Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-06-12
NUMBER 40


drink and persisted. Others have appeal
I'd to God for sympathy and help and
have lived Which were the wise doc
tors, judge ye:
Again, the medical profession ought
TO be Christians because there arc pro-
fessional exigencies when they need
God. Asa's destruction by unblessed
physicians was a warming. There are
awful crises in every medical practice
when doctor ought to know how to
pray. All tho hosts of ills will some
times hurl themselves Oh the weak
points of the physical organism, or with
equal ferocity will assault the entire
line OF susceptibility to suffering. Tho
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 q
physician needs not so much consulta-
ton with men of his own calling as ne
needs consultation with that God who
strung the nerves and built the cells
and swung the crimson tide through tho
arteries You owonder why the heart
throbs, why it seems to open and shut
There is no wonder about it. It is Gods
hand, shutting, opening, shutting, open
ing, on every heart. When man comes
to doctor tho eye, he ought be in COM
munication with him who said to the
blind, Receive thy sight. When
doctor comes to treat 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 hemor-
rhage, he needs to be in communication
with him who cured the issue of blood,
saying, "Thy faith hath saved thee. :"
Picty end Medical Skill.
l do not mean to say that piety will
make up for medical skill. a bungllng
doctor, confounded with what was not q
very bad case, went into the next room
to pray. a skilled physician was called
in. He asked for the first practitioner.
"Oh," they said, "ho's i'll the next room
praying. well, said the skilled doc
tor, "tell him to come out here and
help. He can pray and work at the
same time" 1t was all il that SEN
tence Do the best we can and ask God
to help us. There are no two men in all
tho world, it seems to me, that so much
need tho grace of God as the minister
who doctors the sick soul and the ply
sician who prescribes for the diseased
body.
Another reason why the medical pro-
fession ought to be Christians is because
there opens before them such grand
field for Christian usefulness. You see
so many people in pain, III trouble, in
bereavement. You ought to be the voice
Of heaven to their souls. Old DR.. Cash
erie De Witt, practitioner of New
York, told me in his last days, II al
ways present the religion of Christ to
my patients, either directly or Indirect
ly, and find it is almost always accept
able. Drs. Abercrombie and Brown Of
Scotland, Drs Hey and Fothergill Of
England and DR.. Rush of our own coun-
try were celebrated for their faithful
ness in that direction. "Oh, " says the
medical profession, THAT is your occu-
patton That belongs to the clergy, not
to u.s. f" My brother, there are severe ill
nesses in which you will not admit even
the clergy, and that patients salvation
will depend upon your faithfulness.
With the medicine for the body il one
hand, the medicine for the soul in tho
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 ely into the dull ear Of
death, "Hark to the song of heaven
welcome that comes stealing over the
watersl" There lies on the pillow dy-
ing sinner. All the morphine that you
brought with you cannot quiet him.
Terror in the face Terror in the heart.
How he jerks himself up Oh one elbow
and looks wildly into your face and
says: doctor, can't die. I am not
ready to die What makes it so dark?
Doctor, can you pray:" Blessed for you
and blessed for him if then you can
kneel down and say: 80 God, have
done the best could to cure this mans
body, and I have failed. Now l commit
to thee his poor, suffering and alright
ed 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 Oh 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
tho reward in heaven for the faithful