The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1874-12-09
From the Missionary.
A CALL FOR A MEDICAL MISSIONARY
SooCHow, CHINA, August 91st, 1874.

To the Committee on Foreign Missions
Gentlemen,-All the members of the Mis-
sion have heartily agreed that we ought to
call for medical missionary to be sent to
Sooehow have received letter from Mr..
DuBOse, requesting me to write in the name
of the Soochow Station, and lay the matter
before you. The following points are respec-
fully submitted to your consideration;
l. 1t was marked feature of our Lords
ministry that He healed the diseases of the
body, as we'll as forgave the sins of the soul.
Not only did our Lord Himself devote
great part of His time to relieving bodily in
frmities, He commanded His disciples also
to engage in the work. He said, too, to the
twelve when he sent them forth: $50
preach, but, He added, "heal the sick,
cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast Out deV
as" In HIS charge to the seventy, the COM
mand to heal the sick precedes the command
to preach: "Heal the sick that are therein,
and say the kingdom of God is come nigh
unto you" The apostles followed this in
junction to relieve the sick after the Sa
viour's death as we'll as before it. We find
Paul, the great missionary, healing the sick,
as at Lystra, and on the Island of Melita;
casting out evil spirits, as at Phifppi; and
raising the dead. as at Troas. We are told
that the same Spirit who gave to some the
WORD of wisdom, and divers kinds OF
tongues" bestowed on others working of
miracles, and the "gifts of healing"
In the first place, therefore, we submit the
fact that the broad scope of Christian benev-
olence is, according to the example of Christ
aud the apostles, to relieve mans bodily dis
eases as well as bis spiritual.
2. In our own day, we find the great heart
of our country throbbing with sympathy for
those who are in bodily distress, whether it
be caused by fire, pestilence, or food. When,
in addition to this, we behold hundreds of
hospitals, infrmaries, and asylums, which
Christian benevOence has reared to relieve
those afflicted with the ills that flesh is heir
to, we see that modern Christians, as we'll as
the apostles, give diligent heed to the com
maud "heal the sick.
8. When we turn from these general prin-
ciples to their application, where is there so
grand an object of Christian pity, or one so
greatly in need of it as this great empire,
that embraces one-third of the human race
Its need will appear from considering ~
the misgoyernment of the land. 1t is a COM
mon and well understood thing that the eff,
cials, consulting only their own interests, give
brides to those above them, and extort from
| those below. Hence multitudes are wretch
eddy poor Thousands are ill,fed, scantily
Clothed, aud scarcely housed at all, even in
the rigorous extremities of winter. Last
winter, in this city, forty four persons died
in one night from the effects of cold weather.
AS pestience even stalks after famine, so dis
ease and death always walk in the train of
want. Hence the poorer people of China are
exposed to all manner of disease, from which
there is no relief but death.
For ~ the physicians of China have the
crudest notions of anatomy and physiology ;
they know nothing of chemistry; what then
can they know of therapeutics? They know
about as much of the true principles of heal
ing as the old women of America, who think
that they can speedily cure any disorder
with their herbs. Just here let me call
special attention to the indirect, but widely
extended influence which medical mi8siona.
ries have exerted, and will exert, by instruos.
ing Cinnamon in the truth concerning medi.
cine.
4. Experience has shown that medical mis-
sionS in China are eminently useful and de-
sirable.
"During the last forty years, they have
occupied conspicuous, honorable, and emf
nently useful position in the general work !;
and it requires but small amount of pro-
phetic foresight to perceive that they are
destined to accomplish yet greater things in
the future than they have done in the past. !"
Thus speaks one who is entitled to be heard
in the matter, as he has been for ten years
connected with medical hospital. has care.
! fully read all the hospital reports he could
obtain, and is sincerely interested in the
work.
Let US look at some of these hospitals.
In Canton is large hospital, with two
branch dispensaries, one, 80 miles west of
Canton, at Sainam the other at Fu-mum.
In 1873, upwards of twenty thousand cases
were attended to at the Canton hospital, and
the branch institutions were both carried on
with satisfactory results.
The Shanghai hospital has such hold
upon public regard that very much en-,
larged and more commodious building has
been erected during the past year, at a cost
of more than FIVE thousand dollars, raised by
voluntary subscription In this hospital, dur
ing the year 1873, nearly thirteen thousand
cases received medical aid.
In Picking is another hospital, which dur
ing last year afforded medical aid to more
than eighteen thousand patients. The ex.
penses were on an average seven cents for
each patient.
These three hospitals during one gear
treated fifty thousand persons.
s. Medical missions are great aid in
spreading the gospel.
a. Let me not mislead any one by crea-
ting the impression that great numbers of
these patients became Christians. Our Sa-
viour said, "were there not ten cleansed, but
where are the nine ?" The Great Physi-
clans experience is reflected in that of the
medical missionary. But we must not forget
that one of those ten lepers was saved as
we'll as cured. So there are some among
these thousands who give proof that their
spiritual leprosy has been cleansed,
e. The medical missionary aids in re.
moving superstition.
A few nights ago I heard man calling
loudly as he went along the street He was
calling one of the souls of sick child to
come back and thus restore him to health.
This is very common practice. The super
stitious Chinese think that one great cause