The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-06-18

| CnrlSG quoted IN his sermon may DC
appropriate to you: physician, heal
myself"
| Another reason why I think the med.
zeal profession ought to be Christians
is because there are so many trials and
annoyanees in that profession that
Heed positive Christian solace. know
you have the gratitude of great many
good people, and know it must be a
grand thing to walk intelligently
through the avenues of human life,
and with anatomie skill poise yourself
on the nerves and fibers which cross
and recross this wonderful physical
system. l suppose a skilled eye can
see more beauty even in malformation
| than an architect can point out in any
of his structures, though it be the very
triumph of arch, and p1inth, and aba
Gus. But how many annoyances and
trials the medical profession have. DIR.
Rush used to say, in his valedictory
address to the students of the medical
college: Young gentlemen, have two
pockets, a small pocket and a big
pocket; a small pocket in which to put
your fees, large pocket in which to
put your annOyances.
Again: The medical profession ought
to be Christian because there are pro-
fessional exigencies when they need
God. Asa's destruction by unblessed
| physicians was warning. There are
awful crises in every medical practice
when doctor ought to know how to
pray. All the hosts of ills will some
times hurl themselves on the weak
points of the physical organism, or
with equal ferocity will assault the en-
tire line of susceptibility to suffering.
The next dose of medicine will decide
whether or not the happy home
| shall be broken up. Shall it be
this medicine or that medicine?
God help the doctor. Between the five
drops and the ten drops may be the
| question of life or death. Shall it be
the five or the ten drops? Be careful
| how you put that knife through those
delicate portions of the body, for if it
swing out of the way the sixth part of
an inch the patient perishes. Under
such circumstances a physician needs
not SO much consultation with men of
his own calling as he needs consulta-
ton with that God who strung the
nerves and built the cells, and
swung the crimson tide through
the arteries You wonder why
the heart throbs-why it seems
to open and shut. There is no wonder
about it. 1t is Gods hand, shutting,
opening, shutting, opening, on every
heart. When man comes to doctor
the eye, he ought to be in communica-
ton with Him who said to the blind:
Receive thy sight" When doctor
comes to treat a paralytic arm, he
ought to be in communication with
Him who said: "Stretch forth thy
hand, and he stretched it forth"
When man comes to doctor bad case
of hemorrhage, he needs to be in COM
munication with Him who cured the
issue of blood, saying: Thy faith
hath saved thee"
Another reason why the medical pro-
fession ought to be Christians is be-
cause there opens before them such
grand field for Christian usefulness.
You see SO many people in pain, in
trouble, in bereavement. You ought
to be the voice of Heaven to their
souls. Old DR.. Gasherie De Witt, a
pra ctitioner of New York, told me in
his last days: Il always present the re-
ligion of Christ to my patients, either
directly or indirectly, and l find it is
almost always acceptable" Doctors
Abercrombie and Brown, of Scotland;
Doctors Hey and Fothergill, of En-
gland and DR.. Rush, of our own country,
were celebrated for their faithfulness in
that direction. ''Oh, says the medical
profession, that is your occupation;
that belongs to the clergy, not to u.s."
My brother, there are severe illnesses
in which you will not admit even the
clergy, and that patients salvation will
depend upon your faithfulness. With
the medicine for the body in one hand,
and the medicine for the soul in the
other, oh, what a chance! There
lies a dying Christian on the
pillow. You need to hold over
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 ear 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 can not quiet
him. Terror is in the face. Terror in
the heart. How he jerks himself
up one one elbow and looks wildly
into your face and says: doc
tor, I can't die; l am not ready
to die. What makes it so dark? Doc
tor, can you pray?" Blessed for you
and blessed for him if then you can
kneel down and say: 30, God, have
done the best 1 could to cure this mans
7 60 7
NIT to Thee his poor, suffers1a and af-
frighted soul Open paradise TO Ms de-
parting spirit"
But 1 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 be-
fore you go, o, doctors, hear my prayer
for your eternal salvation. Blessed
will be the reward in Heaven for the
faithful Christian physician. Some
day, through overwork, or from
bending over patient and catch
ing his contagious breath, the doctor
comes home, and he lies down faint
and sick. He is too weary to feel his
own pulse or take the diagnosis of his
own complaint. He is worn out. The
fact is his work on 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 prescription for the
alienation of human pain. The peo-
pie will run up his front steps and in
quire: How is the doctor to-day?"
All the sympathies of the neighbor-
hood will be aroused, and there will be
many prayers that he who has been
so kind to the sick may be comforted
in his last pang. 1t is all over now.
In two or three days his convalescent
patients, with shawl wrapped around