The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-06-11

ten drops may be the question OF life
or cath. Shall it be the five or the ten
drops? Be careful how you put that
knife through those delicate portions OF
the IL ii swing out Of the way
the sixth part of an inch the patient
perfshes. Under such circumstances a
physician = not SO much ~consuita-
ton with men Of his own calling a he
needs consultation with that God who
strung the nerves and built the cells
n swung the rimso tide through
the arteries. You wonder why the
hear throbs. why 1t seems to open and
shut. There Is no wonder about IL. 1t
is Gods hand. shutting. opening. shut
ting. opening, or every heart. When a
man comes to doctor the eye. he ought
to be in communication with him who
a 10 the blind. Receive thy sight"
When a doctor comes to rea a para
lytic arm. he ought to be in communica-
ton with him who said. Stretch forth
thy hand. and he stretched it forth"
When a man comes TO doctor a bad
case of hemorrhage, he needs % be in
communication with him who cured the
issue IL blood. saying, Thy faith hath
thee"
PIETY AND MEDICAL SKILL.
I do not mean 10 say that piety will
iIdhN up lDT SLIcd skill. A DunSIInS
doctor, COMPOUNDED with what was not
a very bad case. went into the next
room to pray. \ skilled physician was
called in. He asked for the first
practitioner. oh" they said. hes in
the next room praying Well" said
the skilled doctor, tell him to come
out here and help. He can pra and
work at the same time" 1t was all in
that sentence. Do h best We can
and ask God to help us. There are no
two men in all the world, it seems 10
me, that 50 much need the grace of
God as the minister who doctors the
sick soul and the physician who pre-
scribes for the disease body.
Another reason Why the medical pro-
fession ought to be Christians is be-
cause there opens before them such a
grand field for Christian usefulness.
o see 50 many people in pain, in
trouble, in bereavement. You ought 10
be the voice of heaven to their souls.
Old DR.. Gasherie De Witt, a practi-
TONER of New York, told me in his last
days, Il always present the religion of
Christ to my patients. either directly
or indirectly, and 1 find it is almost al
ways acceptable" Drs. AbercrOmbie
and Brown of Scotland, Drs. Hey and
FOthergill of England and DR.. Rush of
our own country We're celebrated for
their faithfulness in that direction.
oh" says the medical profession,
that is your occupation. That belongs
TO the clergy. not to US" My brother,
there are severe illnesses in which you
will not admit even the clergy, and that
patients salvation will depend upon
your fa~ithfulneSS. With the medicine
for the body in one hand, the medicine
for the soul in the other. oh, what a
chance. There lies a dying Christian
on the pillow. You need to hold owe
him the lantern of the gospel until its
light streams across the pathway of
the departing pilgrim, and you need TO
cry into the dull a of death. "Hark
to the song of heavens welcome that
comes stealing over the waters
There lies on the pillow a dying sinner.
All the morphine that you brought
with you cannCt quiet him. Terror in
the heart. How ne jerks himself up on
one elbow and looks wildly into your
face and says: Doctor. I can't die.
I am not ready to die. What makes it
so dark? Doctor, a you pray?"
Blessed for you and blessed for him if
| then you can knel down and say: 80
God. / have done the best I could to
| cure this mans body, and I have fail
ed. Now / commit to thee his poor,
suffering and affrighted soul. Open
Paradise to his departing spirit"
THE LAST SICKNESS.
But / must close, for. there may be
suffering men and women waiting in
| your office, or on the hot pillow, Won
dering why you don't come. But before
you go, o doctors, hear my prayer for
your eternal salvation. Blessed will be
the remard in heaven for the faithful
| Christian physician. Some day, through
OverwOrk or from bending over a pa
'tient and catching his contagious
breath, the doctor comes home, and he
lies down faint and sick. He is toe
weary to feel his own pulse or take the
diagnosis of his own complaint. He is
| worn out. The fact is, his work or
| earth is ended. Tell those people in the
| office there they need not wait any
longer. The doctor will never go there
| again. He has written his last pre-
| scription for the alienation of human
pain. The people will run up to his
front steps and inquire, How is the
doctor today?' All the sympathies OF
the neighbOrhOod will be aroused and
there will be many Y that he
| who has been so kind to the sick maybe
comforted in his last pang. It is all
over now. In two or three days his
convalescent patients, with shaw
wrapped around them. will come Ito the
front window and look out at the pass
ing hearse, and the poor of the city
barefooted and bareheaded, will stand
on h street corner, saying, 'Oh, how
| good he was to us ALL" But on the
other i of the river of death some OF
his old patients who are forever cured
will come out to welcome him, and the
physician of heaven, with locks as
white as snow, according to the
ApOcalyptic vision, will come out and
say: Come in, come in. I was sick
Inc ye visited me-"