which the missionary is so often placed;
and yet, for such a responsible duty, some of our mission
boards are satisfied with men, whose knowledge of the
healing art is just sufficient to reveal their utter incapacity
when their help is called for in cases of serious illness,
severe accidents, or other emergencies. The Directors

32

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

of our missionary societies would, we doubt not, be
among the first to protest against such a reprehensible
system in providing for the medical relief of our poor at
home, or even of the convicts in our gaols. For the
medical care of our native troops in India and elsewhere,
none but the very best men are selected, and, moreover,
they must undergo a prolonged and special course of
instruction in tropical diseases before they are placed in
charge. Shall. only duly qualified and competent men be
eligible for the service of our Queen and country, and
men who have acquired only a very limited knowledge of
medicine, and no legal qualifications, be deemed suffi-
ciently qualified for the service of Christ in the mission
field ? Surely there is something wrong if such a prin-
ciple has the sanction and approval of the Church ! If
it were the case that fully qualified men, constrained by
the love of Christ, are not available to meet the require-
ments of the missionary enterprise — while it would be
humiliating for the Church of Christ to have to make
such a confession, and dishonouring to the noble pro-
fession of medicine, from the ranks of which there is no
lack of candidates for all other services — there would,
in such circumstances, be some excuse for our missionary
societies accepting partially educated men for this de-
partment of work ; but there are, at this moment, not a
few medical men in practice, in cities and towns through-
out our land, and many young medical students at our
Universities and medical schools, burning with the

SPHERE AND SCOPE.

33

desire to consecrate their life, energies, and talents, upon
the missionary altar — waiting for the Church’s call, and
ready to respond to it. Let the Church awake to her
duty and responsibility in regard to this enterprise, and
let our missionary societies cordially invite the co-opera-
tion of medical missionaries, and we do not hesitate to
assert that there will be no lack of earnest, devoted,
enthusiastic candidates, for this Christ-like service in the
high places of the field.

We do not object to a missionary student acquiring
what knowledge of medicine he can, before going forth
to his work. In all ordinary cases of illness, in his own
family, and among the people, such knowledge will prove
of service, but we protest against such partially trained
men being sent out by our missionary societies as
guardians of the health of their missionaries, and as
their accredited agents to treat the diseases of the
people, so long as thoroughly educated and fully quali-
fied medical missionaries are prepared, at the call of the
Church, to say, “ Here am I, send me.”

Let it then be clearly understood, that when we speak
of medical missionaries we do not mean missionaries
with a partial knowledge of medicine, acquired, some-
how, while prosecuting their theological studies ; but we
mean men who, having given good evidence that they
possess evangelistic gifts, and the true missionary spirit,
have systematically studied medicine and surgery, and
have obtained legal qualifications to practise.

4

34

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

A question of great practical importance here suggests
itself. The medical missionary goes forth to the mission
field as an evangelist. His primary object is identical
with that of his clerical colleague. Should not the
medical missionary, therefore, be formally “set apart”
to the work, and his missionary character and claims be
officially recognized by the Church ? We venture to
say, that our missionary societies are making a mistake
in sending forth their medical missionaries without, in
some way, solemnly and publicly recognizing them as
“ the messengers of the churches.” We believe this
omission accounts for much of the misapprehension, so
prevalent, regarding the nature of the medical missionary’s
work, and the position he ought to occupy in the mission
field ; even in his own estimation, his sphere and func-
tion are apt to assume a less spiritual aspect than they
otherwise would, and the temptation to withdraw from
direct missionary work, and to cultivate private practice,
is consequently less easily resisted. We can testify
from experience, that the fact of having been solemnly
“ set apart ” to the work of the Lord, fortifies the medical
missionary, in no small degree, to withstand such allure-
ments.

The question next arises, as to the form which the
ecclesiastical recognition of the medical missionary should
assume— to what office shall he be “ set apart ? ” We
have had intimations sent to us from some of our great
missionary societies, that they can accept as medical

SPHERE AND SCOPE.

35

missionaries such only as are prepared to offer themselves
for ordination to the office of the ministry. That is to
say, that fully qualified young men, inspired with the
true missionary spirit, offering themselves for this service,
instead of being sent forth at once to their work, shall
forego medical practice for two, three, or four years, as
the case may be, and devote themselves to theological
study, in order that they may be eligible for ordination.
Now, nothing is more important for a medical student,
on obtaining his degree, than that he should immediately
avail himself of opportunities for gaining practical pro-
fessional experience. Any prolonged delay in applying
the knowledge he has acquired will assuredly prove
prejudicial to his future professional success. We hold,
therefore, that it is unreasonable to expect that a young
man, at the close of his medical curriculum, should,
for a longer or shorter period, abandon professional
work, in order to engage in a course of theological study,
just at the time when he should be turning his theoretical
knowledge to practical account. Is it, however, really
desirable that the medical missionary should receive
ordination to the office of the ministry ? Most emphati-
cally and without hesitation, we say that, as a rule, it is
not. In view of the position which we claim for him,
does it not seem unreasonable to expect, that while the
missionary physician is enthusiastically engaged in his
own special sphere, he should at the same time be
required to undertake the duties of the clerical mis-

36

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

sionary ? We know of several instances where, owing to
the want of a due appreciation of this agency on the
part of home committees, most accomplished missionary
physicians have been sent out as ordained clerical
agents, and have had, like other missionaries, pastoral
and educational work assigned to them, and, conse-
quently, their usefulness and influence as medical
missionaries have been scarcely appreciable.

We plead with all earnestness that our medical
missionaries be ordained or “ set apart ” to their work ;
but their work, we maintain, is not that of the pastor —
not that of presiding over and organizing native churches-
and mission schools, and superintending the native'
evangelists and teachers. The medical missionary will,,
as he has time and opportunity, co-operate with his;
clerical colleague in all such work, but the proper calling
of the medical missionary is that of the evangelist, and
to the office and work of the evangelist, therefore, let
him be “ set apart.” Let him, after due examination as
to his evangelistic qualifications, be officially recognized
and sent forth, with the imprimatur of the Church to
which he belongs, as her duly accredited messenger to
the heathen ; and, further, let such recognition imply
that, in the exceptional circumstances in which he may
sometimes be placed, with no ministerial brother at hand,
he may when required dispense the ordinances of the
Church. Surely no section of the Church of Christ is so
fettered by conventional forms, that she will refuse to

SPHERE AND SCOPE.

37

confer such a recognition upon those whom she sends
forth as her representatives to the heathen to engage in
this Christ-like work.

To our mind, there is certainly much more scriptural
authority for “ setting apart ” the medical missionary as
an evangelist, than there is for ordaining to the office of
the ministry the missionary sent forth to superintend
educational work, whose time and strength must neces-
sarily, and to a very large extent, be devoted to secular
teaching. The Great Head of the Church, we are told,
called His twelve disciples together, “ and He sent them
two and two before His face into every city and place,
and said unto them, Heal the sick that are therein, and
say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto
you.” We are taught, moreover, that the evangelist is as
much a Divine gift to the Church as is the pastor. “ He
gave some apostles, and some prophets ; and some
■evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the per-
fecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the
edifying of the body of Christ.”

What we ask the Church to do, therefore, is just what
the Great Head of the Church Himself did— to recog-
nize the medical missionary as an evangelist, one of
God’s appointed gifts, and to send him forth to his
work as much the accredited ambassador of the Church
as his ministerial colleague.

A few years ago the following memorial on this subject
was addressed by the “ Edinburgh Medical Missionary

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

38

Society” to the Foreign Mission Committee of the Free
Church of Scotland, and to the Mission Boards of the
other Churches in the United Kingdom : —

“ The Directors desire to memorialize the Committee
on Foreign Missions in regard to a subject which is grow-
ing rapidly in importance, and seems to claim the atten-
tion of all evangelical churches. It is the ecclesiastical
status of the medical missionary. They take this step
in the hope and expectation that the Committee on
Foreign Missions will aid them in bringing the subject
before the General Assembly, for the sake of those students
of the Livingstone Memorial Training Institution who
happen to be engaged as agents in their service, or are
members of their communion. In doing so, it seems
proper to mention that they contemplate the transmission
of a similar memorial to the Foreign Mission Boards of
the other churches in Scotland, England, and Ireland.

“ The following considerations, stated as concisely as
possible, will indicate the line of thought which has led
them to conclude that every medical missionary ought to
receive ecclesiastical recognition.

“ 1. It is an obvious duty of the Christian Church to
sympathize with, and encourage, every scriptural method
of carrying out the Master’s farewell injunction.

“ 2. The medical mission principle is in close accord-
ance with the example both of the Lord Himself, and of
His immediate followers, and experience amply attests
the value of this form of mission agency.

SPHERE AND SCOPE.

39

“3. Hitherto, the medical missionary, however compe-
tent, both as a thoroughly-educated professional man, and
as a trained evangelist, has never received any eccle-
siastical recognition, unless, in addition to his professional
qualifications, he has passed through a more or less com-
plete curriculum of theological study, entitling him, after
due presbyterial examination, to receive license as a
probationer.

“ 4. A few exceptional instances, it is true, have been
met with, in which this combination has proved satis-
factory, but to regard it as essential would prove a serious
impediment to the cause of medical missions. The study
of surgery and medicine now covers so wide a field, that
it taxes the mental energies of students — of those especi-
ally who aim at exceptional eminence — so that, to do any
justice to a complete theological course, pursued simul-
taneously, would be simply impossible; while for a young
medical man to address himself to the latter, after he
had acquired his diploma or degree, would be very
prejudicial to his prospects of future usefulness in his
profession. A course of theology, extending over three
or four years, would have the inevitable effect of prevent-
ing him from acquiring that practical experience which is
so essential, and of blunting the edge of all his previous
attainments. The result would certainly be to mar him
as a surgeon.

“5. No young man is admitted as a student of the
Livingstone Memorial Institution until his personal re-

40

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

ligious history, his missionary spirit, and his general
qualifications for missionary work have been carefully
inquired into ; his medical studies are thereafter pursued
at the Edinburgh School of Medicine— either intra-mural
or extra-mural — and all the time (four years) while
breathing, so to speak, a mission atmosphere, he be-
comes practically familiar with evangelistic work, in its
various aspects. What the Directors desire is this : that
having got the imprimatur of the Medical School as a
surgeon and physician, he should also get the imprimatur
of the Church before going forth to the foreign field as a
medical missionary.

“ The Directors would suggest that, after a reasonable,
tender, considerate examination by a Presbyterial Com-
mittee, he should be set apart, or ordained, as an evangel-
ist— a designation not new to the Presbyterian churches,
applicable also, as we imagine, to the case of churches
other than Presbyterian, and, moreover, a designation
accurately descriptive of his rightful office and work.

“ In thoroughly-equipped missions, the medical mis-
sionary might occupy the position of ruling elder, so as
to strengthen the hands of the clerical missionary, and
aid him in forming a session; but in pioneer missions —
for which the medical missionary seems specially suited —
his status as evangelist, for which the Directors are now
pleading, might reasonably admit of his dispensing seal-
ing ordinances, when these happen to be called for in
exceptional circumstances. Of course, should an or-

SPHERE AND SCOPE.

4i

dained clerical missionary be eventually added to the
mission, the medical evangelist would retire, for the time
at least, from the performance of these functions.”

This memorial was very favourably received by the
Mission Boards of the various churches, and the assu-
rance was given that its proposals would be carefully
considered by their Directors, while the Foreign Mission
Committee of the Free Church of Scotland, and the
Mission Board of the United Presbyterian Church, have
already, to a great extent, adopted the suggestions, and,
before sending them forth to the mission field, their
medical missionaries are now formally and publicly recog-
nised as the Church’s ambassadors to the heathen.

With regard to the training of the medical missionary,
enough has been said to show that his professional edu-
cation must be thorough and comprehensive ; and, it
should be added, specially so in surgery. Natives,
almost everywhere, have a kind of intuitive knowledge of
the medicinal virtue of indigenous plants, and although
they are, as a rule, utterly ignorant of the diseases they
presume to treat, yet much confidence is placed in the
native doctors and their nostrums, and, somehow, they
do at times appear to effect wonderful cures ; but they
can do nothing whatever in surgery, even in the simplest
cases : if anything at all is attempted, it is almost sure to
be the reverse of what ought to be done. In the skilful
practice of surgery therefore, the medical missionary’s
influence will be most felt and appreciated, and to this

42

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

department, while a student, he ought to give very-
special attention.

It is not, however, to the professional training of the
medical missionary that we here refer ; we may leave
this with perfect confidence to our universities and
medical schools, and accept the medical and surgical
diplomas which they grant as satisfactory evidence that
he is, professionally, fully qualified for his work. The
success of the medical missionary is not to be estimated
by his fame as a physician or surgeon, except in so far as
he has grace and wisdom to use the influence thus ac-
quired for the promotion of the great object in view — -
success will show itself in his being wise to win souls.
Not every Christian physician, therefore, is qualified for
the work of a medical missionary. The cause has suf-
fered not a little from so-called medical missionaries
having been sent forth to the mission field — men who
have had no special training for the work, and have pos-
sessed no special evangelistic gift.

The training of the medical missionary must, to a
large extent, be practical. He must be a devout believer,
holding with a firm and intelligent grasp the saving truths
of the Gospel, a thoughtful student of the Bible, and
possessed of evangelistic gifts ; such a man may surely
be trusted to preach to the heathen the simple truths of
Christianity, without any special systematic instruction in
the technicalities and controversies of theological science.
Much wisdom and care should, however, be exercised in

SPHERE AND SCOPE.

43

the selection for training of young men who are desirous
of devoting themselves to this work. Added to sound
health, good mental ability, enthusiastic love of the pro-
fession, and, above all, evidence of the constraining
influence of the love of Christ, one other qualification is
essential, namely, the possession of the gifts and graces
needed to make them successful evangelists ; and during
their course of study, they should have every opportunity,
under proper superintendence, for acquiring experience,
in combining their professional work with judicious but
zealous evangelistic effort. This is the aim and object
of the training institution in connection with the Edin-
burgh Medical Missionary Society ; and we can desire
no better evidence of the value of the practical medico-
evangelistic training there enjoyed by the medical mis-
sionary students, than the successful work accomplished
by those who have gone forth from the institution, and
are now occupying spheres of influence and usefulness in
the mission field, all over the world.

Another question of great practical importance calls
for consideration. Some friends of the cause think that
medical missionaries should be allowed to better their
circumstances either by engaging, to a limited extent, in
private practice, where opportunities for such practice
exist, or, that they should receive a higher rate of salary
than ordinary missionaries.

To both of these proposals we most emphatically
object. The one implies, on the part of the medical

44

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

missionary, a half-hearted consecration to the work, and
has given rise to no end of difficulties; the other, that
he possesses certain gifts and qualifications which may,
under certain circumstances, give him greater opportuni-
ties for usefulness, and that he ought therefore to be
more highly remunerated. Such a principle, if acted
upon, would strike at the root of missionary consecration
abroad, and quench the true missionary spirit at home.
The medical missionary goes forth, not from worldly
motives, not for the sake of salary, but for his Master’s
sake, rejoicing in this, that if his acquirements gain for
him a greater influence, and a readier access to the
households of the heathen, he enjoys all the higher
privilege in being permitted to consecrate such gifts and
graces upon the missionary altar.

When a medical missionary goes out to India, or to
China, two paths are open before him — the path of
•worldly advancement and profit, and the path of self-
sacrifice and consecration to his special work. If he
yield to the temptation to cultivate a select, private
practice, or to accept some lucrative appointment, he
may soon secure for himself a good income ; but, in
doing so, let him clearly understand that he is turning
aside from his proper work, and is applying to his special
department of service a principle which, if applied to
other departments, as with equal justice it might be,
would speedily bring the missionary enterprise into
contempt.

SPHERE AND SCOPE.

45

On this point, in a paper on “ Medical Missions,” read
at a missionary conference in Japan, Dr. John C. Berry,
of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions, says :

“ I must here call attention to an evil which has,
in too many instances, embarrassed the efforts and
weakened the influence of medical missionaries. I refer
to the too prevalent custom of engaging in private
practice among the foreign residents at the open ports,
where there are established medical men. The practice
is unjust to the physician, to the patients, to ourselves,
and, in an inexpressible degree, to the general interests of
our work ; — to the physician, in unfairly competing with
him, and depriving him of much of his legitimate in-
come ; to the patients, who, in learning to look to us as
their family physician, are obliged, during our absence
on frequent tours, to receive the professional services of
another, who may know nothing of the constitutional
peculiarities of the family ; to ourselves, in burdening us
with additional cares, and depriving us of that deep sense
of satisfaction which an extended and prosperous work
on purely mission lines affords ; and to the general
interests of the work, in that it takes from it very much
valuable time, constantly introduces to our notice a work
which tends to weaken our sympathy with missionary
effort, and awakens in the minds, both of the resident
foreigners and native people, a suspicion of our personal
disinterestedness and entire devotion to the cause.”

46

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

The position which we have indicated as that which
the medical missionary should occupy, can only be filled
by one separated for the work by God Himself. Con-
templating this work, grand alike in its medical and
missionary aspects, we may well exclaim, “ Who is suf-
ficient for these things ? ” The reply of the true medical
missionary will be, “ Our sufficiency is of God.” In his
■experience it holds true, as in the experience of all whom
God calls into His service, “ to him that hath shall be
.given.”

We cannot perhaps better illustrate what we believe to
be the proper sphere and function of the medical mis-
sionary, than by offering a few hints suggested by our
own experience of medical missionary work in India.

During his first year in India, China, or elsewhere, the
medical missionary ought to devote his chief time and
attention to the acquisition of the language. If possible,
he should reside during that period with an experienced
missionary, at some distance from the station where he
•expects eventually to establish his medical mission, but
where the same language is spoken. Unless some such
arrangement is made, he will soon find himself burdened
with the anxieties of a large practice, which will sadly in-
terfere with his linguistic studies. We attach so much
importance to the first year being kept almost entirely
free for the study of the language, that we strongly re-
commend that his full medical and surgical outfit should
not be supplied till he has passed his examination in the

SPHERE AND SCOPE.

47

vernacular. Experience proves that if at the close of
the first year a good beginning has not been made in the
acquisition of the language, after progress is very slow,
and the missionary’s usefulness suffers irreparably during
his whole future course.

Having acquired some degree of fluency in the use
of the language, he should open his dispensary in as
central a locality as possible. From the first he should,
if practicable, associate with himself an earnest, intelli-
gent, judicious native evangelist — not with the view of
delegating to another his evangelistic duties, but for the
purpose of following up, thoroughly and systematically,
his own spiritual ministrations. In his visits the native
evangelist should accompany him, and in all his labours
he should be closely identified with him. As the work
goes on, the medical missionary will lose sight of many of
his patients, who, no longer needing his advice, pass away
from his observation and influence ; but these the native
evangelist should follow' to their homes and regularly
visit, and, as a rule, he will always be gladly welcomed.

At the dispensary, in commencing the work of the
day, the medical missionary should himself address the
patients and their friends assembled in the waiting-room,
and conduct a short service with them. The native
evangelist should, however, be present, and, v'hile the
cases are being examined, he should make sure that no
one shall leave without having been personally dealt
with, and directed to the Great Physician for spiritual

48

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

healing. By taking advantage in this way of native help,
a vast amount of most hopeful evangelistic work may be
daily accomplished, and much permanent fruit be
gathered in.

Two or three intelligent native Christian youths should
as soon as possible be selected and trained as assistants.
They will soon be able to dispense medicines, serve as
dressers, and do all the drudgery of dispensary work, and
thus much of the medical missionary’s time will be set
free for more important duties. "Whatever he can train
his native assistants to do as well as he can himself,
ought never, as a rule, to occupy his time and attention.
In training his native assistants, Bible reading, exposition,
and prayer should inaugurate each day’s teaching and
work, and he ought constantly to impress upon their
minds that their highest aim should ever be the spiritual
welfare of the patients.

He should, as soon as circumstances permit, open a
hospital, on a small scale at first — perhaps only providing
accommodation for two or three patients, but gradually
increasing the number of beds as funds are forthcoming
and the need arises. It is in the hospital that the most
satisfactory and successful medical and surgical work will
be accomplished — work which will produce the deepest
impression, and direct public attention most favourably
to the higher objects of the mission. It is here, too,
that the medical missionary will be able most successfully
to accomplish evangelistic work — here that he may expect

SPHERE AND SCOPE.

49

to gather the most precious and enduring fruit. While
dispensary work, and occasionally medico-evangelistic
tours among the surrounding towns and villages, are
important features of medical missionary work, still the
hospital will be the field in which the richest harvest will
be reaped, and therefore the establishment of a hospital
should from the first be kept in view, and accomplished
at the earliest opportunity.

The medical care of the missionaries and their
families will form no small nor unimportant part of
his duties, but, with this exception, the medical mis-
sionary should have as little as possible to do with
practice among Europeans ; he should certainly decline
such practice where other medical aid can be obtained,
and while ready, under other circumstances, to stretch
forth the helping hand whenever and wherever his aid
may be needed, he will never fail to put the disinterested-
ness of his motives beyond all suspicion by placing to
the credit of the mission whatever fees he may receive.

While his time will generally be well occupied in
attending to his own special department of work, still, by
taking full advantage of native help, he will, by and by,
find both time and opportunity for promoting, in co-
operation with his ministerial colleagues, schemes for
the physical, social, and intellectual improvement of the
people, and occasionally for more or less extended
medico-evangelistic tours.

It is of the utmost importance that harmony should
5

5°

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

exist between the medical missionary and his ministerial
colleagues, and in order to maintain this, both must
esteem each other very highly for their works’ sake, must
consult one with another, and manifest mutual sympathy
in all that pertains to their respective spheres of labour.
There must be perfect equality, perfect confidence, and
hearty co-operation. They must look upon the work in
all its departments as one, and work hand in hand in all
their efforts. Carried on in this spirit, and on the lines
which we have indicated, the value of medical missions
can hardly be over-estimated.

THE VALUE OF MEDICAL MISSIONS AS A
PIONEER AGENCY

CHAPTER III.

©Ijc value of ipteMcal tjJJtissimt# a

lliottwt* gC^cnctj ; tljc ©tfsttrootttj of
®rattcUer*» mtl> tlje (Bxpevicncc of ipli#-

S a means of overcoming prejudice, and of gaining

access to heathen, and often exclusive, com-
munities, medical missions present strong claims to the
sympathy and support of the friends of missions. The
suspicion and prejudice with which the Christian mis-
sionary is often regarded in Mohammedan countries, as
well as in many parts of the heathen world, render our
■endeavours to reach the people, and introduce the Gospel
amongst them, a work of great difficulty, and often even
of danger. Gross ignorance, superstition, and fanaticism,
caste, social habits, and national prejudices, are barriers
which the mere missionary finds it difficult to overcome,
and which may compel him to remain for years isolated

54

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

and shunned, if not despised, and thus the opportunity
of doing good for which he yearns is utterly denied him ;
whilst, to the missionary physician, the hovel and the
palace are alike opened at his approach, suspicions are
allayed, prejudice is disarmed, caste distinction, for the
time at least, is overcome ; even the harem, where the
brother may not intrude, is not too sacred for the
“ infidel ” when he enters as an angel of mercy to the
sick and dying : thus, as the missionary pioneer, he
opens and holds open many a door of Christian useful-
ness— to these he introduces his brethren, thus enlarging
their sphere of service as well as his own.

Sir Henry Halford, late President of the Royal College
of Physicians, in an address on “ The Results of the
Successful Practice of Physic ” delivered many years ago
to the college, related an interesting historical fact from
which he deduced an important practical lesson. “ A
circumstance,” Sir Henry said, “ most flattering to the
medical profession is the establishment of the East India
Company’s power on the coast of Coromandel, procured
from the Great Mogul in gratitude for the efficient help
of Dr. Gabriel Boughton in a case of great distress. It
seems that in the year 1636 one of the princesses of the
imperial family had been dreadfully burnt, and a mes-
senger was sent to Surat to desire the assistance of one
of the English surgeons there, when Boughton proceeded
forthwith to Delhi, and performed the cure. On the
minister of the Great Mogul asking him what his master

PIONEER AGENCY.

55

could do for him to manifest his gratitude for so im-
portant a service, Boughton answered, with a disin-
terestedness, a generosity, and a patriotism beyond all
praise, ‘ Let my nation trade with yours.’ ‘ Be it so,’
was the reply. A portion of the coast was marked out
for the resort of English ships, and all duties were com-
promised for a small sum of money. Here did the
civilization of that vast continent commence — and hence
the blessed light of the Gospel began to be promulgated
among the millions of idolaters, since subjugated to the
control of the British power. This happy result of the
successful interposition of one of our medical brethren
suggests to my mind the question of the expediency
of educating missionaries in the medical art. I am
sanguine enough to believe that even the proud and
exclusive Chinese would receive those who entered their
country with these views without suspicion or distrust,
which they never fail to manifest when they surmise that
trade is the object of the strangers’ visit or some covert
intention to interfere with their institutions.”

Another instance of the happy influence exerted by
the professional services of a British surgeon occurred
in 1713 — when the success of an embassy of complaint,
sent by the Presidency of Bengal to the Court of Delhi
was mainly due to Mr. Hamilton, surgeon of the embassy,
having cured a painful disease with which the Emperor
was afflicted. Mr. Hamilton was offered any reward he
chose to ask, and he generously confined himself to

56

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

requesting the Emperor’s compliance with the demands
of the embassy, which was instantly granted ; and thus
privileges of the greatest importance were obtained which
enabled the East India Company to establish their pos-
sessions on a sure basis.

From a worldly point of view, how vast are the results
which have flowed from the skill and disinterestedness
of these men ; and what the love of their profession and
their patriotism led them to do for their country, might
surely be accomplished by the missionary physician, who
goes forth, impelled by the love of Christ, to heal the sick
and to preach the Gospel. In his “ Hints on Missions,”
published so long ago as 1822, Mr. Douglas of Cavers
writes : “ If with scientific attainments missionaries com-
bined the profession of physic, it would be attended with
many advantages ; for there is something suspicious in
a foreigner remaining long in a country without an openly
defined object which the people can appreciate. The
character of a physician has always been highly honoured
in the East, and would give an easy and unsuspected
admission to familiar intercourse with all classes and
creeds. He who is a physician is pardoned for being
a Christian, religious and national prejudices disappear
before him, all hearts and harems are opened, and he is
welcomed as if he were carrying to the dying the elixir
of immortality.”

The experience of travellers and of missionaries every-
where, bears emphatic testimony to the value of medical

PIONEER AGENCY.

57

missions as a pioneer agency. The late Dr. Asahel
Grant is described, among the Nestorians, as armed with
his needle and lancet for the removal of cataract, forcing
mountain passes which the sword could never penetrate,
and in the wilds of the Nestorian mountains, and amid
ferocious warriors, winning his way to their homes and
hearts, and traversing in safety regions hitherto untrodden
by civilized man.

Fortune, in his work entitled “ Residence among the
Chinese,” bears the following testimony : —

“The Chinese,” he says, “are, as a nation, jealous,
selfish, and eminently conceited ; it is difficult, therefore,
to convince such minds that nations, many thousand
miles distant, will subscribe large sums of money merely
for their religious benefit ; or that men are to be found
who will leave friends and home, with no other object in
view than to convert them to Christianity. Hence it
would seem that the labours of the medical missionary
prove a powerful auxiliary in aiding the spread of the
Gospel among such a people. All nations, even the most
cold and selfish, have some kindly feelings in their nature
capable of being roused and acted upon ; and if anything
will warm such feelings in the mind of the Chinese, the
labour of the medical missionary is well calculated to do
so. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, and
the wounded and diseased are cured ; and thus, when
the better feelings are expanded into something like
gratitude, prejudices are more likely to give way, and the

58

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

mind may become softened and more receptive of religious
impressions.”

In confirmation of such independent testimony, there
is no lack of evidence from missionaries themselves.
“ My own experience,” writes the Rev. H. Corbett, “and
so far as I know, that of all missionaries, in China, agree
in this, that one of the greatest obstacles in preaching to
the heathen is the prejudice and suspicion which is
everywhere encountered, and the medical missionary has
a power to overcome this difficulty possessed by no other
agency. In connection with our mission in the south, in
some cases, every attempt to get a hold in a new city
failed, until the medical missionary first won the confi-
dence of the people by healing, or at least relieving, cases
beyond the skill of the native physician. The preacher,
known to be the friend of the doctor, then met with a
welcome; and flourishing churches, with native pastors,
have since been formed in more than one city and town
in which the work was thus begun. The same, I believe,
is true of other parts of China. In the present stage of
the work, I am persuaded that well qualified medical
missionaries are indispensable to the efficiency and success
of the work here.”

Some time ago, the Directors of the Edinburgh
Medical Missionary Society received an urgent appeal
for a medical missionary, signed by seven missionaries
in connection with the American Presbyterian Mission
in China. “Medical work in China,” they say, “has

PIONEER AGENCY.

59

been one of the most fruitful departments of missionary-
labour. It has diffused a knowledge of civilization, re-
moved prejudice, and conciliated goodwill more than
any other agency. Our missionary work has been greatly
retarded because, hitherto, medical work has not been
connected with it ; hence we are anxious that this impor-
tant auxiliary should be at once supplied.”

Dr. Parker, through whose instrumentality the Edin-
burgh Medical Missionary Society was formed, and whose
long experience of medical missionary work in China
gives weight to his testimony, says : “I have no hesitation
in expressing it as my solemn conviction that, as yet,
no medium of contact, and of bringing the people under
the sound of the Gospel, and within the influence of
other means of grace, can compare w-ith the facilities
afforded by medical missionary operations.”

A striking illustration of the value of medical missionary
work is the providential opening for the establishment of
a medical mission at Tientsin which occurred in 1879.
During the visit to Tientsin of Dr. Mackenzie, a medical
missionary of the London Missionary Society at Hankow,
Lady Li, wife of His Excellency Li Hung-Chang, the
Governor-General of the Province, who had been long
an invalid, was so dangerously ill, that her native physi-
cians had given her up. They told the Governor-General
that they could do nothing more for her, except to begin
and give over again all the drugs which had already been
administered ! In this emergency, his Excellency, having

<3o

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

heard of the visit of Dr. Mackenzie to the city, sum-
moned him, along with Dr. Irwin, to attend Lady Li.
As Chinese prejudice forbids much that is allowed to
Occidental practice, it was found necessary to call in a
lady physician. Miss L. H. Howard, M.D., of the
American Methodist Mission, was providentially at no
great distance from Tientsin, and having been sent for,
she was soon installed in a suite of rooms in the official
residence, adjoining her ladyship’s apartments. With
Ood’s blessing on the treatment of these three physicians,
added to careful nursing, Lady Li’s life was saved, and
she was soon quite restored to health. The fame of
foreign medicine was in this way quickly spread abroad,
and received the highest approval. The physicians had
soon plenty of work. While they remained in the Yamen,
or official residence, they operated successfully in many
serious surgical cases, and as native doctors know nothing
of surgery, the wonderful cures effected produced a great
impression. The Governor-General fitted up a dispensary
for Dr. Mackenzie in a temple — the largest in Tientsin,
built as a memorial to his predecessor— furnished the
medicines, and allowed him full liberty to preach the
Gospel to his patients. Accommodation was likewise pro-
vided, in another part of the same temple, for Miss Dr.
Howard’s dispensary for women, his Excellency paying
all expenses, and granting to her the same privilege.
Thousands of Chinese, including all classes of society,
came to these dispensaries for medical aid, and had

PIONEER AGENCY.

6e

the Gospel preached to them, humanly speaking, under
the most favourable circumstances ; and so great was the
encouragement in this work, that, on the invitation of
his Excellency, Dr. Mackenzie determined to remain
permanently at Tientsin. A difficulty, however, soon
presented itself : the temple, which was used as a dis-
pensary and hospital, was three miles distant from the
foreign settlement, and Dr. Mackenzie found it quite
impossible, at that distance, to give proper attention to his.
patients, especially in serious surgical cases. With the
sanction of the Viceroy, who promised to contribute
handsomely to the building fund, it was accordingly deter-
mined to erect an in-patient hospital in a more convenient
locality. About this time Dr. Mackenzie rendered
valuable medical help to General Chow, who forthwith
presented five hundred taels (^150) for the benefit of
the hospital. This timely gift suggested the idea of
sending a subscription list to other wealthy Chinese
officials, and liberal contributions flowed in. A substantial
and commodious hospital was built, and at the opening
ceremony, his Excellency the Viceroy graced the occa-
sion by his presence, and expressed the pleasure he had
in taking part in a work such as they were inaugurating.
The medical mission has since then been carried on with
uninterrupted success, and many have received through
its instrumentality the “ double cure,” and in the city
evangelistic work has been most successfully prosecuted.
Much interest attaches to this work in Tientsin, all the

62

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

necessary funds for its support being obtained from native
sources. “It is a new thing,” writes the Rev. Griffith
John, “for the Chinese to tolerate the propagation of
Christian tenets in connection with institutions established
and supported by themselves ; it must be that they are
beginning to look on the Gospel in a new light, and
that some of their old prejudices are gradually melting
away.”

A young medical missionary, Dr. H. N. Allen, was
during the past year sent by the American Presbyterian
Board to Corea. He proceeded with fear and tremb-
ling, scarcely knowing whether he would be even ad-
mitted ; but he found himself welcomed by all classes.
Soon after, upon the occasion of a violent political out-
break, he was placed in charge of some scores of wounded
men, mainly of high rank and representing the con-
tending parties. He was the means of saving the life of
Min Yong Ik, the nephew of the king, and the head of
the embassy which some months ago visited America.
Dr. Allen has been, by these remarkable providences,
raised to a position of great influence. When all the
foreigners, including the diplomatic representatives of
Europe and America, were compelled to flee to the
coast, he with his wife and child remained alone at the
capital, where they were shielded by the influence which
as a physician he possessed. The military forces of the
king were placed as a guard around his house, and ac-
companied him on his visits to his patients. As an ex-

PIONEER AGENCY.

6 3

pression of gratitude for his services, the Government
now propose to provide him with a hospital for his
work.

The prince whose life he had saved said to him, “ Our
people cannot believe that you came from America ; they
insist that you must have dropped from heaven for this
special crisis.” When Dr. Allen was called to MinYong
Ik, he found thirteen native doctors trying to staunch his
wounds by filling them with wax. Standing aside for the
young missionary, they looked on with amazement, while
he tied the arteries and sewed up the gaping wounds.
Thus in a few minutes a revolution was effected in the
medical treatment of the kingdom, at the same time
an incalculable vantage-ground was thus gained for the
introduction of the Gospel.

There is perhaps no better instance of the value of
medical missions as a pioneer agency, than the remark-
able success of the medical mission in connection with
the Church Missionary Society in Kashmir. Before
medical mission work was tried in Kashmir, the Rev.
Messrs. Clark and Smith, two of the most experienced
of the C. M. S. missionaries, had gone with six native
preachers to break ground there, but were soon driven
out of the valley. Dr. Elmslie was then sent to com-
mence a medical mission, and, with God’s blessing, suc-
ceeded in opening the door which had hitherto been
closed, and by his medical skill he thus gained an
£ntrance for himself and his brother missionaries to one

64

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

of the greatest strongholds of heathenism in India. The
late Lord Bishop of Calcutta (the Right Rev. Dr. Cotton)
when in Kashmir visited the dispensary, and thus refers
to the good work carried on there : “ It is but little that
we can at present do to make known to the Kashmiris the
blessings of Christ’s salvation ; but I quite believe that
Dr. Elmslie is knocking at the one door w'hich may,
through God’s help, be opened for the truth to enter in.
The scene appeared to me most interesting and edifying,
and could not fail to remind me of Him who ‘ went about
all Galilee preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and
healing all manner of sickness and disease among the
people.’ ”

During the late Afghan war, the fierce Wuziri moun-
taineers made a rush upon and sacked the town of Tank,
on the extreme border of British territory. At this
place the Church Missionary Society has a medical
mission, carried on by the Rev. John Williams, a native
doctor and clergyman, whose influence with the Afghan
population throughout a wide district had always been
very great. The wild, fierce-looking Wuziris had learned
to look upon John Williams as their kind and good friend,
and when they swept down from their mountain fastnesses
they spared the C. M. S. Mission Hospital and premises.

The London Missionary Society’s Medical Mission in
Travancore has been a most valuable auxiliary to evan-
gelistic work in that Province. In the waiting-room of
the mission dispensary may be seen, day by day, sitting

PIONEER AGENCY.

65

side by side under the same roof, the Brahmin, Sudra,
and Shanar, the Pulayar and Pariah, the devil-worshipper
and the follower of Siva, the Mohammedan, Roman
Catholic, and Protestant Christian — men, women, and
children of all castes and creeds, waiting their turn to be
examined, and listening attentively to the reading of
God’s Word and the preaching of the Gospel. There,
year by year, thousands hear the sweet story of redeem-
ing love, who would otherwise, in all human probability,
live and die without having once had an opportunity of
listening to the glad tidings.

Shortly before the writer retired from the superintend-
ence of the medical mission in Travancore, there lived
together for nearly two months in the same ward of the
hospital a young Brahmin and his mother ; a Sudra, his
wife, and brother ; and a Shanar boy and his mother. The
Brahmin youth had a compound fracture of the right leg,
and a simple fracture of the left leg ; the Sudra had fracture
of the skull, with a severe scalp wound ; and the Shanar
boy had a compound fracture of the thigh, and simple
fracture of both arms, the result of a fall from a palmyra
tree. For the time being, at least, broken bones levelled
caste distinction, and created a bond of sympathy
between them. As a physician, in visiting the sick at
their homes, we had peculiar facilities for reaching a class
otherwise very inaccessible, and of commending the
truth not only to our patients, but also to the large crowds
of villagers which thronged around us. An entrance was

6

66

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

thus gained into communities, and a welcome access ob-
tained to the homes of caste families, which would pro-
bably have remained closed to the visits of the ordinary
missionary.

By means of his medical skill exercised in the success-
ful treatment of the Ranee — wife of the Maharajah — Dr.
Colin Valentine gained access, both for himself and his
brother missionaries, to Jeypore, one of the most bigoted
and exclusive strongholds of idolatry in Northern India,
where the United Presbyterian Church has now a pros-
perous mission. Dr. Valentine was at first stationed at
Beawr, in the state of Mairwarra. His health, however,
broke down, and he was ordered to go to the Himalayas
for rest and change. On his way he had to pass through
Jeypore, and while there he visited the Maharajah, who
told him, in the course of conversation, that one of his
favourite Ranees was very ill, that the native doctors could
do nothing for her, and that he would be very glad if he
would see her. Dr. Valentine at once consented, and,
under very difficult circumstances, succeeded in diagnos-
ing the nature of the Ranee’s illness. By the blessing of
God on the means used, she was restored to health. Pre-
vious to this, no missionary had been allowed to settle in
that native state. After the recovery of the Ranee, over-
tures were made to Dr. Valentine to remain at Jeypore as
his Highness’s physician ; he at once told the Maharajah
that he was a missionary, and that unless he were allowed
to carry on missionary work without let or hindrance, how-

PIONEER AGENCY.

67

ever high the position, he could not possibly accept it.
The condition was accepted by his Highness, and Dr.
Valentine remained at Jeypore for fourteen years; and
thus, by the Divine blessing on the medical mission
agency, the native state and city of Jeypore were opened
up to the Gospel of Christ.

The Rev. Mr. Ellis, in his deeply interesting narrative of
the triumphs of the Gospel in Madagascar, thus refers to
the influence of the medical department there : “ The dis-
pensary, which Dr. Davidson opened as soon as practicable
after his arrival, has been for some time in successful opera-
tion. The assistance rendered to the sick, and the skill
with which the doctor had treated a large proportion of the
multitude who daily sought his help, deeply impressed
the inhabitants of the capital and the suburbs. The
cure in some cases, and relief in others from long stand-
ing and, in their circumstances, hopeless suffering which
so many experienced, was regarded with great satisfaction
by all residing within reach of the dispensary. But the
fame of the cures effected spread far beyond those who
had experienced these benefits ; and of the vast number
of strangers who throng the capital, few return to their
homes without paying a visit to the dispensary, to witness
the benefits conferred upon others or to seek relief for
themselves. In addition to the usefulness of dispensary
in alleviating physical suffering, it exercises a powerful
influence for good as an auxiliary to our mission. It is
a standing testimony to the beneficence of our Divine

68

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

religion, and is calculated to impress upon the people
a more just appreciation of the value of human life
than has hitherto, unfortunately, prevailed. It has, to-
no inconsiderable extent, disarmed the prejudices and
conciliated the affections of the people. Its influence
in this respect has been felt among all classes, from
the sovereign downwards. It has done more : it has
brought the Gospel to a large class who could not pos-
sibly be reached by any other agency whatever. Many
have listened to the Gospel for the first time in the
mission dispensary, where they have resorted for the cure
of their bodily ailments, whose enmity and indifference
would have prevented them seeking or even submitting
to counsel or instruction from any other source.”

Another striking illustration of the influence of the
missionary physician is the successful work carried on.
at Urambo, Central Africa, by the late lamented Dr.
Southon, of the London Missionary Society. Dr.
Southon, on his way to join the missionaries at Ujiji,.
had to pass through Urambo. Mirambo, the king,
hearing that the new missionary was a doctor, sent,
messengers with the request that he would visit him, and
relieve him of a painful tumour on his arm. Dr.
Southon proceeded to Urambo, saw the king, and at
once proposed to remove the tumour. Chloroform was-
administered, and the operation successfully performed.
The king, very grateful for the relief afforded, earnestly
requested Dr. Southon to remain at Urambo, and es-

PIONEER AGENCY.

69

tablish a mission at the capital, promised to build him
a house and hospital, to provide everything necessary
for his comfort as well as for the work, and to give him
as much land as he needed. “ The country is before
you,” he said : “ choose where you will, it is all yours.”
Dr. Southon selected a very luxuriant hill near by, where
a good spring of water and plenty of trees made it a
very desirable station, and henceforth his letters were
■dated from “ Calton Hill,” Urambo. He succeeded in
■establishing a most hopeful mission ; his relations with
Mirambo continued friendly till the last, and he won for
himself the confidence of the people. The seeds of
Divine truth were sown broadcast, and when he was
so suddenly and mysteriously cut down in the midst
of his usefulness, there was bitter mourning among the
Wanyamwezi, and none manifested more profound grief
than did King Mirambo.

The great evangelistic problem yet to be solved is,
how aggressive missionary work can be best promoted
among Mohammedan and Jewish communities. It has
been well said, “ The more of truth there is in any false
or defective system of religion, the harder will be the
task of those who seek to displace or supplant it by the
presentation of the truth as it is in Jesus; and as Jew
and Mohammedan alike firmly hold the great truth of
the unity of the Godhead, it becomes very difficult to
persuade them that there is a Trinity in unity, and that
God sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world.

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

Hence the absolute need of the most thoroughly scrip-
tural presentation of the Gospel to people with opinions
firmly rooted in truth.” And what more scriptural
presentation of the Gospel could be devised than that
enjoined by the Master, when He gave His commission
to the seventy : “ Heal the sick, and say unto them, The
kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.”

Lieut. Van de Velde, Dutch R.N., in his “Narrative
of a Journey through Syria and Palestine,” thus speaks
of the difficulties of missionary work in the East, and of
the value of medical missions : “ A great hindrance to
missionary labour here, arises from the difficulty of
finding access to the people. The bitter hatred enter-
tained by the Rabbis toward a living Christianity, and,
in particular, towards the missionaries, makes it almost
impossible for the latter to speak to the Jews about the
concerns of their souls. On this account, the London
Society has very wisely attached to its agency at Jerusalem
a Medical Mission, where gratuitous attendance is given to
the sick. The haughty heart, when broken by the disease
of the body, is willing to listen to the voice of Divine
compassion, especially when the lips of those from whom
that voice proceeds are in correspondence with the
benevolent hand of human sympathy and tenderness.
This is the way pointed out to us by the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself — the way which, methinks, is too much
neglected by missionaries and missionary societies.”

In the course of his journey homewards from

PIONEER AGENCY.

7i

Bokhara, the Rev. Dr. Wolff passed through Damascus,
and saw Dr. Thompson, a medical missionary of the
Syrian Medical Aid Association, at work there. In his
account of his travels, he testifies to Dr. Thompson’s
remarkable success in winning the regard and esteem of
the bigoted Mohammedan population around. “ I am
deeply convinced,” he says, “ that incalculable benefit
has been conferred on the eastern world by the mission
of Dr. Thompson, for I have learned, not only from
Europeans, but also from Armenians and Turks, how
zealously and successfully he has been engaged at
Damascus. I am sure that medical men as missionaries
would most powerfully subserve the promotion of Christi-
anity in the East.”

After labouring some years in Damascus, Dr. Thomp-
son was removed to Antioch, and shortly after settling
there he wrote : “ Immediately on my arrival here my
services were in requisition. I was before known to the
chief Turkish families in this place, and though Antioch
is considered one of the great strong-holds of Moslem
fanaticism and Jewish obstinacy, still, I am truly thankful
to say, I never was in a place where I have met with
more kindness, and such an apparently sincere desire on
the part of all to give me a hearty greeting. They know
of my services in years past in Damascus, Aleppo
Beyrout, &c., and therefore they are all prepared to
avail themselves of my aid in times of need. It is not
unusual for me to be accosted in the streets by people of

72

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

all ranks, and requested to feel the pulse, and suggest
something to remove some trifling ailment ; this begets a
friendly intercourse. Mrs. Thompson is invited to the
harems of the Turks, and she can walk unmolested
through the bazaars, though it is quite a new thing to
the people to see a European lady going about thus.”

The Rev. Mr. Knapp, who, with Dr. Haskell as his
medical colleague, laboured long and successfully in
Central Turkey, in pleading for the addition of a medical
missionary to the staff of the mission at Bitlis, thus
expresses himself : “ Here, a missionary who is a phy-
sician will have access to a far greater number than he
could possibly reach were he not a physician, and this
is emphatically true in opening new fields of labour.
The greatest solicitude the missionary has, in such places,
is to get a hearing. Men will not come to him, nor will
they receive him if he goes to them. Now, the phy-
sician draws the people to himself. Men naturally care
more for their bodies than for their souls, and in this
country they have a high, almost a superstitious, regard
for a * Frank ’ educated physician. One day a Mussul-
man called upon us, and begged for a ‘bit of bread.’ On
inquiry, we learned that he wanted it to give to his
brother, who was lying sick of a fever, and we found he
had the notion that a few crumbs of the ‘ Frank’s ’ bread
would cure him ! At first we thought it a mere farce,
and would have turned him away as imposing upon us,
but his continued entreaties convinced us that he was in

PIONEER AGENCY.

73

•earnest. This was before Dr. Haskell arrived, and I
■mention this incident to show what unbounded con-
fidence such a people would be likely to place, and in
fact do place, in a missionary physician. He is called
everywhere the ‘hakem bashe ’ (the great physician),
and he will not only have access to those in the town in
which he resides, but many from surrounding villages
will come to him, who would never think of visiting a
simple missionary. So far as our observation goes, we
can safely affirm that here the medical missionary has
ten times more access to the people than the ordinary
missionary.”

Reference has already been made to Dr. Grant’s
work. Patients thronged from all parts to get his advice ;
many were carried by friends as many as five days’
journey. Nestorians came from the mountains, Kurdish
chiefs even from Amadia beyond, and some from the
distant borders of Georgia. Among his patients were
many of the highest rank and influence — princes of the
royal family, governors of provinces, and many of the
Persian nobility, and he never failed to avail himself of
the opportunities thus afforded of sowing broadcast the
seeds of Divine truth. Writing to the secretary of the
society whose honoured agent he was, Dr. Grant says :
“As I have witnessed the relief of hitherto hopeless
.suffering, and seen their grateful attempts to kiss my
feet, and my very shoes at the door, both of which they
would literally bathe with tears — especially as I have seen

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

the haughty Moolah stoop to kiss the border of the
despised Christian, thanking God that I would not
refuse medicine to a Moslem, and others saying that in
every prayer they thanked God for my coming. I have
felt that, even before I could teach our religion, I was
doing something to recommend it and to break down
prejudices, and wished that more of my professional
brethren might share the luxury of doing such work for
Christ.”

On the death of Dr. Grant, his colleague thus wrote
concerning his work : “ Dr. Grant had twenty times
more intercourse with the Mohammedans than the mis-
sionary sent out expressly to labour amongst them. No
European had hitherto resided in this remote Persian
town (Urumiah), and the rude and bloody character of
its Mussulman inhabitants was so notorious, that our
English friends at Tabrez deemed our enterprise ex-
tremely hazardous. Dr. Grant was the man for the place
and the period ; his skilful practice as a physician soon
won the respect and confidence of all classes, and con-
tributed very materially to our security, and to the per-
manent success of our mission — more, doubtless, than
any other earthly means.”

The Rev. Robert Bruce, the well-known missionary of
the Church Missionary Society in Persia, appealing for
a medical associate, thus wrote to us : “ My object in
writing at present is to ask your kind assistance in ob-
taining, what is the great desideratum of our mission, a

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75

medical missionary for Persia. Edinburgh is, I believe,
the best place to look for one, and I cannot but believe
that, if the great wants of Persia, and the splendid field
which is here open to a medical missionary, were made
known, we should soon find one ready to volunteer for
the work. Surely medical missionaries are more needed
in Mohammedan lands than anywhere. A medical mis-
sionary would have at once a noble field open for him
both in Julfa and Ispahan, plenty, and not too much,
work, a most intelligent and interesting people to work
among, and a splendid climate. A medical missionary
could reside in Ispahan, in the centre of the Mohamme-
dan population, and, most probably, would prepare the
way for an ordained missionary taking up his residence
there, which is impossible at present. May God make
use of these words, and choose a man Himself.” In
response to this appeal, Dr. Hoernle, one of the students,
of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society, offered
his services to the Church Missionary Society, and since
1879 has been labouring with much success in Ispahan.

The success of the work carried on by Dr. Vartan, in
connection with the Edinburgh Medical Missionary So-
ciety’s hospital and dispensary at Nazareth, is a striking
illustration of the value of this agency in a Mohammedan
community. Out of one hundred and seventy-five in-
door patients treated during the year, there were one
hundred and sixteen Moslems, twenty-nine Greeks,
twenty Roman Catholics, and one Druse. The average

76

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

length of time each patient remained in the hospital was
twenty-nine days, and during that time each of these
received daily Christian instruction. During the same
period, upwards of six thousand patients came to the
dispensary for advice, and of these there was about the
same proportion of Moslems, Greeks, Roman Catholics,
and Protestants. A few incidents of the daily work car-
ried on amongst the patients, both indoor and outdoor,
may be alike interesting and instructive.

One day there happened to be present in the waiting-
room about half a dozen Bedouins, real children of the
desert. They sat together, rather uncomfortably, in the
middle of the room, seemingly very much encumbered
with their swords and pistol-cases. They had come to
get advice and medicine, but they could not understand
why so many all round the room were sitting so quietly,
or, if talking with their neighbours, doing so in a low
voice. To do them credit, they tried to behave like the
others, but they were evidently unaccustomed to restrain
their feelings. It was still more puzzling to them to see
the doctor coming in, opening a book, reading from it,
and then speaking to the congregation. They looked at
first as if they had made a mistake ; they glanced at each
other and seemed to say, “ This cannot be the place to
which we were directed to come for medicine ; ” and if
they could, they would have risen and gone out, but
they were surrounded by patients, and could not leave.
By and by they settled down, listened very attentively,

PIONEER AGENCY.

77

and seemed to understand something of the address.
The doctor was speaking about the solemnity of the Day
of Judgment, and urging the necessity for preparation for
that great day. One, the eldest of the Bedouin group,,
turned round and said audibly to his companions, “ When
that time comes, I will ride on my swift mare, and be off
to the desert.” This remark caused the others to laugh,,
when an old sheikh from among the patients stood up
and gravely rebuked them, reminding them at the same
time of the seriousness of the subject. The interrup-
tion was short, and the doctor continued his address,
and these poor Bedouins, as well as all the others, were as-
sured that none could escape by any efforts of their own ^
that they need not fear the approach of that day if they
would but “ behold the Lamb of God which taketh away
the sin of the world.”

On another occasion, just as the doctor was beginning
the short service, there came stepping in a great Moslem
chief, with half a dozen attendants. A little commotion,
was observed among the assembled patients and their
friends, but it was only to clear the best part of the room
for the distinguished visitor, who took the place so kindly
offered to him. He was very attentive during the whole-
service, but was startled more than once when some
point contrary to his religion was touched upon, and two-
or three times he audibly exclaimed, “ There is no god
but God ” — an expression often used as a spell to pre-
vent one from being influenced when Christ is spoken ot

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

78

as the Son of God ; but before the service was over he
seemed quite interested, and when he came into the
consulting-room he said to the doctor, “ Surely the Bible
from which you have been reading to us is not the Bible
that was used in the time of Mohammed, for, if it had
presented Christ — as you in your address said that it does
— as the Eternal Word and the Eternal Son, co-existent
with the Father, and not related as men are on earth,
Mohammed would not, I think, have condemned it as
he did.” He was assured that it was the same, but that
Iruman tradition had corrupted Christianity, both in the
time of Mohammed and in our own time. He asked for
a Bible, that he might read it carefully for himself. He
received a copy, and now diligently studies the Word of
Cod. May the Divine Spirit enlighten his understand-
ing !

“ Some native friends advised me,” writes Dr. Vartan,
■“ since the spread of the news of the late disturbances,
to suspend the religious services for a time, lest my con-
gregation, being chiefly Mohammedans, some of them
fanatics, should make it a pretext to excite mischief. We
thanked them for their counsel, but resolved to make no
change ; and not only has nothing unpleasant happened,
but my Mohammedan audience is as quiet and respectful
as hitherto. Indeed, in many cases, they are even more
attentive and more reverential during the prayers than
many so-called Christians, and, I may add, more grateful
for services rendered to them. We find here, both among

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79

Mohammedans and Greeks, that the Word of God is not
hindered by any material force, but that it is only the
hardening of man’s heart that keeps the Heavenly Guest
waiting outside.”

In the hospital, always the most hopeful and satisfac-
tory sphere of labour in connection with a medical
mission, much precious seed has been sown, and not a
little fruit has been gathered. The patients are kindly
and lovingly dealt with, and all, while inmates of the
hospital, receive regular Christian instruction ; indeed, it
would be almost impossible for any one to remain in it,
for any length of time, without obtaining some knowledge
of the fundamental truths of the Gospel. We give here,
by way of illustration, two or three cases recorded by
Dr. Vartan, in letters recently received from him.

Abdil Bazak, a Moslem from Genin, was admitted for
cataract in both eyes. The operation was quite success-
ful, and he left the hospital at the end of seventeen days
with excellent sight, and in good spirits. This man for
several years had been deprived not only of the pleasure
of enjoying the objects around him, but likewise of the
means of gaining a livelihood for himself and his large
family. He had spent much time and money in procur-
ing many kinds of eye-salve, and in trying many other
cures, but all to no purpose. At last, a friend recom-
mended him to go to the medical mission at Nazareth,
and should he get no benefit there, then to give up all
hope of recovery. He came, and the Lord blessed the

So

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

operation. During his stay in the hospital, he repeatedly-
heard the story of Paul’s journey to Damascus, and had
the truths of the Gospel faithfully pressed upon his atten-
tion ; and although at first he was especially impressed
with the blessing of restored vision, still, by the power of
the Divine Spirit, the truth found an entrance into his.
heart, and his inner eye was opened to see his need of
a Saviour. The last day he was in the hospital he said :
“ I did not come to Nazareth with a purpose like that of
Paul when he went to Damascus, nor can I be the means
of promoting, as he did, the fame of Jesus of Nazareth;
but this I can say, I will love Him, and speak good of
His name, all the days of my life.”

Another case is also that of a Mohammedan youth, on
whom Dr. Vartan performed the operation of lithotomy,
and removed a large calculus. He has also, by the
blessing of God, made a good recovery. His sufferings
were excruciating, but after the operation he felt as if
he had come to a new state of life, and his gratitude
knew no bounds. He listened with joy to the “old, old
story,” and the name of Jesus became to him sweeter
than anything he had ever heard of before. On leaving
he went to the doctor, and presenting him with a gold
Napoleon, said, “ This is all I possess, and it is the sum
of many many farthings earned by very hard labour, and
for a long time I have had it sewn into my dress to pre-
serve it against a time of need ; it is, therefore, not only
all the money I possess, but it is what I have long

PIONEER AGENCY.

cherished as a valued treasure : I wish you to take it to
help you to do the work of Jesus, the Good Physician.”
“ Had I not,” writes Dr. Vartan, “ had great need of such
help for the work here, and had I not thought that it
was good to allow him to make his offering of gratitude
of what he held dear, I would not have accepted the
poor man’s only coin ; I accepted his gift, however, in
the hope that, with his restored health, the Lord will
enable him to earn many more, and at the same time
keep him from setting his affection too much on earthly
things. He has learned about the true Friend that
sticketh closer than a brother, and may he by grace be
enabled to keep close to Him.”

One of the old Mohammedan chiefs living in the
neighbourhood, who used to sneer at the mission, and
do his utmost among his co-religionists to excite preju-
dice against it, at last came to acknowledge openly that
the medical mission was “a most blessed institution.”
The circumstance which led to his change of views was
as follows. His wife, whom he greatly loved, fell seriously
ill. The native doctors tried every thing they could
think of for her relief; one remedy after another was
tried, but the sufferings of the poor patient were only
aggravated. His heart was touched at last, and, setting
his prejudices aside, he went to Dr. Vartan, and im-
plored him to visit his wife. The doctor went, and
found the poor woman in great agony from a large
abscess in the left renal region. He inserted a trocar,

7

82

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

and drew off a large quantity of pus ; the relief experi-
enced was almost instantaneous, and a complete cure was
soon effected. This wrought such a change, that the chief
went to the doctor and confessed his sorrow for having
dissuaded many sufferers from coming to the dispensary,
that they might escape hearing what he thought was
blasphemy ; but, he added, “ henceforth I shall confide
in, and declare the power of Him who guided you in
the successful treatment of my wife.” We trust his confi-
dence, by Divine grace, may grow to a belief for his
own salvation, and that of his household.

Another interesting case was that of a Greek, from
Kheyan, who was admitted suffering from extensive
ulceration of the leg. He remained in hospital for a
long time, owing to the tedious nature of the disease ;
but his long residence proved a blessing, not only to
him, but also to several of his fellow-sufferers. He
learned much of the love of the Saviour of which he
previously knew nothing ; and having tasted for himself
that the Lord is gracious, he ceased not to tell others of
the merciful love of his Redeemer. A spirit of inquiry
was thus awakened among the patients, and several were
so much distressed on account of their sins, that the
story of the cross was eagerly listened to. During the
hours for prayer, as well as at the times set apart for
interrogatory teaching, each patient seemed as if he
wished to be the foremost of all in receiving instruction.

“ At both morning and evening prayers,” writes the

PIONEER AGENCY.

3 3

doctor, “ all who are able to leave their beds, sit in a circle
round me, while a portion of Scripture is read and ex-
plained in a way they can understand. In offering up
prayer, Moslem and Christian kneel side by side, and
ask from the Lord Jesus, for himself and herself, what-
ever may be needful for soul and body. In the evening,
worship is conducted more like a Bible class, and whilst
the domestics are always interrogated, occasionally some
of the patients are questioned ; and in the morning a text
is given to be committed to memory by all before the
time for evening prayers. They are thus occupied
thinking and talking about the text, and at evening
worship each patient is asked to repeat it ; in this way
it is hoped that every patient will leave the hospital with
a good store of scriptural knowledge. The patients
thoroughly enjoy their morning and evening gatherings.
One evening,” writes the doctor, “ I asked one of the
patients — and a more obstinate Mohammedan I had
scarcely ever met— if he thought there was anything
objectionable in our religious exercises. He said he liked
them very much, and told me that till he came to the
hospital he thought that he, and those only who believed
and acted like himself, could please God ; but now he
had discovered that what he had formerly boasted ot
must be counted hypocrisy in God’s sight. This man
had a cancerous eye, which I extirpated successfully.
Our morning and evening services have, I observe, a
very beneficial effect upon all, even upon the most

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

ignorant and unruly. When I make my rounds after-
wards, I generally find the patients bright and cheerful,
however much inclined to despondency before, and this
of itself helps to promote recovery from illness ; but a
far more important consideration is the fact that, through
Divine grace, not a few of the patients are led to see
their sinful and lost state, and to seek the Saviour.”

In visiting patients at their own homes, and in itinera-
ting tours among the surrounding towns and villages,
Dr. Vartan is everywhere gladly welcomed. In one of
his rather extensive tours, he visited Sebastieh, Nablous,
Jaffa, Ramleh, Jericho, Salt (Ramoth Gilead), Ammon,
Jerash, and Gadara, and in each of these places the
people soon discovered that he was a Hakim, and came
to him in crowds, bringing to him their sick, or asking
him to visit them at their homes. In treating their
bodily infirmities he had most favourable opportunities
of telling them of their souls’ disease, and directing them
to the Great Physician. The people were everywhere
very attentive and grateful. At Salt, where the Church
Missionary Society has a station, the people at first
supposed that he had come with the intention of making
a considerable stay, and rejoiced greatly, but when they
heard that he must pass on, they were loud in their
expressions of sorrow. They all, with one voice, begged
him to inform his Society of their urgent need of a
missionary physician, who might do so much good to
the souls and bodies of the many sufferers, who die the

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85

double death for want of such help. While there, sick
and suffering ones kept him busily engaged from morning
till night. Among the stupendous ruins of Ammon,
Jerash, and Gadara, he was welcomed by the wild Be-
douins, who often molest and rob the ordinary traveller,
even in spite of his large escort. The medical missionary
is thus a participant in the joyful surprise of the seventy
on their return to their Lord (Luke x. 17).

The late Rev. W. Lindsay Alexander, D.D., in refer-
ence to what he had seen of Dr. Vartan’s work a few
years ago when visiting Palestine, says: “There were
patients in his hospital at the time of my visit, not only
from the immediate neighbourhood, but even beyond
the Jordan his fame as a physician had extended, and
from thence people had brought their sick friends to be
placed under his care. I rode out with him one morning
when he was going on a professional tour — partly to see
the country and the village which he was going to visit,
Cana of Galilee, and partly to observe his manner of
work amongst the people ; and wherever he went, I
observed with pleasure the great esteem and respect in
which he was held, and the perfect confidence they
exercised in him. I was, indeed, very much impressed
with all that I saw in favour of Dr. Vartan and the work
in which he is engaged.”

One more testimony regarding the success of Dr.
Vartan’s professional work. It was kindly written by
Dr. Robert Lewins, Staff Surgeon-Major, to one of the

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

directors of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society :
“ During a recent visit to Palestine,” Dr. Lewins writes,
“ I had ample opportunity of witnessing the character
of the duties performed by the medical missionary there,
and was much impressed by their valuable nature. I
was particularly struck with the success of Dr. Vartan in
operative surgery — sixty cases of amputation (major)
having been performed, without a single casualty — a
result, so far as I am aware, unprecedented elsewhere,
and which induced me to recommend Dr. Vartan to
publish a detailed statement of his practice and experi-
ence in Syria, as a desideratum in the statistics of medical
science.”

We leave these facts and testimonies, which might be
multiplied indefinitely, to produce their own impression.
When we remember the natural aversion of the human
heart to the Gospel — the prejudice, ignorance, and
superstition, and the bitter enmity to the truth which
characterize Mohammedanism and every other false
system ; when we have such abundant evidence that,
by the skilful practice of the healing art, deeply rooted
prejudices are overcome, hard hearts subdued, and ready
access gained to communities and homes where, as
ambassadors for Christ, we desire to make known the
Gospel message; and when, above all, we remember that
our Divine Lord and Master Himself sanctified the
medical missionary method by His own example and
precept, surely no argument is needed to enforce the

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87

claims of medical missions ; yea, it is necessary rather to
enforce the all-important truth, that although the medical
mission principle bears the stamp of Divine approval, and
commends itself to human intelligence as eminently
adapted for the object in view, still that principle has no
virtue in itself. In the accomplishment of His great and
glorious purposes of mercy, God condescends to employ
human instrumentality, but “ neither is he that planteth
anything, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the
increase.” The agency we employ may to all human ap-
pearance be perfect, but, without the energizing influence
of God’s Holy Spirit, it is nothing more than a splendid
machine without the motive power. The Gospel is the
Divinely appointed, and only means, for the world’s
regeneration ; it, and it alone, under the influence of the
Spirit, can turn men from darkness to light, from the
power of Satan unto God; and in pleading for the more
general employment of medical missions, all we here
contend for is, that through medicine and surgery we
gain a readier access to the homes and hearts of those
whom we desire to reach with the Gospel message.

THE VALUE OF MEDICAL MISSIONS AS A
DIRECT EVANGELISTIC AGENCY.

CHAPTER IV.

tmhte t»f ipiissj&itfns, it«s ct 5>ttM?ct

(®tra«cjeli»txc glgmoj* tUttsitrittefr btj
iljenr resxtlta ut gtnMrt,

ACTS and testimonies to the value of medical

missions, such as have been adduced, are in them-
selves sufficient evidence that this department of service
is no mere experiment. In many of our mission fields
abroad, mission hospitals and dispensaries are now in
active operation ; and where they are most numerous, as
in China, there their value and importance as auxiliaries
to missionary effort are most gratefully acknowledged —
indeed, considered by many as indispensable to the suc-
cess of the work. Our missionary societies, with certain
exceptions, are yet slow to recognize the medical mission
as an ordinary method of missionary work, and seem
disposed to minimize its employment as much as possible ;
and even when established, the support it receives from

92

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

home is not as a rule either so hearty or so liberal as it
ought to be ; too often, indeed, the medical missionary
has not only to do the work, but likewise to find the
means for carrying it on.

This lukewarmness, or rather want of appreciation of
this agency, on the part of some of our missionary
societies, arises in great measure, we believe, from the
erroneous impression that the practical operations of a
medical mission are not so directly evangelistic as the
ordinary stereotyped methods. If this can be truthfully
said of any medical mission, we feel sure that, on inquiry
into all the circumstances, it will be found that its use-
fulness as an evangelistic agency is crippled, simply
because, to the bitter regret of the missionary, his pro-
fessional duties are so overwhelming that he cannot
possibly attempt to do more. If sufficient help were
forthcoming to enable him to train and to employ native
assistants— if he were relieved from the necessity ot
devoting so much of his time to the raising of means for
the support of his mission — in short, if our missionary
societies were to deal as generously with the medical
mission as with the other departments of work, there
would be less need to complain of the medical missionary
ever allowing professional work to engross his time and
attention at the expense of the evangelistic. The fault
is not in the agency, nor, with very rare exceptions, in the
agent, but in the exceedingly limited resources placed at
his disposal to enable him to carry on his work.

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We must state, however, that in our extensive and
intimate acquaintance with medical missions in all parts
of the world, we are unable to point to one which is not
a powerful influence for good, or which, viewed from an
evangelistic point of view, is not a most successful
auxiliary to missionary work. In the previous chapter,
we have entered somewhat minutely into details, especially
in the reference made to Dr. Vartan’s success at Nazareth,
and have given illustrations of the evangelistic value of a
medical mission hospital and dispensary, as well as of the
special facilities afforded, in visits to patients at their own
homes, and in more or less extended medico-evangelistic
tours. Moreover, in defining the position and status of the
medical missionary, we have insisted upon the recognition
of his claim as an evangelist, and that, as such, he be sent
forth by the Church. It is to this feature of his mission
that we now wish especially to direct attention. All that
we have said in support of medical missions may be
accepted as scriptural, and may receive the hearty
sympathy and approval of the friends of missions, but still
their claims as a direct evangelistic agency must be
clearly shown, and convincingly apprehended, before the
enterprise for which we plead can take its proper place
in the entourage of missions, or be cordially and
generously supported. We shall therefore proceed to
illustrate the practical operations of medical missions, as a
direct and successful evangelistic agency in the foreign
field ; not only, as already shown, in pioneering the way,

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

in overcoming prejudice, and in gaining access for the
Gospel messenger, but still further, that this agency is itself
a method, signally owned and blessed, in winning souls to
the Saviour, and in thus extending the kingdom of Christ
in distant lands.

As bearing on this point, we shall begin with a few
reminiscences of our own experience in Travancore. In
all the operations of the medical mission, as carried on
from day to day — in the work of the hospital, the home
station dispensary, the branch dispensaries and hos-
pitals; in visiting the sick, in and around Neyoor, and in
the surrounding towns and villages ; in the training of
native students as medical evangelists, and in our itine-
rating tours — the evangelistic element had always a promi-
nence given to it which could not fail, with the Divine
blessing, to produce a deep impression, and which we
thankfully acknowledge was fruitful in spiritual results.
All the students and servants of the institutions were, as
far as we could judge, earnest and true-hearted Christians,
and every department of the work was conducted in a
prayerful, hopeful spirit. From sixty to a hundred
patients and their friends, many of them coming from a
great distance, daily assembled in the waiting-room in the
early morning, when the Word of God was read and
expounded, and prayer offered ; and it was indeed a won-
derful and interesting sight to see there, under the same
roof, men and women of all castes and creeds, listening
attentively to the Gospel message, and then, in outward

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form at least, humbly kneeling before the Majesty of
heaven. After this service, while the patients were being
examined and prescribed for, the native ordained evan-
gelist, in connection with the medical mission, was
occupied in the waiting-room in ministering to sin-sick
souls, distributing tracts to all who could read, or reading
and explaining them to such as could not, thus dealing
personally with the ignorant and deluded worshippers of
idols; and, moreover, as time and opportunity permitted,
seeking them out at their homes, he renewed his efforts
for their spiritual good. In the hospital, the same kindly
interest was shown, and the same influences brought to
bear upon the patients, only in much more hopeful
circumstances. There were many large heathen towns
and villages in which not a single Christian could be
found, and where the missionary’s voice was seldom, if
ever, heard; into these we gained a welcome access,
and while visiting the sick, enjoyed most favourable
opportunities of preaching the Gospel, not only to our
patients, but also to the crowds which on such occa-
sions eagerly thronged around us.

We can conceive of no more hopeful or inviting field
for evangelistic effort than that of a well-equipped
medical mission, such as the one we were privileged to
superintend in Travancore. Details of one or two cases
will best illustrate the nature of the work, and the success
which attended it. A man, belonging to the carpenter
caste, accidentally inflicted a severe wound upon his right

96 MEDICAL MISSIONS.

foot, splitting it up fully two inches through its entire
thickness. We were absent at the time the patient was
brought to the hospital, but our native assistant attended
to the case, ligatured the bleeding arteries, and stitched
up the wound. On our return, everything seemed to be
going on so favourably that we refrained from removing
the bandages, and the case was given in charge to one of
the students. The wound gradually healed, and, after
six weeks’ residence in the hospital, he was dismissed
cured. This patient, when he was admitted, knew
absolutely nothing of the way of salvation;— before he
left, he had a clear, and, we had every reason to believe,
a saving knowledge of the truth. He expressed a
strong desire for baptism before returning to his heathen
home, but we thought it wise to delay for a time. He
stood firm, however, against the efforts of relatives and
friends to induce him to retract his new-found faith, and
three months after he left the hospital he was baptized ;
soon after, his wife began to accompany him to religious
service in the chapel, became interested in Divine things,
and within a year she too was baptized.

A woman belonging to a respectable family, living in a
town about twelve miles from Neyoor, was brought to
the hospital, suffering from very extensive scrofulous
ulceration of the leg, for which there was no alternative
but amputation. The leg was amputated at the lower
third of the thigh, and the wound healed so rapidly and
satisfactorily, that three weeks from the day of operation,

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she was able to be limping about in the verandah of the
hospital, and in five weeks from the day of admission
she was permitted to return home. Her husband and
sister were allowed to remain with her during her resi-
dence in the hospital. They were all bigoted Roman
Catholics when admitted, but the instruction they re-
ceived, while inmates of the hospital, was so blessed to
them, that before they left, they renounced the false
system which they had embraced, and after a six months’
probation, they were received into the fellowship of the
Church.

Another interesting case was that of an out-door
patient, a man of much influence, and having many, both
old and young, in his employment. He was seized with
a severe attack of rheumatic fever, and being too ill to be
removed to the hospital, which was fully eight miles
distant, we visited him at his own home, and every

second day for some time after, and left a student to

attend upon him. Though he was dangerously ill, and
his case considered hopeless by his native physician and
friends, the Lord blessed the means used for his re-
covery, and at the same time subdued his heart, and

induced him, his wife, and several of his friends, to lend
a willing ear to the truths of the Gospel. He was soon
out of danger, and, with the exception of a stiff knee-
joint — which, however, in course of time yielded to treat-
ment— he made a slow but good recovery, and loud were
the expressions of gratitude bestowed upon us, both by

8

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

the patient and his friends. More pleasing than all,
however, was a message received from the patient, a few
days after we had ceased attendance upon him, asking
us, on a certain day, to come to his house along with our
assistants, in order to receive from him his devil orna-
ments, cloths, and clubs, and to demolish for him a
devil-temple (which he had built on his property only a
few months before), as he no longer had any confidence
in his idols, and had resolved, along with his wife and
several of his relatives, to join the Christians. We gladly
accepted the invitation, and on the afternoon of the
day appointed went to our patient’s house, where we met
with a most cordial reception. A goodly congregation
having gathered within the court, we held a short service,
and then set to work with pick-axes, hatchets, and spades,
and for some time we all worked like navvies, till the
devil-temple was levelled to the ground. Many poor,
superstitious heathen stood round us, trembling with fear,
and prophesying all kinds of evil ; the patient’s wife, too,
was very nervous, and fearful that some dreadful calamity
would that very night befall them ; but her husband was
very bold, and, while watching our work, he denounced
the foolishness and vanity of his previous confidences, and
expressed, almost in the language of Joshua of old, his
determination that henceforth, “ As for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord.” Having finished our icono-
clastic work outside, we adjourned to the house, where
we again had a short service, and after resting for a little,

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99

were regaled with a sumptuous feast of curry and rice,
milk, plantains, sweetmeats, &c. Having arranged that
one of our dressers should remain with the family all
night, in order to comfort and encourage them, we re-
turned to Neyoor, carrying with us the visible signs of
that day’s victory over the devil in one of his own
strongholds. After a few months’ probation, the whole
family were baptized, and it is gratifying to be able to
add, that through this man’s influence, and by his faith-
ful efforts, a large number of the villagers have been led
to forsake their heathen worship, and to attend regularly
on the means of grace.

We give these cases, not as special and extraordinary
instances, but as among many, equally interesting,
occurring within a period of two months, and as ex-
amples of what we daily prayed for, and expected, as the
outcome of the work.

The experience of our late lamented successor, Dr.
Thomson, as recorded in his letters and annual reports,
was not less encouraging. Year by year, as the work
extended, its influence as an aggressive missionary
agency, became more and more evident and powerful.
Branch dispensaries were multiplied, and each of these,
in the locality where it was established, became a new
centre of spiritual as well as of bodily healing. As illustra-
tive of this, we give a brief extract or two from recent
reports of the work of the native medical evangelists in
charge of branch dispensaries : —

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

“ The labours of the medical evangelist at Santha-
puram,” writes Dr. Thomson, “ have been much blessed.
The people have great confidence in him ; some have
been known to sell their brass vessels, to enable them to
come and stay at the little hospital under his charge.
The number of cases treated by him during the year is
3,609. During the same period, sixty-six of his patients
have been led, through God’s blessing upon his faithful,
zealous efforts, to forsake idol worship, and have put
themselves under regular Christian instruction. On the
24th of June twenty-four of these were baptized.”

Referring to one of his cases, the dresser writes :
“ Sollamutto, a religious mendicant, came to the Santha-
puram dispensary, some time ago, suffering trom paralysis.
During the time he was an in-patient, he heard the
story of the cross, and became a changed man. A
proof that he is not actuated by any sinister motive, is
the fact that he handed over to me his uthiracham
(necklace of beads used by religious devotees), a small
ratan, two copper rings given to him by Muttu-Kutty,
and a red cloth, the means by which the mendicant
gains his livelihood. One day, being deeply convinced
of his sinfulness and need of his Saviour, he said to me,
‘ I am near the grave ; I feel my time here is very short,
and I wish to be baptized this Sunday.’ In accordance
with his request, the pastor visited him, and finding that
he took Jesus at His word, and simply trusted Him, he
gladly baptized him on the 12th of October. His wcrds

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i oi

on that occasion were very expressive, and his face,
beaming with joy, showed that he was not exaggerating
what he felt in his heart. He said, ‘ I thank God I
came to the knowledge of Jesus Christ in the dispensary.
My new faith gives me true happiness. Jesus has cleansed
me, and lives now in my heart, so that, day by day, I am
drawn nearer and nearer to Him.’ He has great joy in
attending the daily dispensary services. I have special
cause to remember this case, as it is the first-fruit of my
feeble effort since the lamented death of my beloved
master, Dr. T. S. Thomson.” (Dr. Thomson died on
the 31st of July, 1884.)

With reference to the work of another branch dispen-
sary, Dr. Thomson writes: “No month goes past with-
out reports of some being influenced to decide for Christ,
or of having put themselves under Christian instruction.
One dresser has made an analysis of such cases, in con-
nection with his branch dispensary for the year, with the
following results : Total number of patients who have
embraced Christianity, eighty-one; of these seventy-five
are regular until now in attendance at chapel, and twenty-
seven have been examined and found suitable for bap-
tism. Their names are all given, with the congregations
they attend.”

“ Last year,” writes a dresser in charge of another
branch dispensary, “in one village (Peruvilei) twenty
persons were baptized under the efforts of the medical
mission, and there are others who, though not yet bap-

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

tized, are steadfast in their faith; and on the 30th of
January, at another village in the same district, eighteen
of my former patients were baptized by the Rev. William
Lee. As battles won,” he adds, “ encourage soldiers, so
to every one who is a soldier in the army of Jesus,
victories such as these are a source of great encourage-
ment.”

The native medical evangelists have all been trained,
either by the late Dr. Thomson, or by ourselves, at the
Neyoor Mission Hospital, and, from personal observation,
we can testify to their skill and success in the treatment
of disease, as well as to their faithfulness and zeal as
evangelists. The influence they have among their fellow-
countrymen is very great, and they have access where
the ordinary native agent dare not approach. Their
salary is not more than fifteen rupees — equal to about
thirty shillings — a month ; and to their credit be it known,
that several of them have again and again refused salaries
double or treble what they receive as agents ot the
mission, rather than relinquish direct mission work.

From the south of India we pass to the extreme north,
and take a glimpse of medical mission work in Kashmir.
Here, to quote again the words of the late Lord Bishop
of Calcutta, we find the medical missionary “knocking at
the one door which may, through God’s help, be opened
for the truth to enter in.” The Church Missionary
Society made an effort to introduce Christianity into
Kashmir in 1854, but the violent opposition the mis-

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103

sionaries then encountered obliged them at once to
withdraw, and it was not till 1862 that the attempt was
renewed. In the autumn of that year, two missionaries
visited the valley, but were again obliged to retire.
Another effort was made in the following year, but the
time had not yet come for the establishment of a Chris-
tian mission. In 1865, in circumstances apparently as
unfavourable, a medical mission for Kashmir was again
proposed. Dr. Elmslie was sent out, and, writing from
Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, very soon after his
arrival, he says : “ So bitter had been the opposition of
the native authorities to the praiseworthy efforts of Messrs.
Smith and Clark, ordained missionaries of the Church
Missionary Society, on two previous occasions, that, on
my arrival, I fully expected to meet with similar treat-
ment, but I was most agreeably disappointed. With one
exception, the people heard us gladly, and not the people
only, but the public functionaries also.” Writing about
his work the following year, Dr. Elmslie says : “ The
religious exercises of the dispensary were conducted in
the same manner as last year. On all occasions, without a
single exception, the behaviour of the people was quiet and
attentive. In our addresses seldom was there any express
reference made to the absurdities of Hinduism, or to the
errors of the religion of the false prophet ; we deem such
references better fitted for the solitary interview than for
the crowded assembly. We wish our hearers to know
what Christianity is — to look at it with their mind’s eye

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

calmly and dispassionately ; and, if we know anything of
the workings of the human mind, we believe that one of
the main ways of effecting this is not unnecessarily to
rouse the prejudices of your heathen listeners. The
surpassing reasonableness and excellency of the Christian
religion should be the chief theme of the preacher to a
heathen audience, leaving them to institute a comparison
between their own corrupt and false religion and that of
Jesus Christ.

“ We have here a good deal fitted to discourage us,
but the thought that during the past six months more
than three thousand sufferers from serious maladies have
been either wholly cured, or have had their pains alle-
viated— the thought that the wondrous story of God’s
marvellous love to a sin-ruined world, in the stupendous
gift of His own dear Son, has become extensively known
among this people so prejudiced and exclusive — and the
absolute certainty of the final triumph of the Gospel, here
and throughout the world, should nerve and encourage
us to advance joyfully and hopefully in our Divine
Master’s great and good work.”

Through these many years, the medical mission has
been steadily carried on. Under Dr. Elmslie the dis-
pensary won a reputation throughout the whole valley.
After his death the work was carried on by different
missionaries. Dr. Maxwell, the immediate successor of
Dr. Elmslie, was sent out in 1874, and by his influence
with the Maharajah a hospital was erected. Under the

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pressure of work his health broke down, and he was
obliged to return home. During the interval previous to
Dr. Downes’ arrival, the work was carried on by the Rev.
T. Wade and a native doctor. After six years of hard
but successful work, Dr. Downes has also been com-
pelled by ill-health to retire, and now Dr. Neve carries
on the work. “ The fame of the hospital,” writes Dr.
Neve, “has reached into remote valleys, crossed snowy
passes to Ladak and Skardo, and even penetrated with
merchant caravans into Khotan and Yarkand. As its
fame has spread, so has its work increased. Any one
who looked through the out-patient room on a crowded
summer day would not quickly forget the sight of the
hundreds of sick. Here the dark faces of the natives
from the plains contrast with the fair Kashmiris, and
the ruddy-complexioned Yarkundi ; here are the fierce
features of the Afghan, there the stalwart form of the
Sikh, with many another strange nationality. Seven or
eight different dialects or languages may be heard. Vary-
ing yet more than race and language would be the
diseases and appearance of the sufferers. The child
leads in his blind father, the mother carries her lame
daughter, friends bring, on a light bedstead, the palsied
man. The repulsive features of the leper, the disfigured
countenances and ulcerated limbs of many, would inspire
with horror, their wretched garments and wasted forms
would fill with pity, and the painfully numerous proofs
of dirty habits and vicious tastes would excite disgust.

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

“ When gathered together, a hymn is sung, and after-
wards a short address is given. Avoiding any approach
to controversy, they are told of the God of love, and of
redemption : of Him who, as man, experienced the toils
and trials of manhood, sounded the depths of poverty,
and bore the strokes of persecution ; of Him who com-
forted the sorrow-stricken, healed the sick, taught the
ignorant, loved all men, died for all men, and rose again,
the first-fruits of them that sleep, now sitting at the right
hand of the Eternal Father, offering salvation to all who
call upon His name.

“ To all this, whether Hindu, Buddhist, or Moham-
medan, they listen with interest, and in the petitions of
the closing prayer many audibly join. Now begins the
consulting and dispensing. The doctor registers the
name, examines the patient, and writes the prescription,
while two compounders are at work dispensing ; one man
shows the patients in, one by one; two more are engaged
dressing, while the native hospital assistant stands by
to look after them, performing any minor operations
or examining more carefully any special case. So the
patients are passed through, receiving their medicines as
they go — the serious cases receiving an admission ticket
into the hospital. At last, after several hours’ work, and
after a glance through the wards, the day’s work is over.
Two days a week are reserved for operations, and for a
closer inspection of the wards.”

The extent of the work is great, and the number of

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patients very large. It reached its maximum in 1881,
when 30,000 visits were registered. Last year 8000 new
cases were seen, and these paid 24,000 visits. Over
1200 operations were performed, and 1000 patients
were received into the wards. These figures give some
idea of the amount of work performed ; but they do not
include all, for many hundreds were seen by Dr. Downes
at Gulmarg, and Dr. Neve and his assistant saw hundreds
more while itinerating in the district. During the past
six years upwards of 130,000 visits have been received,
and reckoning from the commencement of the work,
twenty years ago, more than twice that number.

Referring to the opportunities afforded by the Medical
Mission for evangelistic work in Kashmir, the Rev. J.
Hinton Knowles, Dr. Neve’s colleague, writes: “If any-
thing will help to bring about, under the Heavenly bless-
ing, the fulfilment of these blessed words, ‘ At the name
of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and
things on earth,’ and ‘every tongue shall confess that
He is Christ, to the glory of God the Father,’ I believe it
is this noble, grand, Gospel Medical Mission. . . . Some
may ask, ‘ What are the results of this apparently great
and holy work ? How many Christians are being
gathered in?’ Now and again, one and another have
stepped out of the ranks of a false religion, and are now
walking in the new and living way. We are striving,
praying, and expecting that many will soon follow. There
are several who, after the delivery of the addresses and

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

toB

the distribution of the medicines, have come to inquire
more of ‘ these strange things brought to their ears.’ The
other morning five men came all at one time. Who can
measure the blessing attending such work ! Sometimes
there are as many as two hundred patients and others
present. They have come from different parts— from
over yonder snow-capped mountains, looking so near,
and yet so far off; from yonder distant village several
have come who have perhaps no other reason for visiting
Srinagar than to get advice and medicine, and to them,
and to all, the Gospel is faithfully preached. Suppose
only fifty thus hear it every day. Then that probably
means that the substance of the address is known before
nightfall to about two hundred ; for, in the ordinary
routine of their life, the native has so little transpiring of
a newsful character, that he or she will be certain to
remember much of the Word spoken, and to tell it to
their families and in their hujras on their return. We
hear from time to time of the Gospel being thus carried
to others, with saving power: Were it not for the

Medical Mission, such splendid opportunities as we now
enjoy for preaching in the city bazaar here is practically
impossible.”

One more glimpse before we turn from Kashmir.
“Itineration,” writes Dr. Neve, “is a very interesting
feature of our work. Throughout the past year, preach-
ing and the healing art have, hand in hand, visited many
of the smaller towns in the district. In the Wizier Gar-

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109

den at Islamabad, under the chenar groves at Pampoor,
by the broad placid river at Sopir, in the visitors’ bun-
galow at Baramulla, the busy portal of the ‘ Happy
Valley,’ in the stately gardens at Vernag and Atchibal,
by the sacred tank at Bawun, below the great mosque at
Eishmakam, among the walnut trees and orchards of
sequestered mountain villages, have the message of
Divine love and the ministry of healing been brought to
the sinful and the sick. Perhaps the most noteworthy
of all these scenes was at Bawun — most sacred of tanks,
most beautiful of camps — with its smooth, grassy terrace,
watered by swift-flowing canals, and canopied by the
massy foliage of stately plane trees. In such a gem of
natural loveliness, disease should cease to be ; but here
hundreds have day by day surrounded my tent. By the
limpid flashing water of the tank, pundit and fakir, Mo-
hammedan official and peasant, have listened to the story
of the ‘ Fountain opened for sin ’ — not the holy Ganges,
nor this pure spring, but the life-blood of the God-man,
Christ Jesus.”

In Rajpootana, four European medical missionaries are
at work in connection with the United Presbyterian
Church. Into Jeypore, the capital, the Gospel first gained
an entrance through medical missions, and in the province,
since then, their value, as an evangelistic method, has been
abundantly proved, and the United Presbyterian Church
has wisely multiplied their number. We must allow one
of the medical missionaries in Rajpootana to speak for

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

all. Dr. Somerville, of Beawr, thus writes : “ To com-
municate, with healing for the various diseases brought to
us for treatment, a knowledge of the one true God, and
of Jesus Christ whom He hath sent, is the method and
aim of the work — not, as some injuriously represent, with
the object of forcibly, or cowardly, taking advantage of
our patients’ weakness, or incapacity for thought or intel-
ligent decision, but to show that our religion is one of
love and mercy, and that we desire to carry out the in-
junction of our Master, ‘to preach the kingdom of God,
and to heal the sick.’ In the mission dispensary all are
free to come and go, and the Gospel is shown to be a
thing, not of compulsion, but of persuasion, to the end
that sinful men may see, and accept, a Saviour from sin
in Jesus Christ. The Word has certainly been listened
to with great attention, and gained an entrance into the
understanding of many, and some have had their hearts
touched by the story of redeeming love. If it be true of
any department of Christian work, it is emphatically true
of the work of the medical missionary, that much of its
result, and even of its operation, must remain unseen and
unnoted. Even to appreciate some of its outward
aspects, one must accompany the missionary physician,
morning by morning, to the dispensary — must see the
bent and festering limbs made straight, vision restored
to the sightless eyes, pain relieved by a stroke of the
knife, and, withal, rebuke and exhortation administered
to such as are suffering from former ill-doing, and the

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1 1 1

Word of Life read and explained to all. He must also
accompany him — it may be after his dispensary work is
over in the morning, it may be at any hour of the day or
night — into the streets and lanes of the town, to the house
of some one too ill to come to the dispensary, or to wait
till the dispensary hour, and see relief administered to
husband, or wife, or child, as the physician knows how ;
and while waiting, or after what may be necessary has
been done, to hear the message again delivered, and the
attention of patient and bystander directed to things
eternal. He must go with the missionary to the neigh-
bouring or more distant village in the early morning, or
from village to village on his longer itineracy, and see
there the crowd collected round the village hathai. , and
observe the remedy supplied from the medicine chest for
bodily ailment, and note how the sinful soul is directed
to the Heavenly Physician for spiritual healing j — -all this,
and much more he must do, ere a just conception can
be formed of the value of the medical missionary’s work.
In all these ways, in common with my medical mission-
ary brethren, I have been engaged during the past year,
as in former years, preaching the Gospel and healing the
sick, in the dispensary, in the house, in the lane, by the
wayside, in the village, or wherever the opportunity
offered. We have made a large number of visits in the
bazaar, to those who were either too weak to come to
the hospital, or whose social customs forbid their appear-
ing in public ; and it is encouraging to state that, in

I I 2

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

some instances, the way has thus been opened up for
more extended usefulness.”

We wish we could take a glimpse of the other medical
missions established by the United Presbyterian Church
in Rajpootana ; but this is unnecessary, as the testimony
of Dr. Husband, Dr. Shepherd, and Dr. Clark, would,
in effect, be similar to that of Dr. Somerville. They
each make their medical work, not the chief end, but
a means to the higher end — namely, that of directing
their patients, diseased by sin, to the Divine and only
Physician of souls. With the experience of medical
mission work which the United Presbyterian Mission
Board has had in India, China, and elsewhere, it is
gratifying to be able to add the following testimony from
the late Rev. Dr. McGill, late Foreign Mission Secretary
of that Board, to the value of this agency as a method of
missionary work : “The experience of our Mission Board
with reference to medical missions, which extends not
only to Old Calabar and Rajpootana, but also to China,
has amply verified the principles on which they have
been founded. It is the settled conviction of those best
acquainted with the subject, that this form of agency is
stamped with the approbation of that Great Teacher,
who ‘ went about all Galilee, teaching in their syna-
gogues, and healing all manner of sickness and all
manner of disease among the people.’ From the month
of September, 1855, when our first medical missionary,
Dr. Hewan, went to Calabar, until the present hour, the

SUCCESS IN INDIA.

ii3

results ot our medical missions have amply vindicated
their institution.”

We might refer at length to the medical missions ot
the Church Missionary Society in the Punjab, to that of
the Church of Scotland in Chumba, of the Irish Presby-
terian Church in Gujerat, of the Baptist Missionary
Society in Delhi, and of the Free Church of Scotland
in Pachamba and Madras, as well as to that of the
American Board, in connection with their Arcot Mission,
but we shall content ourselves with a brief allusion to the
latter, as illustrative of the work and evangelistic oppor-
tunities of all.

The hospital and dispensary in connection with the
American Arcot Mission is located at Ranipett, with a
branch dispensary at Wallajapett, and the work is super-
intended by Dr. H. M. Scudder, one of a large family of
missionaries, whose name is a household word among
native Christians throughout a large district in South
India. This Institution was established in 1866. At
first, the people came cautiously and timidly, and usually
from the lowest castes ; now, all is changed, Hindus of the
highest castes and Mohammedans alike avail themselves
of its benefits without the shadow of a fear, the average
annual attendance of out-patients being upwards of
30,000, and of in-patients about 1300.

The Gospel is preached daily at the dispensary. As
the patients arrive they are seated upon benches in the
large verandah of the building, and when a goodly number

9

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

114

have gathered, a portion of Scripture is read, and the truth
made known as simply and clearly as possible. The in-
patients, lying in their beds in the adjoining wards, are
able to hear distinctly all that is said. The branch dis-
pensary at Wallajapett is very much appreciated, crowds
resorting to it day by day, and there, as at Ranipett,
precious opportunities are enjoyed of sowing the good
seed in a specially prepared soil. Attendance at those
services is by no means compulsory ; all are invited,
but if unwilling to remain they are at perfect liberty to
retire. Very rarely, however, do any absent themselves ;
all listen attentively, and with apparent interest.

“ It may be asked,” writes Dr. Scudder, “ whether this
method of evangelization is successful. Most assuredly
it is, though, perhaps, we may never know how much
good is accomplished until the last great day. Many
cases of conversion have occurred within the walls of the
hospital, and numbers of others, who have come over to
us, have affirmed that the preaching they heard on the
dispensary verandah first led them to inquire after the
truth. Do Christian friends — do even all missionaries —
appreciate the great importance of medical missionary
work ? We very much fear they do not. We consider
that every mission ought to have, at least, one arm
medical; that is, should have an efficient medical de-
partment in connection with it. Yet how many missions
are still without this agency. Surely this is a poor policy,
looking at the subject even from a worldly point of view ;

SUCCESS IN INDIA.

US

but, when we know that the medical missionary has a
new, extensive, easily attainable, but otherwise unap-
proachable field — most interesting as well as hopeful —
upon which he may enter almost immediately, and with
scarcely an obstacle in his pathway, is it not manifest
that this subject should have, as it certainly deserves to
have, much more attention ? God grant that the claims
Qf medical missions may more seriously enter into the
hearts and minds of His people everywhere, and arouse
them to extend this special field of labour and useful-
ness ! ”

We cannot better conclude this brief reference to the
evangelistic results of medical mission work in India
than by the following testimony of a learned Brahmin.
At the close of a lecture by Dr. Chamberlain, of the
American Arcot Mission, when nearly two hundred
Brahmins, farmers, artizans, officials, and students were
present, the Brahmin politely asked permission to address
the meeting, and then said :

“ I have watched the missionaries, and seen what they
are. What have they come to this country for ? What
tempts them to leave their parents, friends, and country,
and come to this, to them, unhealthy clime ? Is it for
gain or profit they come ? Some of us, country clerks
in Government offices, receive larger salaries than they.
Is it for an easy life ? See how they work, and then tell
me. Look at this missionary ! He came here a few
years ago, leaving all, and seeking only our good ! He

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

1 16

was met with cold looks and suspicious glances, and was
shunned and maligned. He sought to talk with us of
what, he told us, was the matter of most importance in
heaven and earth, but we would not listen. He was not
discouraged ; he opened a dispensary, and we said, ‘ Let
the pariahs (lowest caste people) take his medicines, we
won’t ; ’ but in the time of our sickness and distress and
fear we were glad to go to him, and he welcomed us.
We complained at first if he walked through our Brahmin
streets ; but ere long, when our wives and our daughters
were in sickness and anguish, we went and begged him
to come, even into our inner apartments — and he came,
and our wives and our daughters now smile upon us in
health ! Has he made any money by it ? Even the cost
of the medicine he has given has not been returned to
him.

“Now what is it that makes him do all this for us?
It is his Bible t I have looked into it a good deal, at
one time or another, in the different languages I chance
to know ; it is just the same in all languages. The
Bible ! — there is nothing to compare with it, in all our
sacred books, for goodness, and purity, and holiness, and
love, and for motives of action. Where did the English
people get all their intelligence and energy, and clever-
ness and power ? It is their Bible that gives it to them.
And now they bring it to us and say, ‘ That is what raised
us, take it and raise yourselves ! ’ They do not force it
upon us, as did the Mohammedans with their Koran •

SUCCESS IN INDIA.

117

but they bring it in love, and translate it into our
languages, and lay it before us, and say, ‘ Look at it,
read it, examine it, and see if it is not good.’ Of one
thing I am convinced : do what we will, oppose it as we
may, it is the Christian’s Bible that will, sooner or later,
work the regeneration of our land.”

“ I could not,” adds Dr. Chamberlain, “ but be sur-
prised at this testimony. Some time ago, I had attended
in his zenana, his second wife, a beautiful girl, through a
dangerous illness, and I knew that he was very grateful,
but I was not prepared to hear him, before such an
audience, give such a powerful testimony to the power
and excellence of the Bible.”

In view of the results of medical missionary work in
India, and with testimony to its value such as we have
given, are we not reminded of the words of Moses in his
song of triumph ? “ Their rock is not as our rock, even
our enemies themselves being judges ” ; and were this
agency more largely made use of in that “ land of idols,”
such testimony would doubtless be more frequently
heard.

THE VALUE OF MEDICAL MISSIONS AS A
DIRECT EVANGELISTIC AGENCY.

CHAPTER V.

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tvljeve.

OWHERE is the evangelistic value of medical

missionary work better illustrated than in China.
We shall now, therefore, take a glimpse at some of the
mission hospitals and dispensaries in that great mission
field. Our object, let it be borne in mind, in this, as in
the previous chapter, is not so much to illustrate the
influence of medical missions, in disarming prejudice and
pioneering a way for the proclamation of the Gospel —
this we have already done; our aim is rather to’ show how
fruitful medical missions are in their direct evangelistic
results — how manifestly God has blessed this agency in
winning souls to the Saviour, and that from this point
of view alone, medical missions have, therefore, a very

I 22

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

strong claim upon the sympathy and support of the
friends of missions.

In 1834, the Rev. Peter Parker, M.D.,ot the American
Board of Missions, arrived in China; the first medical
missionary to that great empire. His hospital in Canton
soon became so popular, that patients of all ranks, and
from distant parts of the country flocked to it. In 1839
Dr. Lockhart, the agent of the London Missionary Society,
arrived and commenced work in Macao ; towards the
close of the same year, he was joined by Dr. Hobson.
The operations of those pioneers of medical missionary
work in China were, for a short time, interrupted by the
breaking out of hostilities in 1840. When peace was
restored, Dr. Lockhart went to Shanghai and Dr. Hobson
to Hongkong. Excellent mission hospitals were built
and furnished at both places, and both missionaries were
greatly blessed in their “work of faith and labour of love.”

Dr. Lockhart, speaking of the work which he was thus
privileged to inaugurate, says: “In 1838 I was sent
out by the London Missionary Society as their first
medical missionary to China. A house was taken for a
dispensary and hospital, and the people were informed
that they would receive gratuitous medical attendance.
They came in great numbers, so that in the course of
a few weeks our house was quite full, and the street was
crowded every morning with patients flocking to us for
aid ; and it was pleasant to see how soon, by this work
of humanity, we could find a way to their affections and

SUCCESS IN CHINA.

123

their hearts, and how the people who were thus relieved
would dwell upon the words of the preacher. I believe
the truth thus found its way to the hearts of many
who, without the hospital, would never have known the
glad tidings of the Gospel. Many persons came from
the northern and western provinces to our hospital at
Shanghai. When under treatment there, they heard the
Gospel preached. Returning to their distant homes,
they took with them portions of the Word of God, and
various religious tracts ; and thus the message of salva-
tion found its way into large districts of country which,
without this agency, we had no means of reaching. This
is the great object of medical missions. We strive to
win the confidence of the people — to get them around
us — to open their hearts by kindness to receive the
Divine Word — and thus, sowing the seed at a favourable
time, bring many to know Christ, whose hearts might
otherwise be prejudiced against His truth. We re-
peatedly heard of patients who, having been to the
hospital, and having there heard the Gospel, carried with
them portions of the Word of God to their native villages,
and induced others of their friends to come down in
order to participate in the same benefits. So the work
went on, and I say it with confidence, that medical
missions in China have been successful in winning an
entrance for the Gospel to the hearts and consciences of
the people, which no other agency could have so well
effected.”

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

About this time very valuable testimony, to the re-
markable influence and success of those early medical
missionary operations among the Chinese, was borne by
an intelligent eye-witness, Dr. Wilson, Inspector of Naval
Hospitals, who, in his work entitled “ Medical Notes on
China,” thus refers to medical missions : “Among the
most promising means now employed for reforming, or
rather revolutionizing, the moral, intellectual, and social
condition of the Chinese, we would rank the medical
missions recently established on their shores. In their
frequent, and, from its very nature, familiar intercourse
with the afflicted, the medical missionaries possess ad-
vantages, which the man who addresses himself to the
understanding only canno obtain. They have con-
sequently more potent means of touching the heart, and
turning feelings of gratitude into instruments by which
they may act powerfully on the dark mind. Though
they do not directly assail the strongholds of bigotry and
conceited ignorance, they trust that, through the agency
of accumulated good works, which can neither excite
jealousy in rulers, nor permit continued indifference
among the people, so to undermine these antiquated
structures, that they may ere long annihilate them,
rearing in their room institutions of light and liberty;
substituting for the worship of idols, adoration of the
true God.

“The hospital of the medical mission at Hongkong,
which is under the direction of Dr. Hobson, and which

SUCCESS IN CHINA.

125

is best know to us, may be taken as a general represent-
ative of those established at other ports. There, every-
thing which benevolence can devise, and care and skill
accomplish, is done for the patients; and thence, a large
proportion of those admitted return to their native towns
and hamlets, to tell their neighbours what the strangers
have done for them. They have to speak only of
benefits received; their cherished habits were not vio-
lently attacked ; their superstitious follies and pagan
perversions were never made the subjects of ridicule or
contemptuous pity, but they were led to the abandon-
ment of these by showing them a better way, and by
proving its vast superiority through its practical results.
Persons who went in wasted, maimed, or blind, came out
with renovated vigour and restored sight. Can the
Chinese long continue to resist such teaching ? ’’

Since these first mission hospitals were established in
China, medical missions have been intimately associated
with the progress of missionary work there. There are
now between forty and fifty missionary physicians, Euro-
pean and American, carrying on their Christ-like labours
in all parts of that vast empire, and a brief reference to a
few of the mission hospitals and dispensaries under their
charge will serve to show how valuable they are as direct
evangelistic agencies.

The Rev. Griffith John, one of the most experienced
and best known missionaries in China, writing regarding
the London Missionary Society’s Medical Mission at

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

Hankow, says: “I am happy to be able to state that our
hospital at Hankow is a thoroughly Christian institution.
Every helper is, so far as we are able to judge, a genuine
disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in perfect sympathy
with the higher aim of the establishment. From end to
end, and from top to bottom, the atmosphere of the
hospital is a purely religious one. So actively engaged
are the assistants in making known the truth to the
patients, that it is almost impossible for any one to spend
three or four days within the building without obtaining
a fair knowledge of the fundamental truths of the Gospel.
I never enter the wards without feeling that the institu-
tion is a great spiritual power, and that it is destined to
accomplish a mighty work for God in the centre ot
China.”

The Hankow Mission Hospital was built in 1874,
largely by funds raised among the Chinese themselves.
The land was a gift to the hospital by Dr. Reid, who
for many years freely gave his time to the medical work
of the mission. Accommodation is provided for about
forty patients, and out-patients are seen five days a week.
“ Every day,” writes the medical missionary, “ when the
patients are assembled in the waiting-room, the Gospel
is proclaimed to them. That they get a clear mental
knowledge of the truth we know, by the intelligent
answers given to the frequent questions asked in the
consulting-room. Those who remain as in-patients re-
ceive daily religious instruction, and through kindness

SUCCESS IN CHINA.

127

and attention to their bodily sufferings, we seek to lead
them to the Great Physician, who alone can meet their
spiritual wants.”

“ Patients come from great distances for advice and
treatment, even from the provinces of Hu-nan and Kian-
si. From Mien-Yaang alone, though over a hundred
miles distant, we have had twenty-three in-patients during
the year. In this way, the Gospel reaches many who
would never probably have come under its influence in
any other way, for their homes have not yet been reached
by missionary effort. Many take away with them a
knowledge, at least, of the way of salvation, and not a
few return to their homes humble disciples of the Lord
Jesus.”

Among many most interesting cases, the medical mis-
sionary tells us of a father, a small farmer, who brought
his two daughters, aged thirteen and sixteen, to the
hospital, suffering from cataract of both eyes and totally
blind. Both girls were operated upon and returned
home with their sight restored. While in the hospital
they received daily Christian instruction, and, by and by,
both expressed an earnest desire to confess Christ. After
a few weeks’ probation, having given satisfactory evidence
of a real change of heart, they were baptized. Three
months after leaving the hospital, they again appeared
with a number of sick and maimed neighbours, their
mother being one of the party. She had been blind
from cataract for upwards of twenty years, and was now

128

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

forty years old. She had not come to Hankow, she said,
to be cured, for after so many years’ blindness she could
never expect to be able to see, but she had come to
receive Christian instruction ; her daughters had told
her much about the Gospel, and she was anxious now for
urther knowledge. Her case, happily, was not con-
sidered hopeless ; both eyes were successfully operated
upon, and her sight was restored. While in the hospital
both she and her husband were led to know Jesus as
their Saviour, were baptized the Sunday before they left,
and returned to their home a Christian family.

The largest medical mission in China is that in con-
nection with the English Presbyterian Church at Swatow,
which was commenced in 1863 by Dr. Gauld, in a
Chinese house fitted up to accommodate a few in-patients.
In 1867 a new hospital was built, with accommodation
for from fifty to sixty patients, with a separate house in
another part of the town used exclusively as a leper
hospital. Since then the work has expanded with a
steady growth, till now there is hospital accommodation
for two hundred patients, and at times room has to be
found for a considerably larger number. Till 1877 Dr.
Gauld carried on the work single-handed; failure of
health, however, obliged him to retire from the foreign
field, about two years ago, but he is now doing good
service as Superintendent of the Bethnal Green Medical
Mission, in connection with the Mildmay Mission. In
1877 Dr. Lyall, -formerly resident physician at the Cow-

SUCCESS IN CHINA.

129

gate Dispensary, was sent out to assist Dr. Gauld, and he
has now sole charge of the Swatow Medical Mission.

During 1883, upwards of one hundred and forty
patients, men and women, gave in their names as candi-
dates for church fellowship. For such, special classes
are held, more or less regularly during the week, and on
Sunday afternoons they assemble for examination on the
subjects taught. Of this large number of applicants
only a few were baptized, previous to their leaving
the hospital, the missionaries as a rule requiring that,
before receiving baptism, they should go home and show
the sincerity of their profession by conducting themselves
as Christians among their relatives and neighbours.
Many of those who receive a blessing themselves while
inmates in the hospital are very zealous and successful in
bringing in others for instruction. In a recent report,
Dr. Lyall gives several very interesting cases of conver-
sion, the result of such efforts. One patient, baptized in
1881, brought his mother and younger brother, a three
days’ journey to Swatow, to receive Christian instruction ;
now both are applicants for admission into the Church.
Another, baptized on the 1st of January, 1881, has in-
fluenced a number of his friends in favour of the Gospel j
and his brother, who came several times to Swatow to
receive teaching, has been baptized. A man from Chiah-
na, when under treatment towards the end of 1880,
became very anxious about his soul’s salvation, found
peace in believing, and desired to join the Church, but

10

13°

MEDICAL MISSIONS

his baptism was delayed in order that the sincerity of his
wish might be tested. On his return to his village, his
conduct was so changed as to make his old comrades
and his neighbours wonder what had come over him.
Formerly he had been addicted to gambling, swearing,
and other evil habits, but now he was an example to all
in his daily life and conversation. After a short proba-
tion he was baptized, became a most intelligent, zealous,
useful Christian, and was recently elected an office-
bearer of the Church at Chiah-na.

In the end of May, 1878, one of three patients bap-
tized in the hospital was Ung-A-Che, a leper. He came
from Na-than, a large village near the head of Chaw-
an-basin, not long ago notorious for the piratical habits
of the people. After a stay of several months in the
hospital, A-Che applied for baptism, and after due ex-
amination was received into the Church. He returned
to his home soon after, not cured of his leprosy, but re-
joicing in Christ as his Saviour. “We heard nothing of
him,” writes the Rev. H. L. Mackenzie of Swatow, “until
the beginning of 1882. His village is fully two and a
half days’ journey from here, and in a region to which
none of us had ever paid a visit. Well, to our surprise
and delight we heard that, through A-Che’s preaching of
the Gospel to his neighbours, some twenty or thirty
men and women, from his own and two neighbouring
villages, had turned from the worship of idols to serve
the living God, and were in the habit of meeting regu-

SUCCESS IN CHINA.

131

larly to worship Him. We sent our native assistant to
inquire into this new and interesting movement, and to
teach and encourage those who professed to be converts.
The report he brought back was well fitted to make us
very hopeful as to the reality of the work, and we looked
forward to visiting the place soon. For various reasons
the visit did not take place till very recently, and I wish
now to tell you what Dr. Lyall and I found at Na than
when we spent a few days there. Arriving early in July,
we were warmly welcomed by several of the brethren, A-
Che being among them. I at once recognized the poor
fellow. He is much disfigured in face and limb by the
sad dreadful disease, that is slowly, but surely, bringing
him down to the grave ; but there was a peaceful, happy
expression of face that touched me deeply, and I could
but bless the Lord, for the grace given to our afflicted
brother, and wonder and adore when I thought of the
honour put upon him. He and the others conducted us
to their meeting-place. It was an open lane, just in front
of the house of one of the brethren, and with openings
into it from the houses of the neighbours. They had
been trying hard, for more than a year, to get a house or
even a single room wherein to meet, but had failed ; and
so Dr. Lyall and I met with them where they regularly
assembled for worship, exposed to the heat and to the
cold, to a blazing sun and to heavy rains. We found a
small congregation of twenty-seven souls ; a few of the
more prominent and decided men happened on that day

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

to be from home. To shelter us from the hot sun, a few
pine branches, and one or two pieces of what looked like
old sail-cloth, had been spread over head. The men sat
on small forms, the women squatted on straw mats spread
on the ground ; for Dr. Lyall and myself a couple of
bamboo chairs had been provided.” In this strange
place, Mr. Mackenzie and Dr. Lyall spoke to these people,
and after careful examination of those who had applied
for baptism, two men and three women were baptized.
“ We were glad and thankful,” Mr. Mackenzie adds, “ for
what we had seen of the grace of God, and praised Him
for so wonderfully opening the way to Na-than, and that
our first visit there was so encouraging and happy.”

The visits of the ladies ol the mission to the female
patients in their wards have been much blessed. The
matron of the girls’ school, who was herself led to become
a Christian while a patient in the hospital many years
ago, and who has been very useful to many of her people
since, often spends an hour among the women, when free
from her school duties. As a result of these efforts,
some very interesting conversions have taken place
among them.

At a meeting held lately in the medical mission house,
Edinburgh, the Rev. Mr. Macgregor of Amoy gave a
most interesting account of medical mission work in
China, and among other gratifying results he told of a
man from an unevangelized district of country who came,
nearly seventeen years ago, to the hospital at Amoy,

SUCCESS IN CHINA.

T33

where he was cured of his disease and received daily
Christian instruction. When quite recovered, he returned
home and told his friends and neighbours of the kind
treatment he had received, and of the Gospel of God’s
love which he had heard. The hearts of a few were
opened, and they believed, the number increased, perse-
cution arose, at one time so fierce that they had to flee
from the village. At length they communicated with
the missionaries and begged for a teacher ; one was sent,
and a congregation of about a hundred was gathered.
Many came from a considerable distance, and a new
community had to be formed further inland ; the work
has gone on increasing, “and to-day,” said Mr. Mac-
gregor, “ there are seven congregations, each numbering
from thirty to upwards of a hundred persons, all the
outcome of God’s blessing upon the good seed sown in
that one patient’s heart, while in the mission hospital.”
The medical mission of the Church Missionary Society
at Hangchow has been in operation for fourteen years.
Dr. Galt began the work there, and for nearly eight years
carried it on with much success. In 1879 he was obliged
to retire from the foreign field, owing to the failure of
his wife’s health. In the autumn of 1881, Dr. Main was
sent out as Dr. Galt’s successor, and has had much
success in his work. The hospital recently erected has
accommodation for seventy in-patients, and includes a
commodious dispensary and waiting-room for out-patients.
In his report for 1884, Dr. Main thus states the result of

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

134

his experience : “ Medical missions are indeed a grand
weapon in the hand of God for removing prejudice,
winning the affections of the people, and at the same
time directing their minds to Christ. It is the privilege
of the medical missionary not only to ‘ heal,’ but also to
‘preach,’ to care for the soul as well as for the body.
To do his work thoroughly, however, he must be well
supported. He should have plenty of well-trained assist-
ants, to relieve him of all the heavy and drudgery work of
the hospital and dispensary. He should not be expected
to dress every ulcer, or attend to trifling or minor details.
If the medical missionary has to attend to everything
himself, he will soon find out that he must either break
down, or allow the grand side of his work to be neglected,
and thereby lose the joy of ‘ telling out among the
heathen the story of redeeming love.’

“ With the in-patients we have a service morning and
evening, consisting of a short Gospel address, singing
and prayer. In our visits to the wards, we trust the
patients all know that our chief desire and object is to
benefit their souls as well as their bodies. Every Sunday
afternoon we have an interesting Bible-readingand prayer
meeting, with the assistants, pupils, servants, and Chris-
tian patients, should there be any ; we have found this
meeting a great help in our work. In the evening we
have an open Gospel meeting, when those who desire to
do so may testify to what the Lord has done for them.
We have opened a reading-room lately, where any one

SUCCESS IN CHINA.

i35

may come in and read the Scriptures, and other books
and tracts that lie on the tables. Every night of the week
it is open for preaching, and quite a number come in ;
a few have come every night for weeks, professing to be
interested in the ‘ doctrine.’

“ On dispensary days, twice a week, out-patients as-
semble in the waiting-room, where, before receiving
advice, they are told of the Great Physician of souls,
receive tracts, &c. Short itinerating tours into the district
are made from time to time ; on one of these, lately, a
Buddhist priest invited me to open my medicine chest
in his temple, and there, surrounded with gods of wood
and clay, I examined my patients and gave them medi-
cines, and at the same time told them of the one living
and true God.

“ As to results, we have every reason to thank God
and take courage. The hand of the Lord has indeed
been with us. The Gospel has been preached to thou-
sands, and carried in the hand, head, or heart, to all
parts of the country.”

Four years ago, Dr. Christie was sent out by the United
Presbyterian Church to commence medical mission work
in Manchuria. Hitherto he has had to devote the greater
part of his time to the study of the language, and to
superintending the erection of his hospital and dispensary ;
still he has had large numbers of patients coming to him,
and in writing of his evangelistic work, he says, that
while he regards the alleviation of human suffering as of

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

136

the highest importance, he feels that his first and greatest
work is to bring the Gospel to bear on the hearts and
consciences of the people. The patients assemble at an
early hour, and the work of the day is begun by holding
a service in the waiting-room. “ Very pleasing it is,”
writes Dr. Christie, “ to notice with what marked atten-
tion the patients listen to the Word preached, which tells
of the disease of sin, and of the Great Physician who is
able and willing to remove it. During the year, five have
been received into the Church by baptism, the first-fruits
of these services. Of these one is a literary man, with
a degree equivalent to our B.A., whose scholarship,
combined with earnestness, is calculated to make him a
great power for good among his fellow-countrymen.
Deeply grateful as we feel for direct results, perhaps
there is even greater cause for thankfulness, in the
progress that has been made in the way of disarming
prejudice, removing misapprehensions, and gaining the
confidence of the people. The indirect influence of
medical mission work in a land like this cannot be over-
estimated. It shows forth in a practical form Christianity’s
highest and best principle, which is benevolence. Often
have we heard the remark, ‘ It must be a good doctrine
which does so much for suffering humanity.’”

The medical mission at Niigata, Japan, supported by
the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society, till early in
1S85, when it was taken over by the American Board
of Missions, has been in operation for the past ten

SUCCESS IN CHINA.

i37

years. It affords a striking illustration of the value of
medical missions as an auxiliary to evangelistic work.
Previous to Dr. Palm’s arrival there in 1875, Niigata was
the only treaty port in Japan where no Protestant mis-
sionaries were at work. The success of his medical and
surgical work soon won for him the confidence and
gratitude of the people. He was heartily welcomed by
the native physicians, and his instructions and assistance
eagerly sought by them, while several, through his in-
strumentality, embraced Christianity, and became earnest,
devoted fellow-labourers with him in the Gospel. When
he left Niigata two years ago, he had the joy of seeing a
native Christian church, with upwards of seventy com-
municants, which, under God, he had been the means
of forming, and over which till his departure he presided ;
he had likewise established, in connection with the medical
mission, fourteen preaching stations in the neighbouring
towns and villages.

A good-sized volume might be filled with the interest-
ing records of medical missionary work, its triumphs in
India, China, Japan, Formosa, Siam, and Burmah ; and
not alone in these great mission fields, but also in Mada-
gascar, Africa, Persia, Central Turkey, and Syria, in
many parts of the continents of America and Europe,
and in the cities throughout our own land where medical
missions are in operation.

With one more illustration, we must pass on to review
other aspects of the work. What we are about to relate

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

138

takes us back to the beginning of the modern medical
missionary enterprise. The narrative is associated with
one whose name is well known, and who will ever be
remembered as one of the pioneers of medical missions.
We refer to Dr. Robert Kalley and his work in Madeira,
which at the time was spoken of as “the greatest fact in
modern missions.”

Arrested in the midst of a gay and thoughtless career,
through the effectual preaching of the Gospel, he was
constrained by the love of Christ to devote his life to
the Master's service as a missionary. Having finished
his medical studies and graduated, Dr. Kalley at once
offered himself to the London Missionary Society, and
was accepted with the view of being sent to China.
Meanwhile Mrs. Kalley’s health gave way, and she was
recommended to try a residence in a milder climate.
Being in independent circumstances, Dr. Kalley resigned
his connection with the missionary society, and in 1839
proceeded with Mrs. Kalley to Madeira. As soon as he
was able to speak the Portuguese language, he opened a
dispensary for the sick poor, and crowds came to him
from all parts of the island for advice and medicine. To
the assembled patients he read the Word of God, and
preached the Gospel. Portions of the Bible in Portuguese
were freely distributed, and many copies of the Holy
Scriptures were readily purchased by his patients. Dr.
Kalley invited inquirers to come to his own house for
further instruction, and many availed themselves of the

SUCCESS IN CHINA.

*39

opportunity ; he was frequently asked to visit patients in
the more distant towns and villages in the interior, where
he had opportunities of proclaiming the Gospel in public
places, and was eagerly listened to by large crowds,
lake his Divine Master, he went about among the cities
and villages, teaching and preaching and healing the sick,
and like Him, he had soon to suffer for the testimony
which he thus bore. By the blessing of God a deep
impression was produced upon the minds of many who
were previously bigoted Romanists, many began to ques-
tion the infallibility of Rome, and not a few believed the
simple truths of the Gospel, and were led to accept of
Christ as their Saviour. This roused the indignation of
the priesthood, who urged the public authorities to insti-
tute proceedings against Dr. Kalley, which ended in his
being arrested and imprisoned, on a charge of “blasphemy
and abetting heresy and apostacy.” Early in 1 844, through
the interference of the British Government, he was set at
liberty, and at once resumed his medical and evangelistic
labours. He was soon made to feel, however, that a
powerful enemy was at work against him. Several of
his converts were seized and cast into prison, and he
himself was again and again threatened with personal
violence. Failing to obtain protection from the British
authorities, he was at length obliged to escape for his
life from the island. Notwithstanding all these untoward
events, the good seed sown by Dr. Kalley, under the
quickening influence of God’s Holy Spirit, sprang up and

140

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

yielded much fruit. As the result of this movement,
upwards of eight hundred persons threw off the yoke of
Rome, who, being denied liberty in their own country
to worship God according to the teaching of God’s Word
and the dictates of conscience, left their home and
kindred, and founded for themselves a new colony, first
in Trinidad, and ultimately in the Mississippi valley.
After leaving Madeira, Dr. Kalley went to Malta, and
there engaged in the same good work. From thence he
went to Syria, where his labours were much blessed, and
after paying a visit to the Madeira refugees at Illinois,
he settled in South America, where for many years he
was greatly blessed in his work of healing the sick and
preaching the Gospel.

Dr. Kalley is now resident in Edinburgh, and is one
of the directors of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary
Society, and we are indebted to him for the following
deeply interesting incident, which he related at one of
the meetings of the Society, and afterwards wrote
out for us. It is a striking illustration of the value ox
medical missionary work, as well as an encouragement to
the Christian worker who is often cast down because of
the little apparent fruit resulting from his labours. It is
also full of interest as a fulfilment of the Divine promise,
“ Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it
after many days.” “ In the morning sow thy seed, and
in the evening withhold not thine hand ; for thou knowest
not whether shall prosper either this or that, or whether
they both shall be alike good.

SUCCESS IN CHINA.

141

“I spent 1850-52 in Syria,” writes Dr. Kalley, “and
during that time passed a summer on the Lebanon, in a
village about 2000 feet above the sea level. While there
I used to devote four or five hours daily to seeing the
sick, and supplying them with medicine. Many came
from far, and their eagerness in seeking relief helped me
to form some idea of the crowds which gathered round
Him who cured the leper with a touch, and raised the
dead with a word.

“ I seldom went to the houses of my patients, as the
long mountain rides would have been too fatiguing for
me, besides absorbing the time which was better em-
ployed in seeing and speaking with those who came to
me. I, however, made an exception in the case of a
young man employed in a silk factory belonging to a
friend of mine. This youth’s mother had ascites (dropsy),
for which, along with other remedies, I repeatedly tapped
her. Her son was' present on these occasions, examined
the trocar, and saw how the operation was performed.
Shortly afterwards I went from Lebanon to Carmel, the
plain of Esdraelon, &c. The poor woman continued to
suffer much from the re-accumulation of the fluid, and
her son (with true Arab self-confidence) ventured on
having an instrument made, as like the trocar as he
could, with which he operated upon his mother with his
own hand, and succeeded.

“ I left Syria soon after my return from the south, and
did not see my patient again, neither did I hear any-

142

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

thing further about her son, till a few weeks ago, when I
received a letter from him, written in broken English by
one of his children. It is dated ist December, 1883,
more than thirty-one years after our last interview. In
his letter he reminds me that I operated four times on
his mother, but says nothing of his own performance.
Then he adds, * Your speaking to me was always from
the Gospel,’ and ‘ I listened to your words, not because
I believed, but that you should attend my mother.’ He
goes on to say that in 1852 (the year I left Syria) he
married. In 1854 he was appointed a Greek priest, and
continued to act as such ‘with pleasure for eight years.’
During the ninth year, and till the seventeenth of his
priesthood, he says, ‘Your sermons began to grow in my
heart.’ After that his conscience obliged him to give
up his Greek priesthood. He commenced meetings for
Scriptural worship in his own house, and says he was
much persecuted, but the Lord was with him. He tells
me he has now been a Protestant teacher for ten years ;
that for three years he has been working at Es-Sall, on
the east of the Jordan; then three years at Nazareth,
and in the villages around, and now resides in the village
where his mother lived. About forty meet for worship in
his house, and twelve are communicants. He writes,
‘Your words which you put in my heart were buried so
many years, then they grew, and became, by God’s grace,
a large tree, which flourishes, and will continue to flourish,
and bring forth fruit by the power of God.’ He adds,

SUCCESS IN CHINA.

i43

‘ You must know, that when I heard you were still alive,
my joy was as Joseph’s joy when he heard that his father
was alive ; but oh ! from where shall I bring the carriages
to send for you?’ ”

THE NEED OF MEDICAL MISSIONS IN OUR
MISSION FIELDS ABROAD.

IX

■

CHAPTER VI.

®lje ttteir of jptsiuml ijfetisraimta in onv
•ptisetun (ITeUiiS rtbtutttir. ©Ijc claim® of
iijc gjeatljcn, of oxto ©oxtocvts, mtfc of
ilje ipti®®um ^cmttlics,

HE Christ-like nature of medical missionary work,

the opportunities which it affords for the practical
manifestation of the spirit of the Gospel — the doors,
otherwise closed, which it opens in pioneering a way for
the entrance of the truth — these are features of this de-
partment of work which cannot fail, if intelligently appre-
hended, to commend the cause to the hearty sympathy
and support of the friends of missions.

Besides these, however, there are many important con-
siderations which enhance the value of medical missions,
and strengthen our plea for their more general employ-
ment in the foreign field. First of all, there is the
lamentable ignorance existing in all heathen communities

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

as to the cause, prevention, and cure of disease, which
necessarily implies a fearful amount of preventible suffer-
ing and mortality. This ignorance is a fruitful source of
superstition, and, consequently, one of the most effectual
barriers in such lands to the uprooting of idolatrous
rites and ceremonies.

In India, China, Africa, Madagascar, and in almost
every heathen land, crude systems of medicine are inti-
mately associated with the religions of the people, and
the treatment of disease, such as it is, is monopolized
by the priests, or by others under their control. The
existence and prevalence of disease of every kind are
ascribed to the agency of evil spirits, or to the anger of
the gods ; and unless these spirits and offended deities
are propitiated, the direst results are foretold. The
Hindoo Shastras, for instance, teach that any person
rejecting the services of one of the native Hakims, or
physicians, in time of sickness will, if the disease prove
fatal, suffer inconceivable misery in the next world ;
whereas if a Hakim be employed, and the prescribed
rites performed, the patient will be sure to go to heaven,
even should he not be able to see the Ganges in his
dying moments. As the result of such ignorance and
superstition, one of the greatest trials which the mis-
sionary meets with in his work is the apostacy, in time
of sickness, of not a few of his hopeful converts. Nor is
this to be wondered at, when we remember that the only
pretender to a knowledge of disease and its cure which

CLAIMS IN HEATHEN LANES. i\9

the convert has ever known, is the unprincipled charlatan,
the native physician, with his mantrams, charms, and pro-
pitiatory offerings. Deluded by the artful pretensions of
the priest-physician, or urged by the entreaties of heathen
relatives and friends, or overcome by his former super-
stitious fears, it too often happens, at such a time, that
the weak professor allows heathen rites to be performed,
and makes vows which, on recovery, he is compelled to
perform, and thus, at the very outset, makes shipwreck
of his faith.

In Madagascar, even in the immediate neighbourhood
of the capital, and where the Gospel has won such
triumphs, the power of former superstitions is still very
manifest, especially among the older portion of the popu-
lation. When sickness or trouble of any kind arises in
their families, we find the Malagasy converts but too
easily seduced into their old heathen ways. One mis-
sionary, after reporting the devastating effects of a severe
epidemic among his people, writes: “This fearful disease
threw back many of the natives upon their old super-
stitious rites and customs. It was a time of severe trial,
and much of our work could not stand this crucial test.
The people sought after ‘wizards that peep and that
mutter,’ and ceased to seek unto their God. For a
season, there was a strong current of idolatry and witch-
craft running throughout the district, and many went
back from their faith. Everywhere the churches were
emptied of worshippers, and the schools of scholars,

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

15°

while the charm-maker found his enchantments eagerly
sought after and liberally paid for. The most absurd
things were done to effect cures by the orders of these
diviners, and again and again during this sad time my
own eyes beheld things which showed unmistakably what
a powerful reaction had set in.”

Another of the Imerina missionaries, writing on this
subject, says : “ The most serious effect of the epidemic
was to drive multitudes of the people back to their old
heathen practices, with the hope of charming away the
disease. I was once led by a native pastor to the summit
of a lofty hill, and there, amidst a grove of trees, was
pointed out to me a rude kind of altar, where the blood
of animals and fowls was spilt, and offerings of honey and
bits of silver were constantly made, to assuage the anger
of the spirits which were supposed to have brought the
fever. I was told that it was an almost daily resort of
the people, and that, on the Sabbath, some even of the
Christians would gather round the table of the Lord, in
remembrance of the blood ‘ shed for many for the
remission of sins,’ and on the afternoon of the same day
would assemble in the ‘ sacred grove,’ to present a sacri-
fice of blood to the spirits of their deceased ancestors.”
We have referred to the sad influence of former super-
stitions among the Malagasy converts, who have so
recently emerged from the darkness of heathenism ; but
we must remember that, in this respect, they are not by
any means singular; indeed, in all our mission fields,

CLAIMS IN HE A THEN LANES. 1 5 1

wherever the great proportion of the people are still
heathen, we may expect to find the same evil influences
at work. We can testify from personal knowledge, that
in Southern India this is one of the most common snares
to the native Christian adherents, and, to some extent,
even to the communicant, exerting a most powerful
influence, and constantly calling for the exercise of
church discipline ; and hence, a very serious question
arises : Are we dealing fairly with our converts from
heathenism, when we subject them to church discipline
for availing themselves in time of sickness of the only
help within their reach, and on which, in their heathen
state, they placed unbounded confidence, while we fail
to provide them with necessary medical aid ? It is
not their blame that heathen rites and ceremonies are
associated with the native treatment of disease, and they
must either submit to the superstitious ordeal, or resist
the entreaties of relatives and friends, and so suffer cruel
neglect, or bring upon themselves their dire maledictions.
If we remember these circumstances — the heathen influ-
ence all around, from the bondage of which they have so
recently escaped, we shall, perhaps, in this matter be
disposed to censure them with a little less severity.

We protest, and we cannot do so too strongly, against
a system of Government education in India which, while
it necessarily undermines the cherished religion of our
fellow-subjects, not only does not provide, but actually
prohibits the teaching of a better and a purer faith. In

152

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

our aggressive missionary work, however, are we not
doing a like injustice to this people ? We deny to our
converts the only help they can command, a help on
which, from their earliest years, they have been taught
implicitly to rely in time of affliction, and yet we provide
no better aid for them. The importance of recognizing
the healing art as the handmaid of religion is therefore
very plainly indicated, in view of the claims of our native
Christians gathered out of heathenism. What has thus
been joined together, and forms part of almost every
heathen system of religion, let us not put asunder ; rather,
from the usage of heathen nations, as well as from the
practice and precept of Christ Himself and His disciples,
let the Christian Church learn the lesson, that sanctified
medical skill should go hand in hand with the Gospel in
her evangelistic work.

In view of the plea we are urging, too much import-
ance cannot be attached to the department of medical
missionary work, which Dr. Valentine has done so much
to promote in Northern India — which the late Dr. Pater-
son and Dr. Elder, in Madras, Dr. Green in Ceylon, and
which we ourselves, and our successor, in Travancore,
have each successfully prosecuted— namely, the training
of intelligent native Christian youths to serve as medical
evangelists to their fellow-countrymen. Just in propor-
tion as such native medical agency is available through-
out our mission districts, will the evil to which we have
alluded, humanly speaking, be removed.

CLAIMS IN HE A THEN LANES. 1 5 3

It will be seen from the foregoing, that all barbarous
and semi-civilized nations are ignorant of the fundamental
principles of medical science. Common humanity, there-
fore, to say nothing of Christian benevolence, should
surely prompt to the adoption of means, whereby the
mercenary and heartless pretensions of the priest-physi-
cians may be exposed, the sick and suffering be cared for
and comforted, and the cruelties inflicted upon them
mitigated.

Some illustrations of the heathen principles and prac-
tice of medicine will show the need there is for medical
mission agency.

The Chinese have a very extensive medical literatur
but no works on anatomy or physiology. The kind ui
teaching imparted may be gathered from the following
description of the pulse in its relation to disease : “ There
are three pulses in each wrist. A man’s strongest pulse
is in his left wrist, a woman’s in her right. In a man,
the pulse that lies nearest the hand is stronger than those
that lie above ; in a woman just the opposite is true. In
the left hand are located the pulses showing the diseases
of the heart, the liver, and the kidneys, while the right
hand pulses indicate the diseases of the lungs, the spleen,
and other organs.”

In one of their books, considered a great authority on
the nature of disease, we read that the elements which
compose the human body are fire, earth, iron, water,
and wood. So long as the equilibrium of these is main-

154

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

tained, people enjoy health, but as soon as one pre-
dominates, sickness ensues. All disease is therefore but
a disturbance of this equilibrium, and the art of healing
consists in restoring the balance.

The usual way for a Chinaman to enter the profession
is to procure a pair of spectacles with large bone rims,
some grasses and herbs, an assortment of spiders, and a
few venomous snakes, which he places in bottles in his
shop window. Here is one of his prescriptions —

“ Powdered snakes ... 2 parts.

Wasps and their nests 1 part.

Centipedes 6 parts.

Scorpions 4 ,,

Toads 20 „

Grind thoroughly, mix with honey, and make into small
pills. Two to be taken four times a day.” In cases of
debility, the bones of the tiger, reduced to powder and
made into pills, are administered as a tonic. They
reason thus : the tiger is very strong, the bone is the
strongest part of the strong animal — therefore, a pill of
this must be pre-eminently strengthening.

Dr. Hobson, for many years a medical missionary in
China, and author of several valuable works on medicine,
thus writes : “ Medical science in China is at a low ebb.
It does not equal the state of the medical art in the time
of Hippocrates and Celsus. The knowledge of anatomy
and surgery in ancient Greece and Rome was much

CLAIMS IN HR A THEN LANES. 1 5 5

superior to anything now in China. At present there
are no colleges or schools in the country, excepting the
Imperial College at Pekin, for the use of his Majesty
and high officers. Anatomy is totally interdicted, both
by law and public opinion. Any man, however, may
practise medicine, and thousands do so with the slender
knowledge which their books afford. In these books,
which are based on principles adopted two or three
thousand years ago, the important doctrine of the circu-
lation of the blood is not only not understood, but pre-
posterously confused and erroneous. Their theory of
the pulse proves this to a demonstration. There is no
distinction between the arteries and veins, no knowledge
of the heart’s proper function, nor of the changes which
the blood undergoes in the lungs and capillary system.
The Chinese know nothing of the nervous system, its
functions and diseases. They have a pulse for every
organ but the brain. The position, forms, and uses of
the viscera are not understood. There is no lack of
books and observations on the functions of the body ;
for everything, even the most inscrutable and mysterious,
is explained by the Yin and the Yang— the hot and the
cold, the dry and the moist, the superior and inferior
influences ! Almost every symptom is a disease, and
every prescription, of which the books contain thousands,
is for every imaginable symptom, indicating a miserably
small acquaintance with the nature and causes of
disease.”

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

156

Under such circumstances of ignorance and supersti-
tion, it is not wonderful that the mortality of China is
very heavy. It is said that the daily mortality is not less
than 33,000. When an epidemic breaks out, the people
die by hundreds. The only remedy in times of plague
or pestilence that they know, is to organize a series of
Buddhistic services to expel the evil spirits supposed to
be the cause of the calamity. We, in England, have had
our age of superstition and ignorance, with reference to
the causes of disease and the remedies. The light of
Heaven has shone in on our darkness, and, under the
influence of a free and pure Christianity, medical science
has long been teaching us how to mitigate suffering and
save life. The helpless condition of the Chinese in the
face of disease or physical suffering is surely, in the light
of the life of Jesus Christ, a call to us to give them a
share of the blessing that God has given to us.

Dr. Sturge, medical missionary in Siam, gives an in-
teresting account of the Siamese theory and practice of
medicine. All nature, according to the Siamese, is made
up of four elements, namely, fire, earth, wind, and water.
The human body is supposed to be composed of the
same elements, which they divide into two classes, visible
and invisible. To the former, belongs everything that can
be seen, as the bones, flesh, blood, &c ; to the latter, the
wind and the fire. The body is composed of twenty
kinds of earth, twelve kinds of water, six kinds of wind,
and four kinds of fire. The varieties of wind are as

CLAIMS IN HEATHEN LANES.

i57

follows : the first kind passes from the head to the feet,
and the second variety from the feet to the head ; the
third variety resides about the diaphragm, and the fourth
circulates in the arteries forming the pulse ; the fifth enters
the lungs, and the sixth resides in the intestines. The
four kinds of fire are, first, that which gives the body its
natural temperature ; the second, that which causes a
higher temperature, as after exercise or in fevers ; the
third variety causes digestion, and the fourth causes old
age. The Siamese divide the body into thirty-two parts,
as the skin, heart, lungs, &c. The body is subject to
ninety-six diseases, due to the disarrangement of the
earth, wind, fire, and water. Thus, if there is an undue
proportion of fire, we have one of the fevers. Dropsies
are caused by too great a proportion of water, and wind
causes all manner of complaints. Nine out of ten of the
natives, when asked what is the matter with them, answer
“ Wind.”

Spirits are supposed to have great power over our
bodies, deranging the elements and producing all manner
of diseases. The minds of the natives are thus held in
continual bondage for fear of the spirits, for no one knows
what great sins he may have committed in a previous state
of existence, for which he may be called upon to suffer at
any moment. Thus the people are constantly endeavour-
ing to propitiate them by presents, incantations, &c.

With regard to medicines, they believe that in the time
of Buddha, there lived one still worshipped as the Father

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

158

of Medicine. To him, it is said, the plants all spoke,
telling their names and medicinal properties. These
were written in books, and have become sacred. If they
fail to produce the effects attributed to them, the fault is
not theirs, but the want of success is due to the absence
of merit in either doctor or patient. The natives use
almost everything as medicine j the bones and skins of
various animals occupy a large part of their pharma-
copoeia, while the galls of snakes, tigers, lizards, &c.,
are among the most valuable of their remedies. The
following is a most absurd recipe for the bite of a snake :
‘ A portion of the jaw of a wild hog, a portion of the jaw
of a tame hog, a portion of the jaw of a goat, a portion
of goose bone, a portion of peacock bone, a portion of
the tail of a fish, and a portion of the head of a venomous
snake.’ These being duly compounded, form a popular
remedy when the venom has caused lockjaw. Many
other remedies are equally foolish. Every native phy-
sician has an image of the Father of Medicine in his
house. The drugs are placed in the idol’s hand, and
receive his blessing ; afterwards they are taken to the
patient’s house and boiled in earthen pots, a wicker-work
star being placed below and above the drugs to give the
medicine strength.

In India, notwithstanding the progress of Western
science, the condition of the people, with regard to
disease and its treatment, is barbarous beyond descrip-
tion.

CLAIMS IN HEATHEN LANES.

159

“ Bound hand and foot by the fetters of superstition,”
writes the Rev. W. Shoolbred, “ a rude stone, bedaubed
with red paint, oil, or ghee, without even the semblance
of anything in heaven, earth, or the waters under the
earth, represents their deity; and the virtues supposed
to reside in that stone are inexhaustible. Is a man sick,
he has only to go to the nearest temple, or to the rude
stone beneath the village tree, worship and present the
usual offerings. Enough ; let him wait and he will be
healed. Some of the representatives of Kheturpal (one
of the gods worshipped by the hill people in the Mair-
wara district) are much more potent in healing diseases
or averting evil than the others. Thus the one in a
small temple at Shamgurh is supposed to be especially
efficacious. I found a poor farmer, lame and crippled
from rheumatism, lying before this temple door. He
had been there for more than two months, waiting for a
cure, but as yet in vain.”

“ The common people in Western India,” writes the
Rev. R. A. Hume, Ahmednagar, “ think that cholera is
a punishment sent on men by an evil goddess. As they
suppose that it would offend her to call her a bad name,
she is called Murree Ai, that is, Cholera Mother. They
also think that giving and taking medicine for the disease
only excites the Mother still more, and that the only
proper way to get rid of the pestilence is to honour the
Mother, and so induce her to go elsewhere. In all the
villages, there are one or two small temples dedicated to

i6o

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

the Cholera Mother, in which there are a few shapeless
stones painted red. These temples are built near the
extreme limits of the town, so that the goddess may stay
far from the houses of the people. At the time of an
epidemic these are repaired. In most towns there are
a few men and women of the lowest castes who are
devotees of this goddess, and when cholera is prevalent
they get much attention and much profit. Even intelli-
gent men come and ask these ignorant devotees, ‘ What
is the Mother’s pleasure ? How long does she intend to
favour the town with her presence, and what can we do
for her ? ’ Then the devotee pretends to go into a kind
of trance, and, after a shaking fit, replies that the Mother
says that she intends to remain for so many days, and
would like such and such attentions. These attentions
the people gladly show.”

Among the millions of devil-worshippers in Southern
India, the following legendary tale accounts for the
existence of disease, and indicates the source of de-
liverance. On a certain day, when celestial food was
carried to Siva by some of the inferior gods, the giant
Taradan overpowered them, and seizing the repast, de-
voured it. Siva became very angry at the loss of his
meal, and determined to punish the offender. He created
the sacred Vedas for the assistance of Pattera-Kalee and
Veerapatteram, and delivered them into their hands along
with a trident, Siva’s emblem and instrument of de-
struction, directing them to make war with Taradan.

CLAIMS IN HEATHEN LANDS.

161

They executed their commissions so promptly and
effectually, that Siva’s enemy was destroyed, to his
great delight. Siva was so pleased with their success
that he endowed them with unlimited power to inflict all
manner of disease, and to kill all on earth who opposed
them, or neglected to offer sacrifices at their altars. The
consequence was, that many were killed, or grievously
afflicted with terrible diseases. This produced great con-
sternation, and led the people to inquire of the priests as
to the origin, and the means to be adopted for the re-
moval of these calamities, and they informed them, that
although Siva had given the demons the dreadful power
which they were exercising, still they might be propitiated
if they would offer sacrifices at their shrines ; festivals
were accordingly established, at which bloody sacrifices
of sheep, goats, and fowls, with plantains, flowers, and
incense, were to be offered, and those who joined in these,
and similar ceremonies, were promised protection or de-
liverance if afflicted with disease. We have been present
on several occasions, and the scenes we witnessed were
sickening and humiliating beyond description. At the
Mundycadu festival, thousands from all parts of Tra van-
core and Tinnevelly assembled to fulfil the vows they
had made in time of sickness. Outside of the pagoda
a large quantity of cocoanuts and other offerings is piled
up ; also a heterogeneous heap of wooden hands, arms,
legs, and feet, offered by those who have been restored
from some injury or disease in those members; rich com

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

valescents present silver models of hands and legs, or
even golden ones on such occasions — these, however,
are carefully put away within the temple. In one direction,
persons may be seen rolling naked in the dust for several
hours at a time, until, exhausted by the heat and exertion,
they faint and are carried off, more like huge unshapely
masses of mud than human beings ; others, have a long
supple piece of cane inserted through folds of flesh in
their sides, crossed over their chest, and pass along
maddened with the pain and excitement, while one be-
hind keeps step, jerking the cane backwards and forwards
through the raw bleeding wounds. Parents and relations
may be seen bringing forward scores of children of both
sexes, to have this cruel rite performed upon them, in
fulfilment of vows made on their behalf while suffering
from some sickness ; here and there others maybe seen with
little earthenware vessels full of burning charcoal placed
on their naked chests, and allowing it to remain there
till the flesh on the breast is actually roasting beneath,
hoping in this way to propitiate the anger of the evil
spirits they so much dread, and gain immunity from the
disease that threatens to afflict them.

In the Antananarivo Annual , No. VI., an interesting
account is given, by the Rev. A. Walen, of the super-
stitions, religious ideas, and ceremonies of the Sakalava,
on the west coast of Madagascar. They believe in the
existence of a superior Being, whom they called Andrian-
hnahary, which means the “ creating and arranging

CLAIMS IN HE A THEN LANDS. 163

prince,” who is the object of the Sakalava’s fear, but not
of their love and desire. They believe in a duality of
character, or the existence of good and evil, in God.
These different qualities are not concentrated in different
persons or beings who are in a state of opposition or
conflict, but are blended in one individual, and their
possessor makes use of them according to his inclination.
“ They regard God as the ruler over life and death ; but
there are also other beings beside God who cause death.
The ancestors and ampamarike (wizards) have power to
bring about the death of any one. If, therefore, a person
becomes ill, his relations first of all go to ask the
ampisikily (diviners) whether the sickness will end in
death or not. The first answer is always equivocal, for
the Sakalava know well how to make a statement that
may bear two meanings. Being asked for further infor-
mation as to who causes the sickness, the diviner replies,
perhaps it is caused by God, and that He is now about
to cause the death of the individual in question, and so
his relations prepare means to avert the dreadful calamity.
They immediately send for an ox; if they have none
themselves they are obliged to buy one, which must be
small and in poor condition, and the cheaper the better.
When the ox is procured, the relations and friends of the
sick man gather together and form a circle, in the middle
of which the victim is placed. A small altar is built
which is called vavara; the head of the family then
advances towards the victim, and repeats a form of prayer

164

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

in which he, before God, complains of their present mis-
fortune, death having approached the family. On this
account they are in deep distress and terror, says he, and
therefore yield the life of an ox, which they offer to Him
as a gift instead of the human life. Thereupon the
victim is killed; the head of the family gives the first stab,
and the others go on sticking, spearing, cutting, and
carving the poor animal in a dreadful manner until it is
dead. It is then cut up without being flayed, for to skin
a victim would be considered a cardinal sin against the
law of the ancestors. The people now prepare their pots
for cooking, while the sacrificer takes the suet, and puts
it either on a kind of gridiron or on the fire, burning it
on the vavara (altar) in order that it shall ascend to
Andriananahhry as an acceptable incense. After this
the flesh is cooked and eaten ; small pieces of the meat
are sent as presents to those of the friends of the family
who were not present at the sacrificial banquet, and the
feast comes to an end. In lieu of cattle, rum may be
used as an offering. In this case the persons divide the
rum into two portions, one for themselves, and one for
Andrianhnahhry. Their own portion they of course
swallow at once, that belonging to God being poured out
on the ground.”

Mr. R. W. Felkin, F.R.S.E., F.R.G.S.,in “Notes on the
Madi or Moru tribe of Central Africa,” published in the
Proceedings of the Royal Society, Edinburgh, Vol. XII.,
1883-84, gives details regarding the social condition,

CLAIMS IN HE A THEN LANES. i 6 5

manners, and customs of this tribe, of much value and
interest to those engaged in the study of anthropology.
As to the practice of medicine and surgery among the
Madis, Mr. Felkin tells us that there are male and female
doctors, the males confining their practice to wounds, acci-
dents, and snake bites. The treatment of a broken arm or
leg is noteworthy. When it is a simple fracture, the limb
is pulled as straight as possible, and then sticks are
placed as splints to keep it in position, and are tied with
cords. When the bone is broken in pieces, and the limb
swells so that they cannot properly straighten jt, a number
of small cuts are made, and cupping horns applied ;
when the swelling has been reduced, if still unable to
straighten the limb, they cut the broken bones out, and
fix on splints, applying a powdered root to the wound.
Haemorrhage is stopped by actual cautery (a red-hot
iron). This operation is rarely successful— most people
who undergo it die in a few days. Women doctors treat
all cases except those mentioned above. They have
but few medicines, and seem to make frequent use of
magic. When a woman doctor is called to visit a patient,
she brings with her a basket containing what she calls
her magic wand — a kind of double tube about a foot
long, each tube being about four inches in diameterf
The one tube is partly filled with small stones, the other
is empty, to allow of the doctor performing her mani-
pulations in it. This instrument is painted red, and oiled
all over, The doctor shakes the wand, and mutters to

1 6 6

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

herself for some little time; then feels the patient all over,
and draws her wand over him. When pain is complained
of in the abdomen or chest, she first rubs the part with
oil, and then places her wand over the painful spot,
introducing her hand into the empty tube. After work-
ing about for some time, she at last draws out a
substance which she calls the disease, taking care that
the people shall not have any opportunity of seeing it
closely. If pain is felt in the head, she cups the patient
on the temples or nape of the neck, by making small
cuts with a stone; an iron knife is not used. . . . There
appears to be a belief in the existence of elves, or spirits,
though this would seem to be an invention of the female
doctors to gain a hold on the people. “ Odi ” is the
name by which these beings are known. They are
supposed to live underground, and their help is sought in
cases of illness among children. If a child is ill, the lady
doctor first examines it, and then retires to a quiet spot
at a distance from the hut, where she erects a miniature
hut of sticks and grass. She is followed to this place by
the mother and one of her little boys, laden with a pot
of food and a live fowl. She then proceeds to invoke
the Odi to appear, but often gives out that they cannot
come till next day, being busy. At last they make their
appearance inside the hut, but are visible to none but the
doctor, others only hearing them speak. Two usually
appear, a male and a female, more than that number
refusing to come at once. The doctor says they have

CLAIMS IN HEATHEN LANES.

167

human faces and serpents’ bodies. She pretends to give
them food to eat out of the pot, and asks their aid toward
the sick child’s recovery, shaking all the time her magic
wand or rattle. When they have enough food they
vanish, and the doctor falls down right over the small hut.
She strikes the ground with her hand, and appears to
have a fit, unconsciousness lasting a few minutes. Before
falling, she tells the mother and boy to run home as fast
as possible, and shut the door. A strong woman is
always present at this incantation, who is ready to raise
the fallen doctor, and gives her water to drink. After
she has recovered from her real or supposed exhaustion,
she is supported to the sick child’s hut to see her patient.
Before the door is opened a certain formula is gone
through, after which she enters the hut, feels the child
all over, and gives her opinion as to whether it will get
well or not. She is then escorted home by the father,
who takes with him her fee, in the shape of a goat, cow,
or arrows.

Mr. J. T. Last, of the Church Missionary Society’s
Eastern Central African Mission, relates the following
incident, which painfully illustrates the terrible super-
stition of the people, and the extreme cruelty into which
their fancies lead them. “About twelve months ago,
Msamwenda, the chief of the village of Kirabi, had a son
born to him. Not quite a month ago, Msamwenda came
to me with a sorrowful face, and after the usual salutations,
I asked him what was amiss. He told me that his

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

child had cut its upper teeth first, and that the people
were demanding that it should be thrown into the forest,
where it would be eaten by the hyenas. They make this
demand on the ground that, if a Mgego (a child who cuts
its upper teeth first) is allowed to live, it will cause the
death of all the great men of the place. Msamwenda
refused to comply with this request, until he heard what
I had to say in the matter. He was in tears when he
told me about his child, but when I told him we had no
sympathy with such cruelty, and that he must not destroy
God’s gift in such a manner, he dried his tears, and said
he would not throw away his child, even though it should
cost him his life. After he had some more talk with the
natives, the matter dropped. But now the death of two
chiefs since Msamwenda came to me has raised again
the cry against the child. A short time ago the chief of
Bwagamoyo, Rufus by name, was killed by the Wahwmba,
and now Malundo has been accidentally shot, and the
superstitious natives believe that it must be through the
influence of the Mgego. Yesterday morning Msamwenda
came to me, and begged me to take the child to Zanzibar,
and have it brought up as a Christian. ‘ The people
here,’ he said, ‘ were all craving for it to be killed, and
he could not kill his own child, nor allow others to do so.’
After considering the case, and in the hope that the
child, being so brought up apart from all native super-
stitions may become a good and useful man, I con-
sented to take him to Zanzibar, and do my best for him.”

CLAIMS IN HEATHEN LANES.

169

Not infrequently, the natives of the Friendly Islands,
in order to check any spreading ulceration or disease,
hack off the limb at a joint, working a sharp shell to and
fro and making a horribly jagged wound. In cases of
delirium the patient is invariably buried alive, and it is
related how a young man, in the prime of life, was
twice buried, and in his frenzy twice burst up the grave ;
he was afterwards lashed to a tree and allowed to die of
starvation.

Among the natives of the South Pacific Islands, “ cut-
ting ” is the universal remedy for every ailment. If pain
in the head is felt, then an incision, or perhaps two, is
made over the part “ to let the pain out ; ” if diarrhoea is
the complaint, then cuts are made over the abdomen ; if
rheumatism, deep incisions are made over the part
affected ; if fever, various parts of the body are cut.

It would be easy to multiply instances of the ignorant,
barbarous, and superstitious notions of the people in all
heathen lands, with respect to the nature and cause, the
treatment and prevention, of disease, but the foregoing
will give some conception of the need there is for the
beneficent ministry of the missionary physician. No
friend of humanity, and surely no friend of missions, can
think of such heathenish rites and ceremonies performed
over the sick and dying, of the cruel ordeals imposed
upon them and the untold sufferings inflicted, and of the
holocausts of victims thereby consigned to an untimely
death, without endeavouring to stretch forth a helping

1 7°

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

hand to ameliorate their sad condition. What an honour
would be conferred upon the Church were she to avail
herself of the privilege, and be the instrument of carry-
ing the blessings of our great modern discoveries, and the
improvements in medical and surgical science, along with
the Gospel, into those distant and barbarous lands, where
humanity languishes and suffers under the agonies of un-
mitigated disease !

But besides the claims of the heathen, and of those from
amongst them who are led to embrace Christianity, and
by so doing profess to renounce all reliance and partici-
pation in heathen rites and ceremonies, there are the
claims of the missionaries themselves and of their families.

^\Ve ask how far the Directors of our missionary societies
are justified in sending forth young missionaries, either
single or married, to settle down in untried and often
unhealthy regions, without providing for them competent
medical aid ? Parents, in giving up their sons and
their daughters to go forth in the service of the
Church as missionaries, would not be asking more than
they have a right to expect, were they to insist upon such
provision being made ; nor would the missionaries them-
selves be manifesting less faith, courage, and devotion.
For our military expeditions, and commercial enterprises
in foreign lands, alike from an economical point of view,
and in justice to those engaged in them, medical aid and
appliances are deemed indispensable, and are ungrudg-
ingly supplied, and why should it be otherwise in the

CLAIMS IN MEATMEN LANES.

171

missionary enterprise ? No doubt our missionaries are
the very special objects of God’s protection and care, as
the records of their lives testify ; but we are not there-
fore relieved of our responsibility, when we rest contented
with merely commending them to the Divine protection,
and leave them destitute of that skilled medical aid
which, sooner or later, they will so much need.

We admire the faith, the courage, and the devotion of
those who, as the “ Messengers of the Churches,” have
gone forth, often to unhealthy and inhospitable climes,
renouncing the comforts and refinements of home and
of civilized society; and, not knowing the things that shall
befall them, have said with the Apostle, “ But none of
these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto
myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the
ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to
testify of the grace of God.” Let us thank God, that
among the young men and women in our churches, there
exists so much of this spirit of self-sacrificing devotion ;
may it increase and abound ! But the very existence of
this noble, heroic missionary spirit, lays the Church
under deep obligation to provide for the conservation of
the health and the lives of her missionaries and their
families. Among the many blessings and privileges
which, for Christ’s sake, they have surrendered, when the
“ dark and cloudy day ” of affliction comes, perhaps the
loss most keenly felt is the want of that kind, unre-
mitting medical skill and help which, more needed

172

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

abroad, is there all unknown. We often read in mis-
sionary reports of the illness and death of some devoted
missionary, or missionary’s wife or child, in the interior of
Africa, it may be, or on the malarious plains of India or
China, or in some of the lonely islands of the sea.
There, in that solitary home, far, far away from kindred
and friends, in a strange land, with no skilled hand near
to administer relief, the life of the loved one ebbs away.
Let us picture to ourselves, if we can, the affecting realities
of such a scene of domestic missionary life — the feeling of
utter helplessness and desolation, the crushed hopes, the
blasted prospects, the breaking hearts, the heavy sorrow,
in such an hour, of the inmates of that lonely mission
dwelling, aggravated perhaps by the thought that,
had the skilled hand been near, with God’s blessing
resting upon it, life and health and hope would have
come smiling back ! Such scenes, alas ! too often re-
corded, give painful emphasis to the appeal of a mis-
sionary who, in losing the wife of his youth under most
painful and trying circumstances, which, had medical aid
been within reach (as we hold it ought to be wherever
the Church sends her missionaries with their wives and
families), this valuable life in all human probability would
have been saved, was heard to say that he, with his
motherless babe in his arms, “would fain stand by her
lonely grave and lift up an earnest appeal for medical
missionaries to co-operate with them in their labours of
love, and to tend them and their loved ones in times of

CLAIMS IN HE A THEN LANES.

i73

sickness, till it was heard all over his native land, and
responded to by the Church of Christ.”

The idea is, we fear, too prevalent that missions to the
heathen are altogether exempt from the conditions which
determine the success or failure of ordinary human under-
takings, and that in the prosecution of the missionary
enterprise, we may therefore, to a large extent, depend
upon a special providence to shield our missionaries, and
dispense with much that in other circumstances would
be deemed essential to success. Doubtless, missionary
work is pre-eminently Divine, and its success the fruit of
the Divine blessing ; but we have no right to presume
that therefore, independently of all human precautions
and the use of all available means, God will work miracles
for the preservation of the health and lives of our brethren.
“ Have faith in God,” is the Church’s grand motto in
view of her missionary obligations, but alike for personal
salvation, and for security in the midst of danger, our faith
must be a living principle ; and if our faith prompts to
no earnest endeavour to provide “ those things which
are needful to the body,” “what doth it profit? ”

The medical care of the missionaries and their families
forms no small nor unimportant part of the duty of the
missionary physician, and the advantage of having a
medical department in connection with a localized mis-
sion, from an economical point of view, as well as in the
interests of the work and the comfort and the welfare of
the missionaries, can hardly be over-estimated. We know

i74

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

of missionaries who, when reduced to extreme weakness
by sickness, have been compelled to leave their stations,
and take a journey of two or three hundred miles, in
order to obtain the nearest medical aid, thereby not only
incurring great risks, but also heavy expenses, and pro-
bably protracted absence from their work. Missionaries,
too, owing to the temporary failure of their own, or their
wives’ health, have relinquished foreign service, who, had
timely medical assistance been available, would probably
have been still actively engaged in their loved work.

In view, then, of our obligations to the heathen and to
those gathered out of heathenism ; for the sake of the
missionaries themselves and their families, as well as
from an economical point of view, we plead for the
more general employment of this agency, and with so
many thoroughly qualified and devoted young medical
missionaries either offering themselves, or in course of pre-
paration for this department of service, we hold that it is
incumbent upon the Directors of our missionary societies
to appoint missionary physicians wherever they plant their
missions, and especially so in all the more isolated fields
of labour. We believe, moreover, that the hearty sym-
pathy of the constituents of our societies would support
them in so doing.

ZENANA MEDICAL MISSIONS.

I

CHAPTER VII.

©Ijc ititaltftcatttnts, training} anfr pasiticnt
of tlje female iPUMectl ptissionatnj*

H, if we could only get within these prisons of

Zenanas ! ” wrote the late Dr. Elmslie of Kash-

mir, “ if we could only emancipate their benighted
tenants, and lead them forth into the glorious liberty of
the Gospel ! — then might we look with confidence for the
speedy dawning of a bright day on India’s countless
sons ; ” and the Rev. Dr. Duff, in a letter we received
from him shortly before his death, along with a copy of
Dr. Elmslie’s “ Plea for Zenana Medical Missions,” pleads
most earnestly for something to be done in the direction
indicated by Dr. Elmslie. “ Every educated person,”
writes Dr. Duff, “knows the peculiar position of Hindu
females of the upper classes, and how entirely they are
secluded, and how, in their case, a male missionary

178 MEDICAL MISSIONS.

might find no access to them. But if a female missionary
knew something of medical science and practice, readily
would she find access, and while applying her medical
skill to the healing of the body, would have precious
opportunities of applying the balm of spiritual healing to
the worse diseases of the soul. Would to God we had
such an agency ready for work ! Soon might India be
moved in its innermost recesses ! ”

So much has been written within these last few
years regarding the condition of woman in heathen lands,
that it is scarcely necessary here to describe at any length
their pitiable circumstances. It is well known that, so far
as a knowledge of the laws of health, or of proper treat-
ment in time of sickness is concerned, they are, as a rule,
without either care or cure. Dr. C. R. Francis, whose
professional experience in India extended over thirty
years, writes : “ An incredible number of, humanly
speaking, preventible deaths occur every year among the
many millions of Her Majesty’s female subjects in this
so-called gem of the Indian Empire. Native midwifery,
in the ordinary meaning of the term, does not exist in
India. Native surgery is of the most primitive kind.
Hygiene, or preventive medicine, is utterly unknown.
Some idea of the gross ignorance that prevails may be
formed, when one hears that the women’s apartments, in
which many pairs of lungs are at work, represent at night a
miniature “black-hole ” of Calcutta ; that the accumulated
house filth of every description is deposited in the imme-

ZENANA MEDICAL MISSIONS.

179

diate neighbourhood of the dwelling; and that, after
child-birth, every breath of pure air is excluded from the
lying-in chamber, which is kept almost hermetically sealed
till the twenty-first day, when a religious ceremony known
as shoostee pooja is performed.” “All Hindu women,”
writes Mrs. Weitbrecht, the well-known Zenana missionary,
“whether rich or poor, are utterly neglected in the time
of sickness. Prejudices and customs banish medical aid
altogether ; infectious and other diseases are left to take
their own course. Two thousand children, not very long
ago, were left to perish from small-pox in one city. A
female medical mission in every populous centre is one
of the most crying needs of India ; an agency which
would find its way into those dark, dirty, miserable
dwellings, where fever, ophthalmia, and other ills spread
unchecked. The death-rate among women and children
is enormous, and constant sickness is one of the greatest
hindrances to the Zenana missionary.”

“ The real doctors of India,” writes the late Dr.
Elmslie, “are the native hakims, who abound every-
where, and are totally ignorant of Western medicine and
surgery. Generally, the medical lore of both Hindu and
Mussulman hakims consists of a few useless and disgust-
ing nostrums, which have been handed down from sire
to son for many generations. As to the diseases peculiar
to women and children, they simply know nothing of
them. Besides being ignorant, they are excessively
meddlesome, and so do incalculable mischief when they

i8o

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

are called in. How much England owes to her Simp-
sons, Priestleys, Farres, and Wests ! India is now without
such men, and, in her present state, could not and would
not avail herself of them ; but she is ready, from the
Himalayas to Cape Comorin, to receive with open arms
any daughter of the West, who comes to assuage her
pains and to bind up her wounds. Moreover, the native
doctors are not generally called upon to treat the women
of the Zenanas ; i when they are called in, it is only to see
the patient die, the time for doing anything hopefully
efficacious having passed. Besides the native doctors or
hakims, there is a numerous class of native nurses, who
are, virtually, all the sick women of India have for doctors
in their own homes. The native female nurses are
generally very ignorant, meddlesome, and immoral.
Very sad effects spring often from their gross ignorance
and unlimited interference ; countless mothers and
children fall victims. The death-rate amongst Indian
women and children is enormous, and quite out of due
proportion. Surely if these things are so, it is the duty
of Christians in England, and especially of Christian
women, to hold out a helping and sympathizing hand
to their suffering Indian sisters.”

While a medical missionary in India, we witnessed
among the women, cases of heart-rending cruelty and
neglect which we dare not describe ; cases in which, had
medical aid been within reach at the proper time,
humanly speaking, all would have gone well. Husbands

ZENANA MEDICAL MISSIONS. 181

have come to us imploring medicine for their wives who
were dying of dysentery or fever — suffering untold agonies,
the result, it might be, of some accident, or of the bar-
barous treatment of a native nurse; a not uncommon
request was for some medicine to kill maggots in an open
sore, and more than once we have been asked for oint-
ment to heal the broken limb of some inmate of the
Zenana ; and when we told them in such cases that we
must see the patient, and that perhaps some operation
might be required, or that the broken bones must be set
and the limb put in splints, “ That cannot be, it is not
our custom,” has been the reply ; and the poor woman
has been left to linger on in suffering and misery, or die
in her agony, simply for want of that help which the
lady physician, or in many cases even the trained nurse,
could have given.

What has been said of India is true of almost every
Oriental country, and indeed of all lands on which the
Gospel has not shed its Christianizing and humanizing
influence. In these “ dark places of the earth ” woman
is debased and neglected, and in the hour of her suffer-
ing and weakness, no skilled loving hand is stretched
forth to administer the needed relief ; and, as a rule, she
will receive no help but from those of her own sex.

Much interest has recently been awakened on behalf
of the women and children in our mission fields, especi-
ally those of India and China, and societies have been
formed, in connection with almost every denomination,

lS 2

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

to promote this special department of service ; and
though the work of foreign female evangelization is as
yet only in its infancy, still, by the blessing of God upon
the efforts of the agents of these societies, wide and
effectual doors have been opened, and an entrance
gained into the secluded homes of the East. A most
hopeful work has been inaugurated — a work which, ere
long, will develop into much larger proportions, and
occupy a much more prominent place amongst our
mission agencies than it has yet done. As one branch
of this work, Female Medical Missions cannot fail to
secure the sympathy and support of all who have at heart
the promotion of Zenana missions ; indeed, so many
requests are coming in — and from so many fields — for
lady medical missionaries, and so many young ladies are
now making inquiry as to the course of study, and the
qualifications necessary for such service, that there is an
evident interest awakened in this important subject.

A few words regarding the nature of female medical
missionary work, the preliminary qualifications, as well
as the subsequent training necessary for it, may therefore
be helpful to those desiring to consecrate their lives to
this Christ-like service.

We have, in a previous chapter, defined the sphere
and function of the medical missionary, and that defini-
tion is equally applicable, whether the work is to be
carried on by a lady physician, or by a medical man.
Medical missions are established with the object not only

ZENANA MEDICAL MISSIONS.

183

of curing, but of Christianizing. The work of the female
medical missionary is to heal the wounded and diseased
body, that so, by her disinterested and benevolent ser-
vices, she may overcome prejudice, soften bigotry, and
dispel gloom ; and while ministering relief to the suffering
body, may thereby gain an entrance for the Gospel into
the hearts and homes of her patients.

The first and most indispensable qualification in the
candidate for this work is personal piety, and a hearty
devotion and unreserved consecration to the service of
her Lord and Master. There must be, as the constrain-
ing influence, a higher motive than the mere desire to
engage in some useful service ; the impelling motive
must be “ the love of Christ ; ” her heart must beat in
true and ardent sympathy with Christ in His yearning
solicitude for the salvation of the lost. In view of the
trials, self-sacrifice, difficulties, and responsibilities of the
work, she must feel as did the prophet when he said :
“ His word is in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in
my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I cannot
stay !” Unless her heart is fired with a genuine, steady,
glowing love to her Saviour, with an earnest, enthusiastic
desire for His glory, and an ardent longing for the salva-
tion of souls, and, moreover, a proved capacity to influence
and to convey truth to the minds of others, she had
better not think of medical missionary service, nor,
indeed, of any department of Christian work in the
foreign field. Along with this indispensable qualification,

1 84 MEDICAL MISSIONS.

there must be good mental abilities ; a tender yet firm
hand, and a kind, loving, sympathizing heart ; common
sense, or as the late Professor Miller expresses it, “ gump-
tion;'''’ a bright, cheerful disposition; ability and readi-
ness to adapt herself to circumstances; great perseverance;
a good, sound constitution ; strength of body and of
mind to bear up under fatigue and anxiety, and, in some
degree, a natural aptitude in acquiring a foreign language.
It is difficult to fix the age at which preparation for
Zenana medical missionary work should begin. It is
probable that, before commencing her purely medical
studies, the candidate will require to devote a year or
more to preparation for the preliminary examination in
general education, which must be passed prior to registra-
tion as a medical student : but a lady, with foreign medical
missionary work in view, should not, we think, begin her
medical curriculum earlier than her twenty-first year, nor
later than her twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth.

In the case of those whose circumstances prevent their
taking a full course of medical study, and obtaining a
license qualifying to practise — those, we mean, who must
be content to serve as missionary nurses — while the
same general qualifications are essential to success, the
same high standard of education and of mental ability
is not so necessary ; nor will it be any drawback, if the
age of such a candidate should be a little more ad-
vanced.

Amongst the friends of female medical mission work,

ZENANA MEDICAL MISSIONS.

185

there is, we know, a difference of opinion as to the
extent of professional study, and the kind of medical
qualification necessary for this service ; some believe
that a course of eighteen months’ or two years’ instruc-
tion and practical experience is quite sufficient, while
others hold that no one should undertake such a re'
sponsible position, unless she has pursued a regular
course of medical study, and proved her efficiency by
obtaining a diploma or license to practise. In a certain
sense, both are right ; in the great mission field, there is
room for the skilled Christian nurse, and a loud call for
her services, but there is as loud a call, and a still more
inviting and influential sphere of usefulness, for the
accomplished lady physician, and the one should be
as the complement of the other — indeed they ought to
work hand in hand. We have no hesitation in express-
ing most emphatically our conviction, that it is most
unadvisable to send out partially trained ladies to
undertake medical mission work on their own respon-
sibility, and we believe that sooner or later the friends
of the cause will acknowledge this.

If a partially trained lady is sent out to practise
medicine among the women and children in the mission
field, if she calls herself a medical missionary, opens a
dispensary, and invites patients to come to her for heal-
ing, or offers to attend them at their own homes, of this
we are certain, she will not be long at work before she
will be called upon to treat cases, which will place her

1 86

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

in most painful and trying circumstances ; and if, in
emergencies and cases of difficulty, she is unable to
render proper aid, her presence there will do the mission
cause more harm than good, and very likely her own
health will speedily break down under the terrible strain
of anxiety which, under such trying circumstances, she
must undergo. The partially trained agent, calling
herself a medical missionary, may depend upon it, that
the more successful she is in the treatment of ordinary
complaints, the more frequently she will be implored to
attend cases in presence of which she will stand power-
less ; and, unnerved by sufferings which she cannot
alleviate, and agitated by the sneers and, it may be, the
threats of ignorant by-standers, she will have good cause
to regret, that she ventured to accept a position for
which her training and qualifications never fitted her.

It is quite true that the aid such an one can give is
better than none, but that is not to the point ; our con-
tention is, that it is wrong to send forth as medical
missionaries such agents to the mission field, and thereby
lead the natives to expect from them a greater, and more
skilled service, than they are able to render. From
medical missionaries, the heathen to whom they are sent
have a right to expect skilful aid, and especially will
they look for this in times of emergency, and when,
perhaps, all other help has failed. As a rule, the
accomplished lady physician will be able to render
the needed aid, and thereby, with God’s blessing, gain

ZENANA. MEDICAL MISSIONS.

187

the confidence of the people, and open an avenue to the
heart for the Gospel message ; but these are the very
cases which the partially trained lady cannot treat, and
hence, instead of winning the gratitude of the people, her
inability to render help when most needed, may cause
her good to be evil spoken of, and thus, her presence in
the mission field, may really be more of a hindrance than
a help.

We could adduce several instances confirmatory of
what we have said ; one must suffice. A lady whom we
knew well, the wife of a missionary in India, had, during
her two years’ furlough at home, availed herself of every
opportunity to acquire a knowledge of medicine, and
had enjoyed the personal friendship, and for six months
the tuition, of the late Sir James Simpson. On returning
to India, she made known throughout the district, that
she was prepared to see patients at her own bungalow,
and to visit women at their own homes, when they needed
help. Not many days passed, till she was called to at-
tend an expectant mother. The case was a very serious
one, but just such a case as, over and over again, she
had seen brought to a favourable termination, under
skilful interference in the Maternity Hospital. Though
quite competent to manage all ordinary cases, and even
common emergencies, in presence of the complication
she had now to deal with, she felt herself powerless.
Unnerved by witnessing the suffering of the poor woman,
without being able to render her any assistance, she left

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

the house, but not before the dhais (heathen nurse) had
prompted the priest to make it known to all, that the
mission doctor amale , or lady, having been called in, the
gods were angry, and would not now be appeased. Within
an hour the poor woman died; and after this sad experi-
ence, the lady suffered for months from such severe nervous
prostration, that more than once, before she could again
return to England, her life was despaired of. This was
the first case, but also the last, in her medical missionary
experience, and, as can readily be believed, her effort in
that direction had no favourable influence on the work
of the mission.

Let us not be misunderstood. There cannot be too
many thoroughly well-trained nurses sent out to work
amongst the women and children in our mission fields :
there is an urgent need for them, and, like our Bible-
women nurses at home, they will have splendid oppor-
tunities for sowing the good seed; but do not place
them in a position, or impose upon them duties, for
which they will quickly discover, that their professional
education and training never fitted them. For their own
sakes, as well as for the sake of the cause we seek to
promote, do not designate as medical missionaries such
partially trained agents, and thus lead the inmates of the
Zenanas to expect from them services which they are not
qualified to render. Do not instruct such agents to take
upon themselves the duties and responsibilities of a
doctor — to open a dispensary and a hospital — to invite

ZENANA MEDICAL MISSIONS.

189

the sick and suffering to come to them for healing ; if
they do, they must be prepared to receive all cases,
urgent and simple, just as they come, and if they refuse
cases of difficulty, and prove themselves, in the treatment
of such cases, to be as powerless as the native dhais or
hakim, what influence in favour of the mission can such
an agency exert ?

Let such agents be content to go forth to the mission
field as missionary nurses, not as medical missionaries ;
let them, in a quiet, unostentatious way, go about among
the homes of the people, searching out the sick and
suffering, doing good to all as they have opportunity.
Instead of proclaiming themselves “ healers of the sick,”
let them rather disown such a designation — let them
frankly acknowledge that they are not, and do not pre-
tend to be doctors, but that they know a little, and may
be able in all their common ailments to do them good,
and will try to comfort and help them in their greater
trials; let them show their sisters how to make their
homes healthier and happier, and let them teach the
simple hygienic rules, which they will find everywhere
utterly neglected. In such unpretentious but useful
work, without raising false expectations, they will find
ample scope for the employment of all their energies and
talents, and, either single-handed, or, better still, in co-
operation with a fully qualified medical missionary, they
will do blessed service in the mission field.

In a question of such importance, it is satisfactory to

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

190 u

find, that the views we have expressed are confirmed by
the testimony of those whose long experience of pro-
fessional work in India enables them to speak with
authority on this subject, and by that of others who have
discovered, by painful experience, the mistake which is
made by our Missionary Societies when they send out
partially trained ladies as doctors, and impose upon them
duties which they are not qualified to discharge.

The well-known Zenana missionary, Miss Beilby, than
whom no one, perhaps, has had greater experience as a
partially trained medical agent, thus writes — and we ought
to state, that the foregoing pages were written before we
had the opportunity of knowing Miss Beilby’s opinion : —

“ Friends of this mission,” writes Miss Beilby, “ have
quoted me as an example of what an unqualified medical
missionary can do, but they either forget, or do not know,
the circumstances of my case. People see only the out-
side ; they know nothing of the hours of anxious reading
when I ought to have been at rest, and of, at one time,
broken health because the burden was too much for me;
and also, that when I first went out to India there was
not any college or university that gave diplomas or
licences to ladies. Whatever I may have done, I should
have done better had I been qualified, and should
have been free to go on with my work now, instead of
having to return to my studies for two or three years. . . .
I, with others who have been engaged in Zenana Missions,
feel that it is wrong for any woman to call herself a

ZENANA MEDICAL MISSIONS. 191

medical missionary, unless she has a full and thorough
knowledge of her profession, and has proved she has
such, by passing the requisite examination at a college
or university. At the same time, I know it is difficult for
people who have not been in India to understand this.
They hear so much of the dreadful illness and sufferings
of the Zenana women, that they think — ‘ Surely an
Englishwoman, with two years’ good training, could do
something to bring relief to those poor sufferers ; ’ but,
believe me, it is not ‘something,’ or ‘some relief,’ the
Zenana lady or her friends want, when the medical
missionary is sent for, but it is everything. Their own
women, dhais as they are called, can do something, and
one or more of these women will always be sent for
before an English lady doctor is called in. . . . When
she arrives at the house of her patient, she may be quite
sure that, if any ordinary means could do good, she
would not have been sent for. I could tell of many cases
where, from prolonged suffering, the poor woman has been
in such a serious state, that many medical men would have
hesitated to undertake such a case alone. It is forgotten,
that when a medical lady is in any difficulty she cannot
call in another doctor to help her — she must act alone ;
and although I have always found the medical men where
I have worked ready to give me their advice, still how
many cases there are in which one needs more than advice.

“ I was speaking lately, on this subject, to a lady who
has been working in India as a medical missionary.

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

Before she went out, she had been thoroughly trained in
general diseases; and in diseases of women, midwifery,
&c., she was told that nothing more was necessary. She
is now in London in order to qualify, and this is her
opinion : ‘ I think it cruel and wicked, for any woman to
go out to India calling herself medical, unless she has
gone through the full course of study, and has a license
or diploma ; ’ and, she adds, ‘ this is the opinion of all
who know the nature of our work as medical ladies.’ If
Zenana medical missionaries are sent out unqualified,
the missionary work will surely suffer. The natives are
by no means ignorant of the ways of the world, or of
what is going on in England. The time was when no
lady could get a license or diploma here, but things are
changed, and none know it better than the native gentle-
men of India. If they send for a lady, calling herself
medical, to attend their female relations, they will expect
to find her qualified, and that she knows her profession
thoroughly. ... Is there then no sphere for those ladies
who are willing to be trained for two or three years? Yes,
they will be invaluable assistants to the qualified medical
missionaries, if they are willing to work as such ; and in
that case, they should have one year’s training as nurses,
and one or two more as assistants. At one time, I thought
it was necessary for the medical missionary herself to be
trained in nursing, but with experience my ideas have
changed, and, while I am thankful for my knowledge of
nursing, I do not think it is necessary for a lady who

ZENANA MEDICAL MISSIONS.

J93

intends to qualify, to go through any training in this
branch ; she should have an assistant to go out with her
who understands nursing, and who could train native and
East Indian women, as well as help in the medical work.
But there is one thing to be guarded against in this, and
that is, the unqualified lady should not be sent out two
or three years before the qualified one, and when the
former has established a missionary work, learned the
language, and in all things been first, is told that in the
future she must be second, and work under and take
her orders from a qualified lady, fresh out from England.
People say, ‘But if the unqualified person is a Christian,
she will do anything that will bring glory to Christ ; she
will not mind being second where she has been so long
first.’ It is, in my opinion, doubtful if such an arrange-
ment would bring glory to Christ; one thing I am quite
certain of, that however good the unqualified lady was,
she would mind very much such a state of things. I
would give a word of warning to those who, while thinking
all I have said right, might propose to go to India with
only a partial knowledge, and then, if they found after
some time that they could not get on, return to England
and qualify. This is most unwise, for not only is it diffi-
cult to recommence studies that have once been put
aside, but life and work in India unfit one for hard study.
To any one who purposes doing this, I would say most
lovingly, as one who has learned from experience, I am
sure you will regret such a step all your life.”

14

194

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

Ur. C. R. Francis, Surgeon-General of H.M. Indian
Army (Retired), and formerly Principal of the Calcutta
Medical College, thus writes on this subject : “A limited
amount of professional knowledge, such as is implied in
missionary students attending lectures and hospital practice
for a year or two, may be useful to the missionary in his
solitary tours through secluded regions, or when com-
pletely cut off at his station from all European aid ; but
they who go abroad as medical missionaries must be
taught with uncompromising thoroughness. It must be
remembered that, as civil surgeons are often isolated, the
lady medical missionary may be alone at the mission
station ; and even the presence in it of the civil surgeon
would be no advantage, as he would not be admitted into
the Zenana. Be the patient ever so ill, she must not see
a man-doctor — death is preferred ; examination of pulse
and tongue through a hole in the ‘purda,’ or screen,
unsatisfactory at all times, is, in serious sickness when the
patient is prostrate in bed, impossible, and no mere
verbal description of the case would suffice. Thus
solated, therefore, and cut off from all professional aid,
the lady medical missionary has no one to rely upon but
herself ; and it is to critical cases of this kind that our
ladies may expect to be summoned.” And again, in a
valuable paper on “ Medical Women for India,” which
appears in “The Journal of the National Indian Associa-
tion” for February, 1883, Dr. Francis writes : “A word
here on the professional qualifications of the female

ZENANA MEDICAL MISSIONS.

J95

medical missionary. Unhappily, there are some — not of
any great experience, however — who advocate a limited
training with reference to the ordinary illnesses that she
will usually be required to treat ; granting, for a moment,
the force of this (erroneous) argument, what of the
extraordinary cases ? There may be no one to consult
with, and, in her unenviable isolation, the half-educated
lady-doctor will then deplore the short-sighted policy of
those, who thus sent her imperfectly equipped to a foreign
country. By all means prepare intelligent pupils as
nurses, with obstetrical qualifications, for India, and let
them lay claim to no higher functions ; but, in educating
the medical missionary who is supposed to be a lady-
doctor, do it thoroughly, or not at all. The English
public may believe in the apparent couleur de rose now,
but the results are yet to be seen ; and no greater blow
could be given to the cause of ‘medical women for India,’
than the breakdown of those who, each in her own
centre, are supposed to represent the professional skill of
the West.”

We would again state emphatically, that there is a wide
field of usefulness, and an urgent demand in the mission
field, for well-trained missionary nurses ; we cannot send
forth too many of such agents : but we would earnestly
entreat our ladies’ committees not to send them forth as
missionary doctors, and we would warn the agents them-
selves, for their own comfort and usefulness, as well as for
the sake of the work, not only not to claim such a desig-

196

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

nation, but to do all in their power to prevent the natives,
among whom they labour, from regarding them in any
other light than as nurses.

A few words about the qualifications necessary for the
female medical missionary. There is now no longer the
excuse, that in this country a fully qualified female medical
mission agency cannot be educated and trained. The
Henrietta Medical College for Ladies in London provides
the necessary instruction, and ladies may now obtain,
not only the license of the King and Queen’s College of
Physicians in Dublin, but, likewise, the medical degree
of the London University; for all practical purposes,
however, the former is quite sufficient, and may be ob-
tained in less time, and with a less purely scientific course
of study, than the London degree. A preliminary ex-
amination in general education must be passed before
the student can be registered, and allowed to commence
her curriculum. This examination includes English,
Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Latin, Elementary Me-
chanics, and either Greek, French, or German. A certi-
ficate of having passed the Examination in General Edu-
cation conducted by certain educational bodies — such as
the Universities’ Local Examinations (Senior) — is accepted
as equivalent to the Medical Preliminary Examinations,
provided it includes Latin and Mathematics. The pre-
paration for this honourable service is arduous, and the
work itself difficult and anxious ; but so far as the supply
of fellow-labourers in this increasingly important branch

ZENANA MEDICAL MISSIONS.

197

of missionary work is concerned, the Lord knows the
need there is for them. Let us then ask them from the
Lord, and He will send us brave-hearted, devoted Christian
ladies to be educated and trained for this service ; let us
realize the responsibility that rests upon us, and the deep
debt of gratitude we owe for the privileges which we
ourselves enjoy ; let us give to our sick and suffering
heathen sisters the boon we ourselves so highly prize,
and which they will hail with gratitude and joy— let us
send to the neglected inmates of those Zenanas, the
skilled medical aid they so much need, and let us, at the
same time, send them the light of the Gospel to enlighten
their darkness — to make their dreary homes bright with
the sunshine of His presence, and to raise them out of
their degradation, to glory, honour, and immortality.

In the closing words of his “ Plea for Zenana Medical
Missions,” Dr. Elmslie writes : “ If Florence Nightingale,
a thorough English lady — being all that that term im-
plies— left home and friends, and went to Scutari, out of
philanthropy, to nurse and doctor England’s wounded
and dying soldiers, surely other ladies, who have it in
their power, should see no insuperable objections or
difficulties in giving up home and going to India, to
nurse and doctor their needy and suffering sisters for
Christ's sake. At any rate, India needs female medical
missionaries ; India will welcome them ; India will bless
them for their work; and many homes, now dark, will
be lighted up through their labours with the knowledge

198

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

of Him who is the Light of the World. Surely it is a
thing incredible, that among the many Christian daughters
of England there are none brave and noble-minded enough
to undertake this work, which, of all works, most re-
sembles that of the Great Master Himself, who ‘ though
He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we
through His poverty might be made rich,’ and of whom
it is written, ‘Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in
their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the King-
dom, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner
of disease among the people.’ ‘ I have given you an ex
ample, that ye should do as I have done to you.’ ”

THE HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF MODERN
MEDICAL MISSIONS.

CHAPTER VIII.

®ljc Tjistcanj yf IHo^cvn

igjttcMcrtl ptissimts* gtkctdj j?f ilje ©imt-
Intv^Ij Tttvbical l/Hisstonavtj ^jxctetrj*

HE origin and progress of modern medical missions

are closely identified with the history of the Edin-
burgh Medical Missionary Society ; for although upwards
of sixty years ago Mr. Douglas of Cavers, in his “ Hints
on Missions,” pointed out the advantages likely to be
derived from the employment of this agency, it was
not till nearly twenty years after that useful little work
was published, that the attention of the friends of missions
in this country was directed to the subject.

In 1841, the Rev. Peter Parker, M.D., a medicm
missionary from America, who had laboured for many
years, and with much success in China, passed through
Edinburgh on his way to the United States. During his

202

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

short visit to Edinburgh, he was the guest of the late Dr.
Abercrombie, who was so greatly interested in the in-
telligence he received from him, especially with his ex-
perience of the value of the healing art as a pioneer to
missionary effort, that he invited to his house a few
friends, to hear Dr. Parker’s account of his work, and to
consider the propriety of forming an association in Edin-
burgh, for the purpose of promoting medical missions.

As the result of the interest thus awakened, a public
meeting was held on 30th November of the same year,
when the following resolution was adopted and the
Society formed : “ That this meeting, being deeply sen-
sible of the beneficial results which may be expected to
arise from the labours of Christian medical men co-
operating with missionaries in various parts of the world,
thus giving intelligent proofs of the nature and practical
operation of the spirit of love which, as the fruit of our
holy religion, we desire to see diffused amongst all
nations, resolve to promote this object, and to follow
the leadings of Providence, by encouraging in every
possible way the settlement of Christian medical men in
foreign countries, and that, for this purpose, a Society be
formed, under the name of the ‘ Edinburgh Association
for Sending Medical Aid to Foreign Countries.”’ It was
at the same time resolved, that “The objects of the
Association shall be, to circulate information on the
subject, to endeavour to originate and aid such kindred
institutions as may be formed to prosecute the same work,

HISTORY AND PROGRESS.

203

and to render assistance at missionary stations to as many
professional agents as the funds placed at its disposal
may admit.”

Dr. Abercrombie was chosen President, and, till his
death in November, 1844, he took the warmest interest
in the operations of the Society. Others there were, of
world-wide reputation, whose names are identified with
its origin. The Rev. Dr. Thomas Chalmers and Pro-
fessor Alison were elected Vice-Presidents at the in-
augural meeting. Dr. James Begbie, Professor Sir
George Ballingall, Dr. William Beilby (who succeeded
Dr. Abercrombie as President), Professor Syme, Dr.
John Coldstream, Mr. Joseph Bell, Dr. Omond, Dr.
Handyside — all well-known and honoured names — are
found among the first list of Directors. Two only of
the original Directors are still spared (1886) to take part
in the management of the Society, namely, the respected
President, Mr. William Brown, F.R.C.S.E., and the Rev.
G. D. Cullen, M.A., Vice-President.

On November 28, 1843, the second annual meeting
was held, when it was resolved that “henceforth the
Association shall be designated ‘ The Edinburgh Medi-
cal Missionary Society.’” The income of the Society
during the first year of its existence amounted to only
,£114, and at the close of its first decade the annual
income had never exceeded ^300. Till 185 r, the funds
of the Society were mainly expended in diffusing medical
missionary information. Lectures on the subject of

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

Medical Missions were delivered by several of the Di-
rectors, and afterwards published and widely circulated ;
prizes were offered for the best essays on this subject,
and every available opportunity taken to advocate the
claims of this new and interesting department of mis-
sionary service. From time to time, grants of money for the
purchase of medicines and instruments were made to the
few medical missionaries then at work in the foreign field.

From a list of Protestant Medical Missionaries, printed
as an appendix to the Tenth Annual Report of the
Society, we find that previous to 1841, only three such
agents from this country were engaged in this work,
namely, Dr. Lockhart at Shanghai, Dr. Hobson at
Hongkong, and afterwards at Canton, both in connection
with the London Missionary Society ; and Dr. Kalley,
who, unconnected with any society, went out to Madeira
in 1837. At the close of 1852, there were thirteen
European medical missionaries employed in India, China,
and elsewhere, as the agents of the various missionary
societies ; one of these, Dr. Wallace, being supported by
the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society as a mis-
sionary to the Roman Catholics in Ireland.

In reviewing the first ten years of the Society’s history,
the Report for 1852 thus refers to the work accomplished,
and to the future prospects of the cause : “ We feel
satisfied that the subject of Medical Missions is gradually
becoming more familiar to the public mind, that there is
a growing interest in its favour, and that, at no distant

HISTORY AND PROGRESS.

205

period, its importance will be universally seen and ac-
knowledged. Let us look upon the last ten years as the
vernal period of the Society, during which we have been
mainly occupied in preparing the soil and scattering the
seed ; and let us anticipate a season — not far distant, we
trust — when the silent and unseen germinating process,
which is now advancing, will declare itself by a sudden
growth of fresh and vigorous manifestation ; and for this
we must look upwards in faith to Him on whose rain
and sunshine the spiritual no less than the natural
husbandry exclusively depends.”

As the results of medical missionary effort became
more widely know, the demand for this form of agency
increased, and the various Societies naturally looked
to the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society for the
supply of men ready for the work. Early in the second
decade of the Society’s history, therefore, the necessity
arose of embracing, as part of its aims and objects, the
helping forward of suitable young men, who, having given
evidence that they were impelled by the constraining in-
fluence of the love of Christ, had resolved to dedicate
themselves to His service as medical missionaries. This
important, and now extensive, department of the Society’s
work was entered upon by the Directors with certainly
very humble pretentions, as indicated by the following
minute , recorded in June, 1851, which takes us back to
the origin of the Society’s Training Institution: “The
Committee resolved to devote part of the funds at their

20 6

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

disposal to the supplying of one or more students with
the means of prosecuting their professional education,
in order to enable them to prepare for entering upon
medical missionary service.”

For several years the aid rendered to students was
merely pecuniary. The Directors, indeed, took a warm
interest in those they were helping forward, and en-
deavoured by every means in their power to foster in
them the missionary spirit ; but so far as providing op-
portunities for training them for the work was concerned,
their connection with the Society at this early stage con-
ferred upon the students no special advantage. In a
remarkable way, however, this want was, in God’s provi-
dence, ere long supplied.

On October 30, 1848, Dr. Handyside — whose name
has already been mentioned as one of the first Directors,
and who, till his death, which took place early in 1881,
was one of the Society’s truest and most devoted friends —
received a note from the Rev. P. McMenamy, then a
missionary to the Irish in Edinburgh, asking him if he
would kindly undertake to visit professionally some of
his sick poor. In the spirit of true Christian philan-
thropy Dr. Handyside at once consented, and hence-
forth, wherever there were sick and suffering Irish, there,
along with their missionary, the doctor was to be found.
It was not long till Dr. Handyside discovered, that the
kind and successful treatment of the wounded and
diseased body, opened a way for the application of the

HISTORY AND PROGRESS.

207

“balm of Gilead” to the sin-stricken soul; and, revolving
in his mind how best to turn to account the influence
thus acquired, the idea suggested itself of establishing a
medical mission dispensary. In dependence on that
blessing from the Lord which is promised to him “ that
considereth the poor,” Dr. Handyside resolved to make
the experiment, and on November 25, 1853, he opened
the “ Main Point Mission Dispensary ; ” and as this was
the first Home Medical Mission in Great Britain, and
the origin of the Society’s Training Institution, the
following brief extract from the First Annual Report is
interesting, as showing the principle upon which it was
founded, and the spirit in which the work was carried
on : “ The Saviour, when on earth, manifested the
tenderest pity for the afflicted, but while He was ever
ready to afford them bodily relief, He never failed at
the same time to minister to their spiritual wants. In
this ‘ He hath left us an example that we should follow
His steps.’ The Gospel is the discovery of the grace of
God to man, and the unfeigned belief of it will produce
a disposition to ‘ do good unto all men as we have op-
portunity.’ It is in accordance alike with Scripture and
reason that we should employ such an agency ; but,
unless the blessing and help of God are implored, and
the grace so freely bestowed is received, human effort
can never be successful in alleviating the distress, en-
lightening the mind, and elevating the character of those
among whom we labour.”

2o8

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

We have here set forth, at the very inauguration of
Home Medical Missions, the true principle and grand
aim of the enterprise. Some there were, at this early
stage, who, ignorant of the mode of carrying on the
work, had their misgivings about it, and, for no well-
defined reason, refused their sympathy and support ;
others regarded the evangelistic element either, as taking
an unfair advantage to proselytize, or, as a veiled attempt
to force religion upon the poor patient. Some objected
to the physician undertaking duties which, in their
opinion, belonged only to the minister of religion or to
the missionary ; while not a few, fully recognizing the
value of the agency, and impressed with the force of the
Divine precept and example, rallied round Dr. Handy-
side, and cordially co-operated with him ; and the hopes
of those early friends of the cause were not disappointed.

Dr. Handyside, from the first, associated with himself
the young men preparing for medical missionary service
in connection with the Society, and as they thus had
opportunities, day by day, of addressing the patients
assembled in the waiting-room, and of speaking a word
in season at the bedside of the afflicted, while at the
same time, under Dr. Handyside’s guidance, they minis-
tered to their bodily ailments, they felt that, in view of
the work to which they were looking forward, the
privileges they enjoyed in connection with the “ Main
Point Mission Dispensary ” were of inestimable value.

In 1858, the attendance of patients had so largely

HISTORY AND PROGRESS.

209

increased, that it was found absolutely necessary to
secure more suitable and commodious premises. In
the providence of God, the way was opened for obtain-
ing excellent accommodation in the best locality in the
city for planting such a mission. One day, in the spring
of 1858, as Dr. Handyside passed along the Cowgate
on one of his errands of mercy, he observed a board
with “To Let” upon it, above the door of No. 39,
which was till then one of the numerous whisky shops
in that long, narrow street. This, he thought, is like
the place we are looking out for, and it is certainly
in the right locality. He went in, looked round the
premises, and saw at once that, with a little outlay, they
could be made most suitable. He found that the
spirit dealer had a lease of the shop for a considerable
time, but that he was willing to accept a reasonable
offer for the remainder of the lease, and at once to give
over the premises. Within a few days, satisfactory
terms were agreed upon, and at Whitsunday, 1858, the
“ old whisky shop,” 39, Cowgate, was transformed into
a Medical Mission Dispensary.

Soon after the removal of the “ Main Point Mission
Dispensary ” to the Cowgate, the students then in con-
nection with the Society presented a memorial to the
Directors, in which they expressed their appreciation of
the many and great privileges which they enjoyed under
Dr. Handyside, and testified to the fact, that such an
institution as the “ Cowgate Mission Dispensary ” is the

15

2 10

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

best apprentice school for the medical missionary
student. They urged, too, the importance of the
Directors having opportunities of knowing what pro-
gress their students were making in their studies, as
well as of training them, and thereby testing their fitness
for missionary work; and concluded by stating their
conviction, that the amalgamation of the Cowgate Dis-
pensary with the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society
would be a union fraught with rich results.

Dr. Handyside warmly supported the memorial, and
on the 18th November, 1861, the “Cowgate Mission
Dispensary ” became the “ Edinburgh Medical Mis'
sionary Society’s Training Institution ” — a union which
has been greatly blessed to the furtherance of the cause
of medical missions, and which makes specially memor-
able, this second decade of the Society’s history.

In other respects, the Society during this period
made gradual but decided progress. It commenced,
along with the Free Church of Scotland, a medical
mission in Madras, and, conjointly with the London
Missionary Society, it supported for four years a medical
missionary at Mirzapore. It established a medical
mission in Ireland, and supported the medical mis-
sionary there for six years. During the period under
review, several well-known medical missionaries were
helped forward by the Society, in their preparation
for the work, among whom were Mr. David Paterson,
F.P.C.S.E., the Society’s first student, and for more

HISTORY AND PROGRESS.

21 I

than ten years its devoted agent at Madras ; Dr. Wong
Fun of Canton, the first Chinese graduate of a European
University, and for many years the colleague of the
veteran medical missionary, Dr. Hobson; Dr. James
Henderson of Shanghai, whose memoir every young
man should read, and Dr. James Bell of Amoy, all of
whom now rest from their labours. Dr. Colin Valen-
tine, Superintendent of the Agra Medical Missionary
Training Institution, Dr. Vartan of Nazareth, and the
writer, all students of the Society during the same period,
are still spared for service in the medical mission field.
By the publication of an “ Occasional Paper,” and by
public meetings and lectures, much was done by the
Society during these years to promote an interest in the
cause, and its income rose from ^350 in 1852, to
^1250 in 1862.

Under the superintendence of Mr. W. Burns Thom-
son, F.R.C.S.E., who, while agent of the Society from
i860 till 1870, laboured with much success and en-
thusiasm to promote the cause of medical missions,
the training institution soon became, not only thoroughly
efficient, but likewise, a powerful and much blessed local
benevolent and evangelistic agency. In the annual
report of the Society for 1865, the following reference
is made to the progress of the work: “A general
retrospect of the period since the amalgamation of the
Dispensary with the Society, calls for thankfulness and
praise ; for it is known by those mainly engaged in the

212

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

work, that many of the lowest and most degraded of
the population resorting thither, have not only heard
the gracious offer of the Gospel, but have become
partakers of the salvation which is in Christ Jesus.
Not a few, believed to be now in glory, gave testimony
before their departure that they were born again ; and
a goodly number still living regard the Superintendent
and his fellow-workers as their fathers in Christ. Year
by year, the value of the institution as a training school
for missionaries is becoming more and more apparent ;
and it would be difficult, we imagine, to find a band of
more devoted and accomplished young men than those
who have already issued from its walls.”

Ere long, it was found necessary to provide increased
accommodation, and a lease was obtained of the adjoin-
ing premises, the lower part of which was converted
into a consulting-room, laboratory, and waiting-room,
and the upper part comfortably furnished as a residence
for the Superintendent and the students ; a further step
was thus taken in the development of this important
department of the Society’s work.

In 1863, the Society sustained a heavy loss in the
death of Dr. John Coldstream, who had been associated
with Mr. Benjamin Bell, F.R.C.S.E., as Secretary almost
from its commencement. Dr. Coldstream’s name was,
up till this period, intimately identified with the entire
history of the institution ; and to his unwearied devo-
tion, wise counsel, and sanctified enthusiasm for the

HISTORY AND PROGRESS.

213

cause of medical missions, much of the success which
had hitherto attended the Society’s operations may be
traced. Several medical missionaries, and among them
the writer, trace much of the interest which they have
been led to take in this department of missionary work
to their intercourse with Dr. Coldstream. A medical
missionary scholarship, of the annual value of ,£25, has
been founded, as a memorial of that “ beloved physician ”
and earnest promoter of the cause.

In the following year (1864), the Society sustained
another heavy loss in the death of Professor Miller, one
of its Vice-Presidents, a warm friend and eloquent
advocate of medical missions. His eminent service to
the Society as an expounder of its principles, the deep
interest he ever manifested in all departments of its
work, and especially, as convener of the Students’ Aid
Committee, his affectionate and earnest solicitude for
the welfare of the students, and withal, his unostenta-
tious zeal for the promotion of the Redeemer’s cause,
invested him with an influence which carried with it
an almost irresistible charm. The last public duty he
discharged was to lecture on behalf of the Society, and
the burden of his address, on that occasion, was the
value of the Cowgate institution as a training school for
medical missionaries, and the important relation it
sustains to medical mission work abroad. It was one
of the purposes of his life — an object for which he
prayed, and pleaded, and worked — to get this central

214

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

institution efficiently equipped, and put into thorough
working order, believing that thus, the Society would
best fulfil its mission at home, and be able to meet the
ever-increasing demands of the foreign field.

Soon after the death of Professor Miller, his many
friends and admirers resolved to raise a memorial fund,
in order, in some way, to associate his name with the
work of the training institution which he loved so well.
Upwards of ^2000 was soon raised, and with this sum
the Committee purchased, and furnished, the convenient
and commodious house, 56, George Square, now known
as the “Miller Memorial Medical Mission House,” and
handed it over to the Society, as a residence for the
Superintendent and the students. In God’s providence,
another, and much felt, want was thus supplied; for
although “39, Cowgate” was the locality, of all others,
best suited for carrying on the practical work of the
training institution, still, the premises, as they then ex-
isted, were far from being a desirable residence for the
workers.

While the Cowgate Dispensary was thus gradually
developing into an institution of goodly proportions, the
operations of the Society were at the same time branching
out, and making their influence felt in other directions.
From time to time, the Superintendent and those of the
Directors best acquainted with the work, visited the
larger towns and cities, as deputations, to plead the cause
of the Society ; and as the success of the medical mission

HISTORY AND PROGRESS.

2I5

work carried on in the Cowgate thus became better known,
interest was awakened, and ere very long, Medical Mis-
sion Dispensaries were opened in Glasgow, Aberdeen,
Liverpool, London, Manchester, and other centres, so
that now, in many places we find flourishing mission dis-
pensaries, and wherever these have been established they
are recognized as powerful auxiliaries to home mission
work.

Early in 1870, Mr. W. Burns Thomson resigned his
connection with the Society, and was succeeded by Mr.
David Paterson, F.R.C.S.E., whose fifteen years of
devoted and successful service, as the Society’s agent at
Madras, eminently qualified him for the position he was
called to occupy at the head of the training institution ;
but the Master had nobler service for him in a holier
sphere. After only four brief months of home work as
Superintendent, Mr. Paterson died on February T4, r8yi.

Shortly before the death of Mr. Paterson, the Rev.
John Lowe, F.R.C.S.E., medical missionary in connec-
tion with the London Missionary Society in Travancore,
then at home on furlough on account of the failure of his
wife’s health, received a very decided medical opinion,
that it would be at the risk of her life should Mrs. Lowe
again return to India. Under these circumstances, to-
wards the end of January, Mr. Lowe resigned his connec-
tion with the London Missionary Society, and on the
death of Mr. Paterson the Directors had their thoughts
at once directed to him. His connection as a student

216

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

with the Cowgate Dispensary from its commencement,
his eight years’ experience of medical missionary work in
India, the providential circumstances which, just then,
had left him no alternative but to give up all thought of
resuming his work in Travancore, the urgent claims of the
Society, the unanimous invitation of its Directors, and
the advice of friends, all clearly indicated the path of
duty. Mr. Lowe accepted the appointment, and on the
ist of March, 1871, entered upon his duties as Superin-
tendent of the Society’s Training Institution.

The Report of the Society for the year 1870 closes with
these words : “Some still remember the small beginning
of our enterprise, and the difficulties of every kind which
beset our inexperienced footsteps, and which, one by one,
have been overcome, until the modest aid-giving Com-
mittee with which we began has expanded by an unlooked-
for growth, and without any preconceived plan of ours, into
an institution of goodly and still increasing dimensions.
Your Directors, impressed by these things, are more con-
vinced than ever that the Lord is favouring the work,
and that no step can be safely taken apart from His
guidance, who has all along been leading us by a way
we knew not — opening it here, closing it there ; disap-
pointing cherished hopes to-day, and to-morrow, crowning
them with unlooked-for favour and success ! Let us then
be more earnest in prayer as regards the future. Without
God’s Holy Spirit we are absolutely helpless, alike as in-
dividuals and as a society ; with His indwelling presence

HISTORY AND PROGRESS.

2 1 7

and help, nothing is too great to be achieved — a lesson
which, again and again, has been taught us during the
past quarter of a century.”

In 1861 the income of the Society was ,£590 ; in 1871
it amounted to ^13 14.

The last decade of the Society’s history (1871-81) is,
however, the period during which it has made the greatest
progress. One or two facts will illustrate this. In 1871
there were only seven students preparing for medical
missionary work under the auspices of the Society; in
1881 there were sixteen. There are at present upwards
of one hundred and seventy qualified medical missionaries
in active service at home and abroad — of these only
thirty were in the field previous to 1871. As already
stated, the income of the Society in 1871 was ,£1314, in
1881 it amounted to ^5506; while, during the decade,
upwards of ^15, 000 were raised for special objects, inde-
pendently of the Society’s general income. The erection
of the new and commodious premises, in which the work
is now carried on, marks the beginning of a new era in
the history of the Society.

A few years ago the “ old whisky shop,” with its dingy
surroundings, was swept away, and on its site there now
stands the “Livingstone Memorial Medical Missionary
Training Institution,” a most fitting national expression
of admiration of the character, and sympathy with the
life-Avork, of the great African explorer whose name it
bears, himself a medical missionary, and for nearly twenty

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

218

years a corresponding member of the Edinburgh Medical
Missionary Society. A site might have been chosen, in-
deed one was actually secured, which would have given the
Institution a prominence which in the Cowgate it cannot
have; but, like Livingstone himself, who lived, laboured,
and died for the reclamation of the wastes of heathenism,
this Memorial Missionary Institute is most appropriately
planted, in the very midst of the moral and spiritual
wastes of our home heathenism, for the alleviation of
human suffering and the salvation of the lost, and, at the
same time, for the training of young missionaries who
shall follow in the footsteps of Livingstone — or, rather, in
the footsteps of His and their great Master — and who
shall go forth with healing in the one hand for the
afflicted body, and in the other “the balm of Gilead” for
the sin-sick soul.

The memorial-stone of the “ Livingstone Memorial ”
was laid by the late Rev. Robert Moffat, D.D., on June
9, 1877, in the presence of a large number of spectators,
the late Sir John McNeill, G.C.B., presiding. In the
course of his address, Sir John congratulated the company
on the presence in their midst, of the one man living
whom, on such an occasion they would most desire to
see. He referred to Dr. Moffat, who was the representa-
tive of the great missionary explorer in whose honour
they were met. Of the life and labours of Dr. Living-
stone he would not attempt to speak. They well knew
his devotion, his piety, his courage, his indomitable per-

HISTORY AND PROGRESS.

219

severance even unto death. They knew the cause for
which he laboured — that he was the pioneer of Chris-
tianity and of civilization in the heart of Africa — that it
was to him they owed the knowledge that Central Africa,
instead of being a barren unpeopled waste, was a country
densely populated, to whose people he was the first to
carry the tidings of hope. He was sure none of them
would ever regret having taken part in this interesting
ceremony, but rather, in days to come, would they re-
member with pleasure the share they had taken in pro-
moting an institution which, in its operations, embodied
most nearly an approach to our Saviour’s example.

Mr. Lowe, Superintendent of the Training Institution,
after giving a brief historical sketch of the work, said :
“ In the heart of down-trodden and oppressed Africa,
Livingstone’s faithful servants built him a hut in which to
die ; in the heart of this sin-blighted moral waste, we are
building him a house in which he, being dead, shall yet
speak. Early in the morning of the 1st of May 1873, Dr.
Livingstone was found within that rude hut, kneeling by
the side of his bed — his body stretched forward — -his
head buried in his hands upon the pillow. For a minute
his servants watched him — he did not stir — there was no
sign of breathing ; then one of them, Matthew, advanced
softly and placed his hand to his cheek; it was sufficient —
life had been extinct some time, and the body was almost
cold — Livingstone was dead ! In view of the interesting
ceremony we are now to witness, it is profitable thus to

220

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

recall the last moments of the great and good man, whose
name and memory we desire to honour. Livingstone
died in the attitude of prayer — his whole life was a prayer,
and, as all prayer should be, practical, fulfilling itself.
And what is the noble effort of the Free Church at
Livingstonia ? and that of the Established Church of
Scotland at Blantyre ? and what the missions that are
being founded by Dr. Smith, our former resident here,
and his devoted associates, in connection with the Church
Missionary Society on the shores of the Victoria Nyanza?
and that by the London Missionary Society at Ujiji on
Lake Tanganyika? and that by the Universities’ Mission
on the Shire ? and what is the noble enterprise of our
friends, the brothers Moir ? and what is this Memorial
Training Institution, from whence, we trust and pray,
many earnest, devoted, medical missionaries will go forth
to carry the blessings of Christianity and civilization to
Africa and other heathen lands ? What are all these
grand enterprises but the direct answer to Livingstone’s
life-long prayer — the last feeble utterances of which were
wafted to heaven, as he knelt over his bed in that lonely
hut, and gently breathed his spirit home to God ? The
lesson taught by all these grand undertakings, con-
nected as they are with the life and death of Livingstone,
is, “ Be not weary in well doing, for in due season ye
shall reap if ye faint not.”

“ Work in the wild waste places,

Though none thy love may own ;

HI ST OR y AND PROGRESS.

22 1

God guides the down of the thistle
The wandering wind hath sown.

Will Jesus chide thy weakness,

Or call thy labour vain ?

The word that for Him thou bearest
Will return to Him again
On, with thy heart in heaven !

Thy strength the Master’s might !

Till the wild waste places blossom
In the warmth of a Saviour’s light.”

Mr. Lowe then presented Dr. Moffat with a silver trowel,
the gift of the Directors, expressing the hope that he might
long be spared to keep it in his possession as a memento
of this interesting ceremony, and that it might be handed
down to generations of those bearing the honoured name
of Livingstone !

The hymn “Tell it out among the heathen ” was sung
by the children of the Children’s Church connected with
the Mission, and Dr. Moffat then laid the memorial-
stone, a hermetically sealed bottle having been placed in
the cavity containing photographs of Dr. Livingstone and
of his venerable father-in-law, Dr. Moffat ; also copies of the
Edinburgh newspapers of that day, and of the Quarterly
Paper of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society.
On the front of the stone the following inscription is cut :
“ Livingstone Medical Missionary Memorial. The
Rev. Robert Moffat, D.D., laid this stone, June
9th, 1877.

After prayer by the Rev. Dr. Murray Mitchell, Dr.
Moffat said he could not exaggerate the pleasure he felt

222

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

on the present occasion, but it was impossible for him to
stand there and witness what he had just seen, and hear
what he had heard, without peculiar emotion. He knew
the man whose name was to be kept in remembrance by
this building, and he could not have other than a heart
overflowing with gratitude, in witnessing the commence-
ment of an undertaking, intended for the training of those
who were to devote themselves to the glorious purpose
for which he spent his life, and in the interests of which
he died ! It was scarcely necessary for him to say more
in reference to the character of the Institution than that
which had been so well said already. It was indeed a
noble institution, and no word from him was required to
commend it to public attention. Wherever medical
missionaries had gone, they had left their mark, and they
had been greatly honoured in their labours. He had
had innumerable opportunities of witnessing the value of
medical missionary work. He had often said, and he
said it again, that a missionary was a good thing — and any
one who knew the work they did must say so ; but a
medical missionary was a missionary and a half, or rather,
he should say, a double missionary ! It was impossible
to estimate the value of a missionary going out with a
thorough knowledge of medicine and surgery. When he
went out, there was no such agency thought of by the
Missionary Societies. He knew little about medicine,
and the missionaries who accompanied him knew still
less. He did know a little, for when he was a boy he

ms TOR V ANT PROGRESS.

223

fell in with a packman with a few books for sale, and
amongst them, he happened to select “Buchan’s Domes-
tic Medicine,” which seemed to imply that something
was to follow. In after life he found it necessary to add
to his medical library, and to enlarge his knowledge of
medicine, and was able, in some way or other, to doctor
the people ; and the more experience he had in that
direction, the more useful and successful were his ser-
vices. He would just mention, in reference to their dear
departed friend, Dr. Livingstone, that he (Dr. Moffat)
had innumerable opportunities of witnessing the influence
he gained over the natives, by the successful use of his
knowledge of medicine and surgery. He had himself
often seen the willingness he showed, the sacrifices he
made, and how often he exposed himself to danger, in
order to alleviate suffering or save life. He had left a
bright name behind him, and it would be well remem-
bered by, and most appropriately associated with, this
building ; and so long as he was able to appeal on behalf
of missions, he wouldplead for this Institution, and for
the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society.

Mr. Brown, F.R.C.S.E. President of the Society, ex-
pressed to Sir John McNeill the thanks of the directors
and friends for his kindness in presiding, and Mr. Bell,
F.R.C.S.E., Secretary of the Society, thanked Dr. Moffat.
The interesting proceedings were brought to a close by
the children singing, “ How beautiful upon the moun-
tains.”

224

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

In the middle of December, in the same year, a Bazaar
was held in the Music Hall, Edinburgh, under the
patronage of H.R.H. The Princess Louise, in order to
complete the sum required for the erection and equipment
of the new Institution. The sum realized by this bazaar,
and a more private supplementary sale held afterwards,
was nearly ^5000. The expenses, amounting only to
^388, were more than met by the entrance money.
The bazaar, a pleasant memory to all who took any part
in it, was a great success. It was free from many of the
evils which are so often attendant on this method of
raising money for good objects. No raffling was allowed,
while many who visited the bazaar remarked on the high
tone which pervaded it. It was a Christian enterprise
carried on in a truly Christian spirit.

On the 25th of January, 1878, the Livingstone Me-
morial Medical Missionary Training Institution was in-
augurated by a dedication service; while, on the following
evening, a social entertainment was given in the waiting-
room, to the poor people resident in the neighbourhood.

The Memorial, with its furnishings, cost nearly^ 10,000,
and before the building was finished the required amount
had been fully provided. The locality is rich in his-
torical associations ; especially do these cluster round the
Magdalen Chapel, which has descended to us, in won-
derful preservation, from Pre-Reformation times. This
ecclesiastical relic belongs to the Protestant Institute,
but, by special arrangement, it is incorporated with, and

HISTORY AND PROGRESS.

225

forms part of, the Livingstone Memorial Training Insti-
tution, the front elevation of which corresponds with that
of the old Magdalen, which has been beautifully restored,
both externally and internally, and is now utilized for
carrying on the evangelistic services in connection with
the Mission. In this antique chapel the arms of the
founder, Michael Macquhan, are seen on the old
stained-glass window, side by side with those of Mary of
Guise. Hence the light of Divine truth radiated when
Scotland separated from Rome; and here, in 1578, the
first General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was
held— Mr. Andrew Melville moderator. Round the
walls are eighty-eight beautifully carved oak panels,
commemorative of the gifts to “ ye crosse house ” of
many worthies long since departed. In the south-east
corner is the tomb of “ Dame Macquhan, ane honoribil
woman, and decessist ye iii of December, AT). 1553;”
and here, too, is1 the old table upon which was laid the
body of the martyred Duke of Argyll, after his execution
in the Grass-market in 1665, with other interesting relics
well worthy the inspection of the antiquary.

It is not a little curious to discover, by the following
advertisement, which appears in the Scots Postman of
September 21st, 1710, that, fully one hundred and
seventy years ago, the house adjoining the Magdalen
Chapel, on the site of which now stands the Livingstone
Memorial Medical Mission Training Institution, was
used as a dispensary : — “ In the Hammer-mens-land at

16

226

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

the Magdalen Chapel, near the head of the Cowgate,
lives Anthony Parsons, who, in his travels, above thirty
years in this and other countries, has attained to the
method of curing many diseases incident to men, women,
and children — more especially those of the eyes ; and
according to the best of his knowledge, lets the patient
know if curable or not.”

The Memorial Institute in outward appearance is
solid, simple, and unpretending; while internally, it is
commodious, and well adapted for all the purposes it is
intended to serve. The ground-floor contains the jani-
tor’s residence, the laboratory, consulting-room, vacci-
nation or class-room, and a waiting-room comfortably
seated for one hundred and fifty. Here, there has been
some slight indulgence in ornamentation, which no one
will grudge in a place where the depressed and suffering
daily congregate. The east end of the room is adorned
with a beautiful stained-glass window, the gift of several
hundreds of the poor patients themselves ; the centre of
the window represents our Lord healing the sick — on the
one side are the words, “Himself took our infirmities,”
and on the other, “ and bare our sicknesses.” On the
second floor, are the resident physician’s parlour, the
matron’s parlour and bed-room, the kitchen, servants’
room, and dining-hall, in which there is a very hand-
some marble bust of Dr. Livingstone, and an oil paint-
ing of Dr. Moffat. The third floor is occupied by the
library, and bed-room parlours of the students.

HISTORY AND PROGRESS.

227

The wide-spread and successful efforts made to raise
the funds necessary for the erection of the Livingstone
Memorial, gave a great impulse to the cause of medical
missions. Many then learned, for the first time, that
such an organization existed, and that such a Christ-like
work was carried on, and these have ever since been
liberal supporters of the Society.

Since 1872, upwards of forty students have been edu-
cated and trained for their work in the Institution.
Legally qualified medical missionaries have been sup-
plied by this Society, to the Church Missionary Society,
the London Missionary Society, the Established Church
of Scotland, the Free Church, United Presbyterian,
English Presbyterian, Irish Presbyterian, Scottish Epis-
copal, Baptist, and Methodist New Connexion Missionary
Societies ; to the China Inland Mission, the American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the
American Methodist Missionary Society, as well as to
several Home Medical Missions. The students belong
to the various evangelical denominations, and are drawn
from all parts of the United Kingdom, and from other
countries. The Society, in its constitution, and in its
practical operations, provides a platform upon which all,
of whatever name or denomination, who love the Lord
Jesus Christ, and whose prayer is “Thy kingdom come,”
may join hand in hand in a holy alliance for the ad-
vancement of His dominion, which “shall extend from
sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.”

228

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

We must not omit to mention that the Edinburgh
Medical Missionary Society has established several
flourishing medical missions in the foreign field. Re-
ference has already been made to two of these missions,
namely, the Nazareth Medical Mission, and the Medical
Mission at Madras ; the latter, however, has been lately
transferred to the Free Church of Scotland. In 1874,
the Society established a most successful medical mission
at Niigata, Japan, which has just been transferred to the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions ;
and more recently, it has sent forth Dr. Mackinnon to
commence medical mission work in Damascus. It
assisted Miss de Broen in the inauguration of the Belle-
ville Medical Mission in Paris, and paid the salary of the
medical missionary there for the first two years ; while
within the last few years, it has remitted upwards of
^2000, in grants for the purchase of medicines, instru-
ments, &c., to medical missionaries labouring in India,
China, Africa, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Rome, and in other
lands and islands of the sea.

These are a few outstanding indications of the Divine
blessing resting upon the work of the Society, and upon
the cause, with the progress of which it has been so
closely identified during the past forty-four years ; but
there are other indications which we cannot tabulate,
and which inspire us with still greater hopefulness than
even the encouraging facts to which we have referred.
We allude to the increasing appreciation of this form of

HISTOR Y AND PROGRESS.

229

agency, and to the intelligent interest which has been
awakened in the work. Apologetic pleading on behalf
of medical missions is not now called for; the work
approves itself to every true-hearted Christian, and the
objections to medical missions which were rife five and
twenty years ago, are now never even heard. It was
difficult formerly to obtain appointments for the medical
missionary students as they finished their course of pre-
paration ; now the demand is greater than the supply.
As already stated, there are now, in active service, at home
and abroad, upwards of one hundred and seventy qualified
medical missionaries, of whom not more than thirty were
in the field in 1870; while, from time to time, almost
every missionary periodical tells the story of medical
missionary triumphs in all parts of the world.

In closing their last Annual Report, the Directors of
the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society say: “We
would ask all interested in the cause of medical missions
to join with us in humble and hearty thanksgiving to
God, for the large measure of success and blessing which
He hath so graciously vouchsafed upon all departments
of the Society’s work. Financially, and otherwise, the
past year has been perhaps the most prosperous in our
history. Large demands have been made upon our
resources, both for home and foreign work, but these
demands have been created by the very fulness of the
Divine blessing which has rested upon the Society’s
operations ; and it is very pleasing to observe that, in a

230

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

corresponding measure, the Lord hath graciously inclined
the hearts of His people to send liberal help. We must
not, however, rest content with our present position.
The experience of the past, the ever increasing interest
in the work, the vantage ground which, as a Society, we
occupy, the resources which, when needed, have always
been provided — in short, God’s providential dealings with
us, all conspire to urge us forward ; we would hear His
voice in all, saying to us, ‘ Enlarge the place of thy tent,
and stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations ; spare
not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes, for
thou shalt break forth on the right hand, and on the

left.’ ”

HOME MEDICAL MISSIONS; THEIR PLACE,
METHOD, AND POWER.

CHAPTER IX.

i^tcbicrtl 3j$ti*$um« ; tljctv place*
ntcUprtr, anfc ^wfr.

HILE our chief object is to illustrate the value

of medical missions, and to promote the more

general employment of this agency as an auxiliary to
missionary work abroad, yet the treatment of our subject
would be incomplete without some reference to medical
mission work at home.

In this department, we again find the Edinburgh
Medical Missionary Society taking the lead. The first
Home medical mission, however, although established
and supported by that society, was not located in Edin-
burgh, but in Ireland. In 1848, the late Rev. Dr.
Carlile, of Parsonstown, King’s County, Ireland, wrote
a very interesting letter to the Directors of the Edinburgh
Medical Missionary Society, stating, in a very strong and
effective manner, the claims of Ireland as a field for

234

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

medical missionary effort, and requesting them, if pos-
sible, to send him a medical coadjutor to act as a
missionary at Birr, where an active evangelistic mission
had just been established by the Irish Presbyterian
Church. “ I have for many years thought,” wrote Dr.
Carlile, “that Ireland should be treated just like any
other mission field, and that it required even more deli-
cacy and energy of treatment than almost any other ; and
so far back as 1825, I printed an appeal in which I
urged, among other measures, the employment of mis-
sionary physicians. My residence in the heart of Ireland
for eight years, has confirmed my opinion as to the need
of such an agency, and has made me exceedingly anxious
that at least the experiment should be made.”

China was the field which the Directors had intended
to occupy so soon as they were in a position to support
an agent of their own, and, conscious of their dependence
on the Divine blessing, they resolved to hold a monthly
prayer-meeting to implore God’s help and guidance in
reference to this special matter. These meetings, the
first of which was held in April, 1848, were most precious
and profitable seasons to all who were privileged to take
part in them. At the second meeting, Dr. Carlile’s letter
was read, and was received as a direct answer to prayer.
After mature consideration, the Directors resolved to
respond to Dr. Carlile’s request, and, should a suitable
agent be found, to support a medical missionary at Birr
but meanwhile, they determined to relax none of their

HOME MEDICAL MISSIONS.

235

efforts on behalf of China. The Committee frequently
met for prayer that some one qualified for the work might
offer his services as a medical missionary to Ireland.
They did not wait long, for early in August the same
year, Dr. Alexander W. Wallace, a young graduate of
Edinburgh University, applied for the appointment, and
having produced most satisfactory testimonials as to his
qualifications, both medical and missionary, he was forth-
with appointed. Writing to the Committee, a few months
after Dr. Wallace had entered upon his duties at Birr,
Dr. Carlile expressed his great satisfaction with the result
of the “ experiment,” as he termed it. “ It is,” he says,
“ with much thankfulness, that I have to own that God
appears peculiarly to smile on the experiment which you
have made in sending us a medical missionary. I bless
God that I was led, I trust by His Spirit, to suggest the
measure to your Society, and that you were led, I trust
by the same Spirit, to comply with the request I then
made, and that He provided for you one so well qualified
in every way as Dr. Wallace. He is rapidly gaining the
confidence of the people ; his hands are quite full of
work, and several, who were well known to us as our
most bigoted and violent opponents, have been consult-
ing him. He is everything that my fondest hopes could
desire — zealous in his profession, and equally so for the
glory of God.”

In his dispensary, and in visiting patients at their own
homes, while he successfully discharged his duties as a

236

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

physician, Dr. Wallace availed himself most assiduously
of every opportunity to commend to his patients the truth
as it is in Jesus, and many were led to acknowledge
themselves indebted to him, as the instrument in leading
them to the Saviour, the source of all true peace. He
was, ere long, welcomed in many quarters, where formerly
he had been abused, stoned, and driven from the doors.
Two years after he had settled at Birr, Dr. Carlile wrote :
“ We may now say that all opposition to the doctor has
ceased. We are every day hearing of people who
formerly were most violent in their opposition giving way
— some of them consulting him, and others cordially
acknowledging the value of his services; and it is en-
couraging to be able to add, that this change has taken
place in the mind of the people simultaneously with his
more openly and decidedly prosecuting the higher object
of his mission. As the result of his work, I believe a
great change is silently and gradually passing over the
community here.”

Dr. Wallace carried on his work at Birr, as the agent
of the Society, till 1855, when thepassingof the Medical
Relief Bill limited, to a great extent, his usefulness ; and
this circumstance, along with the fact, that extensive
emigration from the locality had entirely changed the
character of the district, as a sphere for medical missionary
work, led the Directors to relinquish the mission at Birr,
and to concentrate their efforts on some part of the
foreign field.

HOME MEDICAL MISSIONS.

237

Let us hope, that this brief allusion to the first Home
Medical Mission may awaken, in the minds of those
interested in Irish evangelization, a desire to promote
medical mission work among the poor of that unhappy
and distracted country. There are centuries of deep-
rooted prejudice to be overcome before the poor people
there will listen readily to the truth from our lips ; and,
humanly speaking, no agency is better fitted to soften
and remove those prejudices, and to open up among
them a way for the proclamation of the Gospel message,
than the peaceful and benevolent operation of a medical
mission.

The next home medical mission was that established
in Edinburgh by the late Dr. Handyside, known as “The
Main Point Mission Dispensary,” the parent of “dear
old 39,” and, in a sense, of all our home medical mission
dispensaries. In a previous chapter, we have related the
interesting story of the origin of this medical mission,
its removal in 1858 to No. 39, Cowgate, its adoption by
the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society as a Training
School for the Society’s students, and its subsequent
development and success. We proceed now to show the
value of this form of agency as an auxiliary to home
mission work ; and as facts are better than theories, we
may, perhaps, best serve our purpose by giving a few
glimpses of our Cowgate work, as carried on from day
to day in the “ Livingstone Memorial Medical Missionary
Training Institution.”

238

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

Details of equal interest might no doubt be given,
regarding the medical missions in London, Glasgow,
Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, and elsewhere. Our
object, however, is not so much to give home medical
missionary information, as to illustrate the practical
working and usefulness of medical missions as a home
evangelistic agency, and therefore, in the following pages,
we shall confine our attention to the operations of the
medical mission in Edinburgh, which it is our privilege
to superintend, and with which we are most familiar.

The following summary of cases attended during 1884
will indicate how highly the dispensary is appreciated’
and how great a blessing it must be, from a merely bene-
volent point of view, in the densely populated locality in
which it is situated : —

Patients registered only on their first visit 5,477
Patients visited at their own homes ... 3,243

Midwifery cases attended 236

Vaccination cases 237

Total 9,193

On the lowest average, each patient came twice to the
dispensary for advice at the consulting hour, or to have
minor operations performed or wounds dressed at the
dispensary hour, thus giving 10,954 visits. The patients
treated at their own homes were each visited, at least,
three times, thus giving 9,729 separate visits; adding to
this number the attendance on midwifery cases, averaging

HOME MEDICAL MISSIONS.

239

four visits in each case, upwards of 10,600 visits were
paid to the sick at their own homes during the year.

These statistics, which are below the average of several
years past, will give some idea of the number of poor
people brought, year by year, under the influence of the
mission, and imply a vast amount of suffering and misery
alleviated or removed ; but no statistics can reveal the
amount of effort put forth, nor the success of that effort,
to lead sin-stricken souls to Jesus, the Great Physician,
for spiritual healing. Again and again we have been
taught, by the blessed results of faithful, prayerful dealing
with our poor patients, that —

“ Down in the human heart,

Crushed by the tempter,

Feelings lie buried that grace can restore ;

Touched by a loving hand,

Wakened by kindness,

Chords that were broken will vibrate once more.”

Daily, at the consultation hour, may be seen “ a great
multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered,”
waiting their turn, as of old at the pool of Bethesda.
The work of each day is begun with a short religious
service, conducted by the students, and although the
assembly is always a very sad one to behold — poverty,
vice, and wretchedness, in all their most aggravated
phases, being the prominent feature — yet, as far as regards
quiet, respectful attention, and even apparent interest, we
could hardly wish a more orderly, or eager audience.

240

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

This short service over, the bell rings, and the patients
pass, one by one, into the consulting-room, in the order
of the number on the ticket which each receives on
entering the waiting-room. They are examined, and have
suitable medicine prescribed for their ailments, which
they receive when they return in the evening. A lady
visitor is appointed for each day, who, when the service
is over, reads and converses with the patients while any
remain in the waiting-room. A few jottings from the
pen of one of our lady visitors will give an idea of the
interesting and encouraging nature of this labour of
love.

“The hours I spend in the waiting-room among the
patients I value much, and the work is interesting and
varied, reminding one often of the Apostle’s words, ‘ To
the one, we are the savour of death unto death, and to
the other, the savour of life unto life.’ In conversing
with them, my first and constant effort is to place before
them the Triune Jehovah — a Heavenly Father who can-
not look upon sin, but who, while He can only receive
the sinner as washed pure in the blood of His dear Son,
never fails to remember that we are ‘ but dust;’ a crucified
Saviour, now our Advocate with the Father, who is still
as willing to plead our cause at God’s right hand as
when, with His dying breath, He craved forgiveness for
those of whom He said, ‘they know not what they do
a Holy Ghost, whose chief delight it is to bring comfort
to hearts broken perchance for sin, or by the many

HOME MEDICAL MISSIONS.

241

crosses and sorrows of earth. Sometimes our conversation
will be interrupted by some one saying, ‘ Oh, the Virgin
will intercede for us ! ’ Then another of the group of
listeners will say, ‘ What the lady tells us is quite true ; ’
or, pointing to a text-card on the wall, another will read
aloud, ‘ It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all accepta-
tion, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,’
and others will chime in with, ‘Ay, He is the one to
save us.’

“ I strive, too, to impress upon their minds the value
and privilege of prayer. The feelings of two classes
among the patients, on this subject, will best be told as
they were manifested. On one occasion, the student,
whose turn it was to conduct the usual opening service,
was detained at the infirmary a little beyond two o’clock.
A few minutes after the hour had struck, one woman,
fearing lest the Scripture reading, address, and prayer
should that day be omitted, exclaimed, ‘ Lady, are we to
have no prayer to-day ? ’ I instantly felt, that a soul thus
craving to be led into communion with God must have
an effort made to meet its want. ‘ Yes, my good woman,’
I replied, ‘we shall have prayer; one of the doctors
always asks a blessing upon us — it shall be our privilege
to-day to seek a blessing and wisdom for them.’

“On another occasion, a woman came in just a moment
or two before the student who was to conduct the service
entered. On learning that, previous to the patients being
called into the consulting-room, there is an address and
i?

242

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

prayer, she said, ‘ Oh, I’ve other things to attend to, I’ve
got no time for prayer.’ Catching up her words, I replied,
‘ No time for prayer ! no time for prayer ! but one day
you will have to find time for death ! ’ She made no
reply, but quietly took her seat. After the address, when
the student retired, I took advantage of the opportunity,
and read some portions of Scripture, and related a few
anecdotes illustrating the power of prayer, which seemed
to produce a deep impression upon the poor woman, and
indeed upon all present.

“ I love to place before them the bright prospect, to
the child of God, of heaven as a home, for which they
must prepare, where there shall be no temptation to sin,
where no sorrow shall ever enter, and no pain or sickness
shall ever be felt ; and as I have thus talked with them, I
have seen the big tear trickling down the cheek of one
and another, and many times, even strong, rough men
have turned (when the bell had rung for them to pass
into the consulting-room) to say, ‘ Good-bye, ma’am, I
won’t forget what you have been telling us.’ Lately, a
young woman said to me, ‘ A friend of mine heard you
here the other day talking about these things, and when
she came home, she told the whole of it to us.’ I could
but ask her to go and do likewise. In speaking one
day, principally to the children, a mother, pointing to
her daughter, said quietly to me, ‘ She will tell it all over
to father to-night, when he comes home from his work.’

“ On another occasion, the student read and dwelt upon

HOME MEDICAL MISSIONS.

2 43

the parable of the Prodigal Son ; and as I endeavoured
to illustrate it afterwards in a homely way, a man told me
he had known that chapter since he was a child ; his
grandfather almost invariably made him read it over to
him on the Sabbath evening ; and at school, a well-bound
Bible was offered to the boy who could repeat it most
correctly. He gained the prize, ‘ and a sixpence besides
from grandfather.’ The assurance of pardoned sin — the
realization that we are one with Christ, and He with us —
he could not imagine any one could have ; but so en-
grossed was he with the conversation, that when his turn
came, he made ten patients go into the consulting-room
before he went, and at last, when all had been examined
except himself, he begged I would wait till he had seen
the doctor — which I promised to do. On his return to
the waiting-room, he told me he was going to Glasgow
next day. ‘We might never meet again on earth,’ he
said, ‘but, by God’s grace, we’ll meet in heaven;’ and
bidding me good-bye, he promised, if once more back in
Edinburgh, that he would be sure to come to the waiting-
room for more instruction, even should he not need
medicine. Surely within that poor man there was a
thirsting for the truth ; may the Weary One who sat on
Jacob’s well satisfy him from the river of life.”

While visiting patients at their own homes, very
precious opportunities are enjoyed of dealing personally
with many, who might never otherwise care to listen to
the Gospel message ; and it is no small pleasure to hear,

244

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

from time to time, warm expressions of gratitude from
many such, not only for the kind and successful treat-
ment they have received, but likewise for the faithful
words spoken to them, and for the prayers offered on
their behalf. One or two glimpses of this department of
the work may interest the reader.

Within three days, we attended two death-beds, both
dispensary cases, and we could not have wished to listen
to more satisfactory testimony to the preciousness of
Jesus than was given by both these poor patients. In
neither case were we present when the spirit took its
flight ; but the one left a message for us with her husband,
who came to the dispensary within half an hour of his
wife’s death, and faithfully delivered it to us. “ Tell the
doctor,” she said, “ that his prayers have been answered,
and that Jesus was with me all through the dark valley;
tell him I can never, never thank God enough for all the
good I have got at the dispensary, for there I came to
know my Saviour.” The last time she was out was at the
Saturday Evening Entertainment, when she got a text,
which, she said, was a great source of comfort to her on
her dying bed.

The other case was that of a young woman — a great
sufferer, but very patient. The day before she died, she

tried to express to us how thankful she felt to Dr. B ,

who had seen her in consultation several times. “ How
kind you have both been to me ! ” she said ; “ but you
have done it all for Jesus, and He says, put it all down

HOME MEDICAL MISSIONS.

245

to My account. That’s a grand text; give it to Dr.

B from me when you see him next.” She alluded

to the words, “ Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of
the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto
me.” Visiting her a few days previously, she said, “ No
one knows the agony I suffer — it’s just like as if you had
cut down to the bone of my leg, and then poured in
melted lead ; and it never cools, it’s burning, burning
from night to morning, and from morning till night.”
We expressed the hope that she would continue to bear
her sufferings patiently, when she said, “ Oh, doctor, do
you think I’m complaining ? I wadna hae it ither than
it is for a’ the warld. The mair I suffer, the closer I get
to Jesus, and it helps me to think of His sufferings for
me.” She died very peacefully a few days after that
interview.

One of our patients who had long been a great sufferer
died recently. The day before his death/when we visited
him, he said to us : “ Doctor, I’m glad to see you once
more, and to tell you that I’m perfectly happy, and have
no fear. I’m resting on Jesus, the Rock of Ages, and
I’ll soon be with Him in glory. I want you to tell the
students, for their encouragement, that, under God, I
owe all to the dispensary, and to the Gospel of His grace
which I heard there.”

Mrs. Iv was an Irishwoman — one of a class we

are daily brought into contact with, and whose surround-
ings and prejudices are such as to render it almost im-

246

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

possible for the City Missionary or Bible-woman to gain
access with the Gospel. The house physician thus writes
of her : “I was from time to time called to attend her
husband, who is subject to attacks of epileptiform con-
vulsions. I always receive a very kindly welcome from
these two, although, on my visits, I invariably have prayer
and reading of the Word with them. They listen most
attentively, and converse freely about the portions read.
The books I lend them are received with gratitude, and
perused with care. The old man, whose strength is fast
failing, often comes to the door with me to have a few
last words, and always entreats me to pray for him ; and
now his wife and he attend regularly our meeting on the
Sabbath evening.

“ Mrs. M was a great sufferer, and at first, like

Mrs. K , very strong in her prejudices. By and by,

when confidence was established, she allowed me to pray
with her. I told her that the Lord Jesus Christ, and
only He, was able to save to the uttermost. ‘ Yes,’ she
replied with emphasis ; ‘ only He, only He.’ She passed
through months of wearying pain, but manifested much
patience, receiving, day and night, the kind and gratuitous
ministrations of a girl who lodged in the same room with
her. Her own daughter — a poor, half-witted creature —
could do but little, and her husband was a drunkard.
But, ere long, the whole family welcomed us, and the
glad tidings we brought to them, and it was most en-
couraging to see how eagerly even the husband would

HOME MEDICAL MISSIONS.

247

accept our books and tracts, and begin to read them
before our visit was over. Early in the winter she passed
away, rejoicing in the assurance that ‘He, and He only,
can save to the uttermost.’

“Mrs. S and her husband belong to the same

class, and during the winter they have both been ill, and
required frequent visits. They not only listen most at-
tentively to the reading of the Scriptures, but, at their
urgent request, I obtained a New Testament for them,
and they tell me that they and their son never go to rest
at night without reading a portion.”

It would be easy to multiply examples of the ready
access the medical missionary obtains to a class, other-
wise almost inaccessible, in the Cowgate and neighbour-
hood. These not only gladly welcome him, and receive
instruction from him in their homes, but also come to
the week-night and Sunday evening services to learn
more.

A home medical mission will not be long in operation,
before the requirements of the work will necessitate the
formation of various schemes of Christian activity and
usefulness — all of them intimately associated with, and,
indeed, the outcome of, the dispensary practice. These
we shall best illustrate by a brief allusion to the different
departments of work carried on in connection with the
Cowgate Medical Mission.

1 . Evangelistic Services. Besides the daily service with
the patients in the waiting-room, two regular evangelistic

24S

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

meetings are held weekly, one on Thursday evening, the
other on Sunday evening. The attendance fluctuates,
but often the Magdalen Chapel is crowded by a very
poor, though most attentive audience. An after-meeting
is held at the close, and frequently nearly all who are
present at the first meeting remain for prayer, and not a
few for personal conversation. As the result of these
services, many have been awakened, have found peace
in believing, and are now proving, by their consistent
conduct and enjoyment of Christian privileges, the reality
of the change they have experienced.

2. A Bible Class for Adults is conducted by one of
the senior students on the Sunday afternoon. This class
is specially intended for inquirers, and enables us to know
those who are really in earnest, so that we can help them,
in many ways, amid their numerous difficulties and
temptations.

3. The Sunday Forenoon Children's Church held in the
Magdalen Chapel, and the Cowgate Arabs' Sunday
School which meets in the waiting-room in the evening,
are two of the most hopeful and interesting departments
of the work. Every Sunday, between four and five
hundred children, living in the Cowgate and neighbour-
hood, receive Christian instruction at these services.
Many of them, when first laid hold of, are as utterly
ignorant of Divine truth as the children in Central Africa,
but they have been tamed, and trained, and taught, till
now the Cowgate children’s services will compare favour-

HOME MEDICAL MISSIONS.

249

ably with those held in connection with many of our
City churches in more favoured localities. Last year the
children attending the Sunday forenoon service contri-
buted no less than £12, to help their former teachers
in carrying on their medical mission work in Persia and
Kashmir.

The student who superintends the Cowgate Arabs’
Sunday Evening School thus writes of its present hopeful
condition and prospects : “ Implicit and prompt obedi-
ence is now secured with comparatively little effort, and
if a rebellious spirit should occasionally manifest itself, it
is very quickly and effectually quelled, by dealing with
the miscreant on the platform in presence of the whole
school. Time was, when such a plan of dealing with our
unruly boys would have almost inevitably created a riot.
An orderly, quiet, and, we believe, profitable service now
amply repays us, for the time and labour spent in ‘ break-
ing in ’ those previously neglected little ones ; and now
that we can more and more systematically minister to
the needy souls of our youthful charge, we may, humanly
speaking, expect that with the Divine blessing fruit will
soon appear, and some of the lambs be brought within
the fold.”

4. Services in Lodging-Houses. On Sunday afternoons,
meetings are held by the students in several of the large
lodging-houses in the Cowgate and Grassmarket. In
most of these lodging-houses, patients reside for longer
or shorter periods, who during the week are visited, or

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come for treatment to the dispensary. Thus we get
acquainted with them and their fellow-lodgers, and gain-
ing ready access, we have often in these houses most
attentive audiences of from twelve to twenty or thirty
people.

5. The Yoting Women's Association is a most encour-
aging and important department of our work. The
management and active work of the association devolve
on a president — who is generally the resident physician
for the time being — and lady associates, of whom at
present there are fourteen. Each lady associate has
from eight to ten girls under her special charge, whom
she visits regularly. Much good has resulted from the
personal influence thus exercised, and many girls have
been helped, encouraged, and guided amid the many
temptations and difficulties that beset them. One
hundred and forty-five members are at present on the
roll — as many, indeed, as our limited accommodation will
admit of our receiving. The ages of the girls vary from
fifteen to twenty-two. The great majority are shop girls,
book-folders, and envelope makers ; some are domestic
servants, others message girls, while a few who are
orphans, or whose mothers are dead, attend to household
affairs.

The schemes in operation in connection with the
Young Women’s Association are Bible classes, a temper-
ance society, missionary sewing-meetings, lectures, a
savings’ bank, registry for situations, a lending library,

HOME MEDICAL MISSIONS.

2S1

and benefit society. A prayer-meeting is held fortnightly,
which has been the means of blessing to not a few.
Sixty of the girls are members of the “Scripture Union.”
The weekly meeting of the association is held on Monday
evening, in the waiting-room of the institution, when in-
structive lectures are delivered by members of our medical
staff, by returned missionaries, students, or other friends.
Examinations are held from time to time on the subjects
of lectures, and prizes are awarded. One evening every
month is devoted to music, while another, which is
greatly enjoyed, is usefully spent as a missionary sewing-
meeting. Weekly Bible exercises are regularly written
by the members of the Bible class, and two prizes are
given, at the close of the summer session, for the best
answers to written questions upon the lessons taught
during the year. The good influences thus brought to
bear upon the young women have been much blessed,
and many of them give evidence that they have under-
gone a saving change.

6. The Young Men's Association has only lately been
commenced ; between thirty and forty young men, from
fifteen to twenty-one years of age, have already joined as
members, paying a subscription of one penny a week.
A reading and recreation room is open three nights a
week. Bound volumes of the Graphic , Good Words,
The Leisure Hour , British Workman, &c., and the daily
newspapers, are provided ; also a bagatelle table, draught
boards, dominoes, &c. Twice a week classes are held

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

for reading and writing. In this way, we endeavour to
offer counter-attractions to those of the public-house,
and it is encouraging to find that the members of the
association appreciate our efforts in this direction.

7. Saturday Evening Entertainments are given regularly
once a fortnight during the winter, when the waiting-
room is always filled to overflowing, and many of our
patients and their friends are thus enabled to close the
week, not as it otherwise might be, in rioting and
drunkenness, but in a profitable and enjoyable manner.
We believe these entertainments have helped to promote
the success of the more direct missionary work. We
have received letters from several of those who used to
attend, but who are now at work in various parts of the
country, some of them abroad, telling us that the first
step towards a better course of life was taken at these
Saturday evening entertainments.

A Temperance Society for adults, and a Band of Hope
for the young, are also important departments of our
medical missionary work. No Christian worker among
the lapsed masses can do much good, unless he is an
out-and-out abstainer, and experience has taught us that
the fallen can never be reclaimed, unless by God's grace
they are brought to take their stand on the total abstin-
ence platform. Brought as we are into the closest
contact with our home heathenism, we would here bear
emphatic testimony to the humiliating fact, that amongst
the class for whose welfare we labour, the curse of in-

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253

temperance effectually prevents any general, widespread,
permanent impression from being produced upon the
community. We worked in the Cowgate, as a student,
twenty-five years ago, and although we rejoice to know
that since then, by God’s blessing on the medical mis-
sion and other agencies, not a few have been rescued
out of that slough of iniquity, wretchedness, and crime,
yet we believe that the Cowgate, with its dismal, dirty
closes is no better now, morally and socially, than it was
then, and the police statistics of the City confirm this
testimony.

Edinburgh, for beauty of situation, for intellectual,
moral, and social advantages, for general refinement and
high Christian privilege, is second to no city in the
kingdom ; yet alongside of all this, and in the very heart
of this fair metropolis of Scotland, there is a seething
mass of wretchedness, pollution, crime, disease, pauperism,
and sin, from which, were the veil to be uplifted, and the
ghastly spectacle revealed, the exclamation of the prophet
of old, concerning guilty Jerusalem, would rise spontane-
ously to many a lip, “ Is this the city that men call the
perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth ? ”

In the one short, narrow street in which the medical
mission is planted, we have no fewer than twenty-six
licensed spirit shops. The poor degraded victims of the
“ drink crave ” cannot resist temptation ; their habitual
indulgence robs them of self-control, and makes them
content to live on in misery and degradation. The mere

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

sight or smell of alcohol, in the case of those to whom
we refer, is sufficient to create the appetite, and hence,
in a district like the Cowgate, such an array of spirit
shops simply provides unlimited facilities for the complete
demoralization of the community. Our legislators may
theorize as to the causes of drunkenness, and ascribe the
prevalence of the evil to insanatory dwellings, to neglect
of education, lack of means for healthy recreation, &c.,
but we unhesitatingly affirm, that in the case of those at
least, who have fallen so low as to have become the
denizens of our city slums, the supply creates the demand.
Under existing circumstances, therefore, the moral and
social reformation of such districts is physiologically, as
well as morally, impossible. In legislative action which
admits, and even fosters, such a state of matters in our
midst, we are not only openly setting at defiance the laws
of Christian morality, but likewise the first principle of
civil government, which, as defined by a great living
statesman, is “ to make it easy to do right, and difficult
to do wrong.”

Upon the Church of Christ, which should be “ fair as
the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with
banners,” there rests a heavy responsibility in regard to
this national sin — the greatest of all obstacles to the
success of home mission work. Statesmen may legislate,
and social reformers may agitate, for the limitation or
suppression of the drink traffic, and we hail their co-
operation, and bid them God-speed in their zealous

HOME MEDICAL MISSIONS.

255

efforts ; but our hope rests in the Church of Christ rising
to the dignity of her calling, and exerting her mighty
influence against this God-dishonouring and soul-destroy-
ing sin, which is such a blot upon our national escut-
cheon.

There is cause for congratulation that the Church of
Christ, in its various sections, is becoming more and
more alive to the importance of this question, in its rela-
tion to home evangelization ; but her testimony must be
more clear and emphatic, and her efforts more united and
sustained, before this giant evil can be overcome, and the
Gospel have free scope among the sunken masses, to bear
its own testimony to its all-conquering power.

We have made this digression in order to record our
conviction that, with the existing legislation, and the
present system of administering the licensing laws, the
Church in her aggressive work among the lapsed masses
is utterly powerless, so far as that work aims at the re-
clamation of the moral wastes of our home heathenism.
Unless a radical change is effected, so that instead of
multiplying temptations they may, as far as possible, be
removed from the haunts of the drunken and depraved,
the Church should no longer hide from herself the humil-
iating fact, that while here and there one and another
may, by God’s blessing, be rescued, yet, so far as her
regenerating influence upon such communities is con-
cerned, her efforts are hopeless. We believe that the
lamentable want of success in home mission work is

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256

mainly owing to the Church’s lethargy and indifference
in regard to this one great evil. We are reaping as we
have sown. God deals with the Church in her collective
capacity as he deals with individuals, “ He that soweth
to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.” “ If thou
forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and
those that are ready to be slain ; if thou sayest, Behold
we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart
consider it, and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He
know it ? and shall not He render to every man accord-
ing to his works?” (Prov. xxiv. 11, 12.)

Regular weekly meetings are held in connection with
the Medical Mission Temperance Society and Band of
Hope. The fortnightly Saturday evening entertainments,
at which Gospel temperance addresses are alway given,
have been the means of bringing many forward to sign
the pledge ; and opportunities are likewise afforded at
the close of the Thursday and Sunday evening evangel-
istic services. Good has also been done in some in-
stances, by the distribution of attractive temperance
literature, such as The British Workman , The Wel-
come, “ The Life of J. B. Gough,” and other peri-
odicals and tracts. Looking back on what has been
done in this department of the medical mission work, in
the way of reclaiming from drunkenness, and from the
depths of misery and wretchedness, those for whom
Christ died, we have cause for thankfulness. We have
had discouragements not a few, in the falling away of

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257

some who, for a time, seemed to be getting on well; but,
on the other hand, we have again and again had the great
joy of seeing men and women firmly resisting temptation,
and, under the influence of Divine Grace, entering, we
believe, upon a new and better course of life.

The Band of Hope is carried on with regularity and
energy, but while such work among the young is always
the most hopeful, yet when we remember the surround-
ings of these poor children in the Cowgate, can we
wonder that their goodness is too often as “ a morning
cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away?”

While volunteer help from friends outside is always
welcome, and indeed in some departments of our work
necessary, the various schemes in connection with the
Mission Dispensary are worked by small committees of
our students appointed at the commencement of each
session ; and while all are expected, and do heartily co-
operate, to secure the success of the work as a whole,
yet each committee is responsible only for the regular
and efficient working of its own department.

In the Cowgate Medical Mission two objects have to
be kept in view. It is not merely a local benevolent and
evangelistic agency, but likewise a training school for
our future medical missionaries ; and in order to afford
the students sufficient scope for gaining practical medico-
evangelistic experience a variety of work is necessary.
During his four years’ course of preparation, each student
has his share of responsibility and of work in connection

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

258

with all the schemes in operation. He goes forth to the
foreign field, not as a novice, but as a trained and tested
medical missionary, having an intelligent grasp of the
medical mission principle, and familiar with the best
methods of carrying on medico-evangelistic work. It
has been our aim to make the Cowgate Medical Mission
a model mission dispensary — a mode alike for the
home and the foreign field ; and the best evidence of
its usefulness is the fact, that the Cowgate Mission
Dispensary is reproduced, with more or less identity of
detail wherever, in this or in other lands, its students
are engaged in their Christ-like work.

A home medical mission should begin its work on a
small scale, allowing its operations gradually to expand,
and each new department to grow out of the other. Funds
will be forthcoming, and workers will assuredly offer
themselves just as the need may arise. There are many
Christian physicians in practice in our larger towns and
cities who would be willing, no doubt, to give their pro-
fessional services at the dispensary an hour or more a
day, as is done in Edinburgh ; and there are likewise
Christian ladies and gentlemen in full sympathy with the
poor, who, out of love for their Saviour, would be ready
to do all the rest. In its inaugural stages at least, a home
medical mission might thus be established, even in our
smaller towns, and with very little expense. There is
one point to which special importance should be attached,
namely, that the mission be conducted on strictly unsec-

HOME MEDICAL MISSIONS.

259

tarian principles. Representatives from all the Evan-
gelical churches in the community should form its
committee of management, and workers from all denomi-
nations should be invited to co-operate in carrying on the
work.

Injudicious charity, of whatever kind, is hurtful, and
tends to pauperize the recipients and undermine their
self-respect. Even in providing medical relief for the
poor, this has to be kept in mind, and assuredly a medical
mission, if established on the provident system, will prove
all the more a beneficent agency. The aid received will
be none the less appreciated, while the moral influence of
the institution will be greatly increased. While, there-
fore, a small fixed charge for the medicine dispensed
(say twopence or threepence) will tend to foster self-
help among the patients, it will also largely help to defray
the expense of the drug bill. The patients who seek
advice at a mission dispensary belong, no doubt, to
the poorest class, but poor, wretched and miserable as
they are, they seem never at a loss for the means to
supply themselves with whisky, and therefore, when the
rule is once adopted, that a small fixed payment is to be
made for the medicine, it should be firmly and impar-
tially adhered to, and exceptions made, only in very special
circumstances, and after very careful inquiry.

Home medical missionary dispensaries ought to be
much more numerous than they are, and should be re-
cognized as an essential department of city mission work.

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

Through the early and middle ages the Christian Church
was the great eleemosynary institution ; provision for the
poor, the alleviation of physical suffering and distress,
medical aid for the destitute sick, all came directly from
the Church, and in this ministry, the teaching of the New
Testament and the example of Christ were the sources
of her inspiration. The Reformation, in its protestation
against the doctrine of “Good Works,” relegated religion,
for the most part, entirely to the heart, and left the relief
of the sick and suffering poor to the tender mercies of
the State, or impersonally, to the whole body of citizens,
and hence the medical relief of the poor has lost its dis-
tinctively Christian character. There is no lack of the
charitable relief of suffering in connection with our public
hospitals and dispensaries, but it is now merely a matter of
relief, while its bestowment has little practical value as an
influence over human hearts, and is not made to bear
with it, as in olden times, the odour of the love of God.
Happily, in our mission fields abroad, the Church is
reverting to her earlier, more Christ-like method of work,
and in so doing she is reaping a rich reward. In many
parts of the world, a devoted medical missionary can do
more in a month to commend the Gospel, than an or-
dinary missionary in the same community could do in a
year; and experience and observation alike teach that,
hand in hand with the Gospel, the healing art will be
found of equal value in our mission fields at home.

It is not enough merely to acknowledge that these

HOME MEDICAL MISSIONS.

2 6 1

institutions— our hospitals, our asylums, and refuges —
are the outcome of Christianity ; this, they undoubtedly
are, and, not infrequently, their benevolent operations
are conducted by ministers of the Gospel, by Christian
physicians, and by devoted business men : but the rightful
place, which all such institutions should occupy, is that of
auxiliaries to Christian work, and their blessings should
be dispensed as the direct outcome and manifestation of
the love and sympathy of Christ. Viewed in this light,
medical missions sustain that true relation to human suf-
fering which is, we believe, the Divine intention, and the
practical outcome of the Gospel of the Great Healer.

/

CONCLUSION.

CHAPTER X.

ttr |0!?un0 to ^tttbunte, mtfr

to tlje of |^tte«io^t0.

E have, in these pages, endeavoured to plead the

claims of Medical Missions. We have advocated

the more general employment of this agency, on the
ground that it is a method of missionary work not only
sanctioned, but enjoined, by the Master Himself, and
that the compassionate spirit of the Gospel claims, on
behalf of the less favoured nations, languishing in misery
and superstition, the consecration of medical science and
skill. We have illustrated the value of this agency, alike
as a pioneer to missionary work, and as a direct means
of bringing the truth to bear upon the heart and con-
science of individuals ; and we have seen that medical
missions are no mere experiment, but that they have
been tried and tested in almost every land, and among
the most prejudiced and exclusive communities, and,

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

moreover, that they have been most signally owned and
blessed of God, in the furtherance of His cause and
kingdom. The claims of the missionaries themselves
and their families, no less than our duty to the native
converts in their times of sickness, have been presented
as a powerful plea, for the establishment of a medical
department in connection with every localized mission.
The history and progress of modern medical missions
have been traced, in the establishment and growth of the
Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society, and in the wide-
spread interest in the cause which is now manifested ;
and lastly, while our chief object has been to promote
the Foreign Medical Missionary enterprise, we have not
overlooked the claims of medical missions as an auxiliary
to Home Evangelization, while throughout we have en-
deavoured to set forth the principles which impart to this
agency, whether employed at home or abroad, its peculiar
value and importance.

To take advantage of the openings for the employment
of this agency which, in the providence of God, are
everywhere presented, many more medical missionaries
are required, and to the Christian youth of our country
our appeal must therefore be made.

In this truly benevolent and Christ-like work, an op-
portunity is presented of consecrating the highest skill,
and the noblest powers, to the service of the best of
Masters, and to the promotion of the holiest and grandest
of enterprises. “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the

CONCLUDING APPEAL.

267

labourers are few ; pray ye therefore the Lord of the
harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest.”
Men and women endowed with special gifts and graces
are needed. We have elsewhere indicated the difficult
and responsible nature of the medical missionary’s work,
and the peculiar temptations to which he is exposed, it
is not therefore necessary again to refer to these. The
promise of “ grace sufficient ” is set over against every
difficulty and every temptation, however great or strong,
and will enable the faithful follower of the Lord Jesus
to say, with the great Apostle : “ Most gladly, therefore,
will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of
Christ may rest upon me, for when I am weak, then am
I strong.”

Our appeal is not addressed to young men who have
a high estimate of their own ability, and who make light
of the difficulties and responsibilities of the work. Such
men, however richly endowed with gifts and graces, make
but poor representatives of the Master anywhere, but
especially so in the mission field. One of the truest and
most reliable evidences of a call from God to engage in
this service, is a humble sense of one’s own insufficiency,
which can only be met with the Divinely inspired con-
viction, “ Our sufficiency is of God.”

From every land is wafted the Macedonian cry, “ Come
over and help us,” while with that cry is heard the pitiful
wail of languishing humanity. Men are needed, to go
forth to those neglected and suffering millions, with

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

healing in the one hand and the Gospel in the other —
men "skilled as physicians, and wise to win souls — men
filled with love to Christ, and with the Spirit of the living
God — men upon whom the spirit of the great Apostle
rests, constraining them to esteem the work as a “ grace
given,” not as a duty imposed — as a privilege enjoyed,
not as a sacrifice made. Such young men the Church
needs, and to such God, in His providence, now appeals.
“Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? saith the
Lord.” Oh that from our universities, our medical schools,
our halls of learning ; from the workshop, the counter,
and the desk, many young men, impelled by the con-
straining influence of the love of Christ, may respond,

“ Here am I, Lord, send me.”

To those who are about to enter the profession, and
to young graduates on the outlook for a suitable sphere
in which to commence practice, the Divine call comes,
and we ask such to consider the claims of this depart-
ment of service. We address ourselves to those who, by
God’s grace, reckon themselves “ debtors to the Gospel,”
and looking to the “ fields white unto the harvest,” all
we would ask of such is, to inquire conscientiously and
prayerfully, “ Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? Am I
fitted, and if fitted, am I willing, to devote my life to this
service ? ” Let such questions be pondered calmly and
prayerfully, and we may rest assured that, to such as
are called of God to go forth into the field, the way will
be made plain before them, and they will receive the

CONCLUDING APPEAL.

269

special equipment needed for the special work assigned
to them ; while those, who are unable to go, will receive
the comforting assurance that, if there be “ the willing
mind ” it is accepted according to what a man hath, and
not according to what he hath not.

It may touch a chord in the heart of some young
Christian physician, for whom God has yet higher and
nobler service in store than he has ever contemplated ;
and it may serve as an inspiration to others, and as an
appeal to their loyalty and devotion to Christ, if we here
relate the experience of Dr. Asahel Grant, to whose re-
markable success as a medical missionary, reference has
been made in a previous chapter. In his “ Appeal
addressed to Pious Physicians,” written soon after his
arrival in Persia, Dr. Grant thus alludes to the time when
he decided to leave all for Christ, and to go forth as a
medical missionary. “ A young physician, who had an
extensive and increasing practice in one of our flourishing
cities, had thought much of engaging in the work, but as
often as he considered the matter he dismissed it, under
the plea that, much as labourers might be needed, yet
there were so many obstacles in his way, that he, at all
events, could not go. Others were better qualified, and
had far less to detain them at home — they might go ;
but they did not — the call was urgent, and what was to
be done? He prayed over the subject, and resolved on
a more thorough examination of personal duty. He
took up his former excuses one by one. He asked, can

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

I do more at home or abroad for the conversion of the
world ? In this view, where am I most needed ? Here,
I may relieve much suffering, and perhaps prolong some
valuable lives ; but should I go, others could do that just
as well, and I should not be missed. Abroad, I may
relieve a hundred-fold more of misery, perhaps save the
lives of missionaries, of inestimable value to the cause,
and that, too, when no one else will do it. Here, I have
many opportunities of working for Christ, but what are
they in comparison with those abroad, where I may be
the only spiritual guide to thousands who would never
be reached by another. Here, if I prosper, I can give
liberally, and labour for the heathen by proxy ; but money
alone will not do the work, and labourers, especially
physicians, are not to be found. Here, as an officer in
an influential church, and in connection with various
benevolent societies, I may do much — and many think
I ought not to change a certainty for an uncertainty ; but
do I not know, that those churches that do the most for
the heathen, and send forth the most labourers, are the
most blessed of God ? Can I not, then, do most for Christ
at home, by going in person to those who sit in darkness ?

“ But there are other ties, entwined with the tenderest
feelings of nature ; and how shall they be severed ?
How shall I leave my parents in their declining years ?
How say farewell to my sister and brothers? More
than all, how can I leave two darling children alone in
this selfish world ? In these questions, so far as mere

CONCLUDING APPEAL.

271

feeling is concerned, though the heart thrill with agony,
it should not turn the Christian from duty. My parents
are not dependent upon me, my going may be the greatest
blessing to my brothers and sister, and what can I do for
my children that would not be done for them if I am
gone ? The great thing to be done for a child is to fit
him for usefulness here, and for the enjoyment of God
in heaven. For this, agencies can be provided, and
super-added will be a parent’s example, turning their
attention to the great work he prays they may be quali-
fied to pursue. If God calls me to leave them for His
sake, He will take care of them. It may be the duty of
others to go, but would I let my neighbour die of hunger,
because his rich brother ought to feed him rather than I?
No more can I let millions perish, because others do not
give them the Bread of Life. I cannot, I dare not, go to
judgment, till I have done the utmost God enables me to
do, to diffuse His glory throughout the earth.”

The foreign field needs men like Dr. Asahel Grant,
who will calmly count the cost, and whose Christianity
inspires them with the determination to honour Christ,
by seeking to make the world better — men who solemnly
consecrate themselves and all they have to God, and
who dare not go from His altar, and stand convicted
before their own consciences, of having loved the world
more than God and the souls of their perishing fellow-
men — men who can say, as he said : “ My heart almost
faints within me, when I think of the magnitude of the

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MEDICAL MISSIONS.

work, and of my own unfitness for it ; but then, when I re-
member that He gave Himself for me, and has promised
to uphold me, then, at His call, and sustained by the
blessed assurance, ‘ I am with you alway,’ I stand ready
to go, in the face of danger and of death, to any part of
the world under the dominion of the prince of darkness,
my only wish in regard to a location being to go where
I am most needed.”

In this service, no great earthly rewards are promised,
no alluring prospects of professional distinction, no
tempting retiring allowances ; but most inviting fields are
offered for the exercise of the highest professional ac-
complishments, the prospect of a life of exceptional
usefulness, and, when life’s labour is ended, the “ Well
done, good and faithful servant.” There is, besides,
the honour and privilege of being called to be a “ fellow-
worker” with God, an ambassador for Christ, commissioned
to be the means, the witness, and the historian of the
highest and noblest developments of civilization ! With
St. Paul, the medical missionary may well say, “ I magnify
mine office,” for he, of all others, follows most closely in
the footsteps of Him of whom it is recorded, “ He went
about among all the cities and villages, teaching and
preaching in their synagogues, and healing all manner of
sickness and disease among the people.” Contemplate
also the grandeur of the medical missionary’s aims ; —
in the eloquent words of one of the vice-presidents of
the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society, the late Mr.

CONCLUDING APPEAL.

273

Miller, Professor of Surgery in the University of Edin-
burgh, “ Think of the brilliant career that opens out
before the medical missionary. How noble, by the
simple operation for cataract, to ‘ throw open the dark-
ened windows of the soul, and let the sweet light of
heaven into man’s otherwise dreary tabernacle ! ’ — but how
nobler far, to open the spiritual eye to see the Sun of
Righteousness, to behold the Lamb of God ! How kind
the art, by vaccination, to deposit in man’s earthly frame
a particle of wondrous power, whereby a loathsome, and
most fatal plague shall be either altogether averted, or
rendered mild and tractable when it comes ! — but yet how
far more kind, to be the means of introducing into the
inner man a new and vital principle, more powerful and
prophylactic still— the new heart, the Gospel light, the
Spirit’s grace — whereby the worst of all evils, sin, shall
be shorn of its malignant power, shall be subdued and
trampled on, routed and driven away ! How blessed is
that skill which cures the ulcerous wound, and mitigates
the agonies of fell disease ! — but how far more blessed, to
heal the soul’s deadly hurt, and pour the ‘ balm of
Gilead ’ into the sinner’s wounded spirit ! How merciful
the hand that safely amputates the unsightly mass of
morbid and abnormal growth, whose very weight is bur-
densome, whose course is deathward ! — but what richer
mercy far to help, Bunyan-like, to lift that heavier load,
which not only oppresses now, but would crush and sink
the bearer into endless misery ! How grateful is the

19

274

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

task to cure the halting cripple, and make him walk and
leap again as if in youth ! — but how more glorious far, to
recall the wanderer’s steps from folly, sin, and death ; to
guide his feet into the way of peace; to show him the
old paths, where is the good way, that he may walk
therein and find rest for his soul ! ”

While the practice of the healing art is marked out, in
a way more striking than in any former age, as one of the
channels through which the blessings of the Gospel are
destined to flow forth upon the world, another result of
the employment of this agency may be anticipated, which
cannot but inspire the enthusiastic Christian practitioner
with an ardent desire to engage in the work. The medi-
cal missionary’s object is two-fold — to preach the Gospel,
and to heal the sick ; and while his skill and success as
a practitioner are to be made’subservient to his evangelistic
work, still, his ministry of healing is, in itself, a service
which, in the mission field, is of inestimable value. He
carries with him, into less favoured and often barbarous
lands, the blessings of our great modern improvements in
medical and surgical science, and there, he may even be
the means of founding schools of medicine which, at no
distant day, may be centres of enlightenment and civili-
zation, radiating the benefits of Western science and
beneficence throughout the “ dark places of the earth.”
Where medical missions are established, the training of
native agents usually forms an important part of the
work. In Agra, a Medical Missionary Training Institution

CONCLUDING APPEAL.

275

is in operation. In the great empire of China, almost the
only means by which the Chinese can obtain a medical
education, is in connection with our medical missions ;
while in Syria and Central Turkey, flourishing medical
colleges have been established by American missionary
societies. In Japan, while all native physicians, at present
practising in the country, may continue to do so accord-
ing to the system in which they have been trained, a
recent order of the Government enforces, that no licenses
to practise are in future to be granted except to those
who shall pass an examination in Western medical science.
There are, according to the official census, thirty-four
thousand native physicians practising in Japan, of
whom less than five hundred have received any in-
struction in European medical science. If, therefore,
Japan is to be supplied with educated physicians in a
proportion equal to its population, before the close of
the next generation at least thirty thousand men must
be trained, who, from the nature of their profession, will
exercise a vast influence upon society. Japan is calling
for the medical science of Christendom, and doubtless
the call will be responded to, but shall it be with, or
without, the faith of Christendom ? With God’s bless-
ing, a Christian medical school in Japan, such as the
Protestant college at Beyrout, and at Aintab in Central
Turkey, would prove a most powerful agency in the
evangelization of that great empire. The coming era
of the missionary enterprise will, we believe, be char-

2 7 6 MEDICAL MISSIONS.

acterized by a concentration of effort in the great
work of training native agents for the evangelization of
their fellow-countrymen ; and in this special department
of work, as in all others, the friends of missions must be
prepared to provide native Christians with the means of
education and training in order to fit them for efficient
service. What inviting spheres of influence and useful-
ness are thus waiting to be occupied by young talented
medical men, competent to instruct others in their pro-
fession, and inspired with the true missionary spirit !
There is scarcely any limit to the hopes that may be
cherished, if, with the Divine blessing, advantage be
taken of the openings in the foreign field for the exercise
of the evangelistic and benevolent operations of the
medical missionary. Surely a work so full of promise,,
and so practical, so suited to the requirements of the
mission field, so Apostolic, so Christ-like, claims the
consecration of the noblest powers which our universities
and medical schools can furnish ! And to the young man
who may read these pages, especially if he be a medical
student or graduate, we would say, “ Think of this work,
dwell upon its glorious issues, look at its claims in the
light of what you owe to Christ, and if you hear the voice
of God calling you to engage in it, manfully take up your
cross, and go forth to it, and you will never cease to
thank Christ Jesus our Lord for counting you worthy to
take part in this ministry.”

There has been, of late, an increased and growing in-

CONCLUDING APPEAL.

277

terest in the cause of missions, among the educated youth
of our country, the outcome of a wonderful work of Divine
grace among the students of our Universities. This work
is so manifestly of God, that we shrink from referring to
any mere human agency in connection with it ; but there
can be no doubt that, while other influences were at work
preparing the way, the blessing came through the channel
of consecrated missionary zeal, on the part of the little
band of devoted men from Oxford and Cambridge Uni-
versities, who, constrained by the love of Christ, forsook
all, to live and labour, and, if need be, to die for Him, in
the high places of the field. A work thus inaugurated,
and thus owned of God, cannot but be fraught with rich
blessings to the cause of missions. In view of this mis-
sionary revival among students, and of the world's needs,
there rests upon the Church of Christ, and upon our
missionary societies, a great responsibility. At no former
period, have there been so many thoughtful, earnest, and
devoted young men offering themselves for foreign mis-
sionary service. Among medical students especially, this
spirit of self-consecration is manifested in a very remark-
able degree. The Church has long been praying the
Lord of the harvest “ to send forth more labourers into
His harvest ; ” and now, in the widespread interest in the
cause of missions awakened in our colleges, God is
answering her prayers, and inclining the hearts of many
accomplished and devoted young men to respond to the
Divine call. Is the Church prepared to receive such an

278

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

answer to her prayers ? Are these young candidates for
missionary service to be encouraged to come forward in
ever-increasing numbers? Is the Church ready to
welcome them, to train them for her service, and to
send them forth as her messengers to the heathen ? All
this, of course, implies the provision of vastly increased
resources, and we leave these questions to be pondered,
and prayed over by the friends of missions.

In this blessed work among students, God is teaching
His people, that the way to secure a revival of true godli-
ness in the Church is to cherish the spirit of self-conse-
cration, and to yield a loyal obedience to the Divine
command, “ Go ye into all the world, and preach the
Gospel to every creature.” The more the heart responds
to the call of humanity, and of Christ, the more room
will be found in that heart for the Divine blessing ; and
the more the Church exerts herself for the extension of
Christ’s kingdom abroad, the more will the Holy Spirit’s
influence be felt within the Church at home, operating
for her advancement and prosperity. Let the Church
rise to the dignity of her calling, and gathering up all her
mighty resources, seize the present opportunity ; then,
assuredly, “ times of refreshing ” will come from the
presence of the Lord ; the Lord will give the word, and
“great shall be the company of them that publish it.”
“ God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall
fear Him.”

This plea on behalf of medical missions cannot more

CONCLUDING APPEAL.

279

appropriately be concluded, than in the eloquent words
of one to whom the cause was very dear, and whose once
familiar voice was often heard, advocating the consecra-
tion of medical science and skill to the advancement of
the Redeemer’s kingdom. Speaking at one of the annual
meetings of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society,
Professor Miller said : —

“When we come before you with Scripture warrant on
our side — with the personal example of our Lord and
His Apostles not only beckoning us on, but reproving
us for not having come — with the successful experience
of medical missions, as far as they have yet been tried,
speaking strongly in our favour, and with the united and
cordial approval of every missionary with whom we have
ever come in contact — when missionaries all tell us that
they find the medical element so essential to the success
of their work, that they are compelled sometimes to prac-
tise it themselves — when labourers from all quarters of
the missionary field, men gallantly bearing the burden
and heat of the day, are calling to us anxiously for medi-
cal colleagues, not on account of their own health, but
to assist them in their great work of reaching the hearts of
men whose souls they seek to save — when, had we but the
means and the men, we might now plant, not one, or two,
or three, but many medical missions in the very heart
and strongholds of heathenism, and they would be gladly
welcomed, and by and by supported, by the very heathen
themselves— with such claims as these, surely it is neither

28o

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

unbecoming nor unwarrantable that we ask earnestly and
importunately for your sympathy and aid. And bear
with me, if I remind you that you have an important duty
to discharge towards the medical profession, that you
owe it a debt. Is there any one here who does not feel
and acknowledge that debt ? Has no father, or brother,
or sister, or husband, or wife, or child, been saved to you,
under God’s providence, by the skill and care of the
physician ? At a time when all seemed dark and hope-
less, and you dared not look into the future, at a time
when the blackness of despair had settled down, and well-
nigh shut out heaven from your sight, and prayer from
your lips, at a time when you would gladly have given all
the earthly treasure you possessed, or ever might possess,
in barter for the life which seemed so fast and hopelessly
ebbing away, has not the physician then seemed to you
as a ministering angel sent to comfort you ? have you not
then clung to him as your best earthly friend, your only
earthly hope and stay ? And when success attended his
efforts in battling with disease and death, and life, and
hope, and health came smiling back, have you not wet
his hand with your tears of gratitude, and sent him away
laden with your blessing and your prayers ? Or was it
your own life that was quivering in the balance at a time,
perhaps, that a downward turn would have hazarded a
double death ; but when the upward cast, still due ap-
parently to the hand of the physician, bade you live
again for time and for eternity ? Ah, then, surely the

CONCLUDING APPEAL.

281

argument we now venture to use, will come home with a
double force. Each one who has felt this, or aught like
this, will surely acknowledge a large and growing debt of
obligation. Let those debts be all accumulated into one
vast whole — not due, or at least not to be rendered, to the
individual man, but to the God-like profession which they
represent. The opportunity is given you to discharge in
some measure that debt now. Honours, in old times,
were freely accorded to individual practitioners of re-
nown ; medals were struck in their honour, bearing the
legend c ob rives servatos ’ on account of citizens pre-
served. We seek no such personal gifts, but we ask you
to honour the profession, by helping it to honour and
adorn itself, by helping it to write on the bells of the
horses ‘ Holiness unto the Lord,’ by helping it to be
instrumental in saving the souls as well as the bodies of
men, by helping it to place in its coronet new jewels of
greatest value and of brightest lustre, by helping it to
twine in its garland a new wreath from the ever-green
and ever-growing Plant of Renown. And let me add that,
in thus honouring the profession, you will honour also
that profession’s Head. Medicine has been at no time
without her gods. The early Greeks owned Apollo;
after him came Aesculapius ; and gods and demigods
followed in abundance. But the power of advancing
civilization struck away those unsightly capitols from the
otherwise goodly column ; not to leave it mutilated and
bare, but to make way for the true headstone, to exalt

282

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

and acknowledge the Great Physician, Jehovah-Rophi,
the Lord the Healer — no mythical personage, but He
who in very deed dwelt with men upon the earth, who
‘ went about continually doing good,’ and who has
promised to be with His faithful followers ‘ alway, even
unto the end of the world.’ Such is the double debt
and double duty which we ask you now in part, at least,
to discharge. But do not mistake the nature of the claim
which we make. We seek your pecuniary aid to carry on
this great and noble enterprise so beneficent to men, so
glorifying to God ; but we do not want your money only.
‘Your money or your life’ is the startling demand of
the highwayman ; ours is more startling still, ‘ Your
money and your life.’ Of some select, gifted, and gallant
few, we seek their lives wholly devoted, to the death if
need be, in the service of their great Master. But of all,
we seek their life in one sense, in the sense of claiming
that on which true life depends, that whereby spiritual
life is fed and maintained, without which it dies — prayer,
intercession at the Throne of Grace ! . . . And if it be
true, that the deadly conflict is now at hand between truth
and error, between the powers of light and the powers of
darkness, if the time is now near, when we shall be in-
volved as combatants for very life in that eventful struggle,
how can we look for Heaven’s aid, how dare we ask it,
unless we be on Heaven’s side, and doing the will of
Him who sits Almighty there? How can we in the shock
of the coming battle, and in the turmoil of the approach-

CONCLUDING APPEAL.

283.

ing fray, be otherwise than helpless and overborne,
unless, as faithful soldiers of the cross, we be found
mustered around, and fighting under, the banner of the
Captain of the hosts of the Lord, following where that
banner leads, losing neither sight nor hold of it — the
banner of Him, whose latest command it was, whose
very watchword of the fight is, ‘ Go ye into ah the world,
and preach the Gospel to every creature.’

“ And He sent them to preach the Kingdom of God,
and to heal the sick. . . . And they departed, and went
through the towns, preaching the Gospel and healing
everywhere ” (Luke ix. 2-6).

.

INDEX.

Africa — page

Central — King Mirambo’s appreciation of a

Medical Missionary ... 68

„ Dr. Southon as a missionary physician at

Urambo 68

„ Notes on Madi or Moru tribe, by Mr.

Felkin, F.R.S.E 164.

East Central — Mr. J. T. Last on superstitions in 167

Appeal to young men and students .... 265

Central Turkey—

Influence of a Medical Missionary in

Wife of the Medical Missionary welcome to harems

of Turks

China—

Amoy — Rev. Mr. McGregor on value of Medical

Missions

Canton, Hospital at

Commencement of Medical Missions in .
Hangchow, Medical Mission at . ...

Hankow „ „ „ ...

Hongkong „ „ „ . . .

Low state of medical science in

72

72.

132

I 22
I 22

13 3.
125
124.
154-

286

INDEX.

C H I na — continued.

Manchuria, Medical Mission at ... .

Medical Missions a direct evangelistic agency in
Shanghai, Medical Mission at ...

\ Swatow, Dr. Gauld at

„ Fruit of hospital work (Dr. Lyall) at
„ Largest Medical Mission Hospital in

China

„ Story of a converted leper
Christian Church, in early ages a great eleemosynary

institution

J Corea, Dr. Allen’s success as a Medical Missionary in
Cowgate Mission Dispensary —

Evangelistic fruit in

Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society’s Training

Institution

Jottings from pen of a lady visitor at
Method of carrying on work in ...

Origin and history of

Summary of cases in

Value as a training school of ...

Visits to patients at their own homes .

Difficulty of introducing Gospel into heathen lands

Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society —

V Abercrombie, The late Dr., founded the

„ „ „ ,, chosen first President

of ...
Appointment of Mr. John Lowe

„ „ Mr. David Paterson ; his death .

„ „ Mr. W. Burns Thomson .

Coldstream, the late Dr., Death of
First students of the

PAGE

135

12 I
122

128

129

128

130

260

62

245

210

240

239

209

238

257

243

8

202

203
215
215

211

212
210

INDEX.

287

Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society — continued. PAGE

History closely identified with origin of Medical

Missions 201

Medical Missions established in other towns

through the 214

Medical Missions in the foreign field established

by the 228

Memorial of students regarding Training Institu-
tion 209

Miller, the late Professor, Death of . . . 213

Miller Memorial Medical Mission House . . 214

Origin of Training Institution of the . . 205

V Parker's, Dr., visit, and its connexion with the . 201

Present prosperity of the . . 229

Resignation of Mr. W. Burns Thomson . .215

Societies supplied with Medical Missionaries by
the ... 227

HOME Medical Missions —

First Home Medical Mission established in Great

Britain . . 237

First Home Medical Mission established in Ire-
land 233

Hints as to commencement of .... 258

Place, method, and power of . . . .233

India —

Evangelistic value of Medical Missions in . 91

Afghanistan, Influence of native Medical Mission-
ary in 64

Arcot American Mission— Dr. Chamberlain . . 115

„ „ „ Dr. H. M. Scudder . 113

Beawr, Dr. Somerville no

Jeypore, Ranee cured by Dr. Valentine — opened
to Gospel ... .... 66

288

INDEX.

India — continued. page

Kashmir, Medical Mission in ... 104

„ Medical Missionary itineration in . . 108

„ Dr. Neve’s description of work in

Hospital 105

Kashmir, Opened to Gospel (late Dr. Elmslie) . 102

Rajpootana, United Presbyterian Mission at . 109

Travancore, Caste distinction forgotten for the

time in Hospital .... 65

„ Devil Temple, Story of its destruction 97

„ Evangelistic fruit in Hospital . . 96

„ Heathen towns opened to the

Medical Missionary in . . -95

„ Hospital and Dispensary at Neyoor 94

„ Legend regarding nature of disease in 160

„ Mandycadu festival, Visit paid to . 161

„ Medical Mission, Great evangelistic

agency in .... 64

„ Native Medical Evangelists trained

by Messrs. Lowe and Thomson . 102

„ Power of superstition on converts in

time of sickness . . . . 1 5 1

„ Training of native agents, Importance

of 152

Western — Cholera Mother (Murree Ai) . . 159

Intemperance great barrier to Home Mission work 253

Japan —

Great need of a Christian Medical School in . 275

Niigata — Dr. Palm welcomed by Japanese physi-
cians in 137

„ Success of Medical Mission at . 136

“Livingstone Memorial” —

Accommodation of the 226

Bazaar in Music Hall for 224

INDEX.

289

“Livingstone Memorial” — continued. PAGE

Cost of the 224

Lowe, Mr., Address by 219

McNeill, Sir John, G.C.B., Address by . . . 218

Magdalen Chapel forms part of the . . . 224

„ „ Arab’s School, Sunday evening in 248

„ „ Children’s Church, Sunday fore-
noon in . 248

„ „ Evangelistic services held in . 247

„ „ First General Assembly of

Kirk of Scotland held in . 225

„ „ Pre-Reformation times, Des-
cended from .... 224

Moffat, the late Dr., Address by . . . 221

Saturday evening entertainments of the . . 252

Temperance Society for Adults, and Band of

Hope 252

Young Men’s Association of the . . . 251

Young Women’s Association of the . . . 250

Lovedale, Dr. Stewart on value of practical methods 5

N

Madagascar —

Account of superstitions among the Sakalava . 162

Apostacy of converts in time of sickness in . 149

Rev. W. Ellis on value of Medical Missions in . 67

Madeira—

Dr. Robert Kalley’s work in . . . . 138

Remarkable fruit of Medical Missions in . . 139

Main Point Mission Dispensary —

Opened by late Dr. Handyside 207

Removal to 39, Cowgate, of ... 209

Training school, Its value as a .... 208

Medical knowledge among heathen, Possibility of

extending 274

Medical Missionary —

Claim to be “ set apart ” to the work of the

20

34

290

INDEX.

Medical Missionary — continued. page

Entire consecration essential in the . . .271

“ Evangelist ” the proper calling of the . . 36

Function of the (the Evangelist) .... 29

Increasing demand for the .... 266

Inducements to respond to call as a . . 272

Medical care of Mission families, The duty of the 49
Miller, the late Prof., describes the work of a . 273
Ordination to ministry not desirable for the . 35

Partial training deprecated 31

Private practice, Shall he engage in . . . 43, 44

Professional qualifications of the .... 29

Salary, Ought he to receive higher . . - 43, 44

Training of the 42

Medical Missions —

Alexander’s, The late Rev. Dr. Lindsay, testimony

regarding 85

Corbett’s, The Rev. H., testimony regarding . 58

Eloquent plea for (late Professor Miller) . . 279

Fortune’s testimony regarding .... 57

Grant’s, the late Dr. Asahel, testimony regarding . 57

Halford’s, Sir Henry, address on 54

History and progress of 201

Hospital, Importance of a 48

Jews, For work among 69

John’s, the Rev. Griffith, testimony regarding . 62

Lewins, Dr. Robert, Staff Surgeon-Major, on . 86

McGill, the late Rev. Dr., Foreign Mission

Secretary, on 112

Mackenzie, Dr., Tientsin, regarding ... 59

Methods of operation, Hints as to . . .46

Mission fields abroad, Need of . . . . 147

Missionaries and their families, Claim for . . 170

Missionary Societies, Their duty in regard to . 174

Mohammedan communities, For work in . . 69

Parker’s, Dr., testimony regarding ... 59

INDEX.

291

Medical Missions — continued. page

Pioneer agency, As a 56

Prejudice, A means of overcoming ... 53

Sphere and scope of 27

Van de Velde’s, Lieut., testimony regarding . 70

Wolff’s, Dr., testimony regarding . . . . 71

Medical Students, Outcome of a revival among . 277

„ „ Remarkable revival among . . 277

S/ Ministry of Healing, itself of value in the Mission field 274

Nestoria, Dr. Asahel Grant’s success as a Medical

Missionary in 73

PIOUS Physicians, Appeal by Dr. Asahel Grant to . 269
Preaching the Gospel —

Apostolic method and example in 16

By a life of loving deeds 10

Christ’s precept and example in ... 1 1

The Divine ideal of 4

Recognition of medical skill in the early Church . 20

Revival in the Church, How to secure .... 278

Siam, Dr. Sturge’s account of medical knowledge in 156
South Pacific Islands, Cruelties prevalent in . . 169

Syria —

Antioch — Success of Medical Missions in . 71

Nazareth — Dispensary and Hospital at . . 75

,, Evangelistic work in Hospital at . 76

yj ,, Dr. Vartan’s influence in surrounding

districts 84

\J Remarkable blessing on Dr. Kalley’s work in . 140

Temperance work in Cowgate, encouragements, &c. 256

292

INDEX.

Zenana Lady Medical Missionary — page

Course of study, &c., of 182

Diploma or license essential for ... 190

Partially trained lady not properly a . . <,185

Professional qualifications of a . . . . 196

Qualifications requisite in a 183

Sphere and function of a 182

Training and position of a 177

Zenana Medical Missions 175

“ Medical Women for India,” by Dr. C. R. Francis,

Surg.-Gen. H.M.I.A 194

Nurses, Great ignorance of native . . .180

„ Great need of 188

„ Hints to Ladies’ Committees in sending out 195

„ Position and duties of . . . . 188

,, Qualification and training of . .184

UNWIN BROTHERS, GRE 'HAM TRESS, CHILWORTH AND LONDON.

36 4033