Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1897-06-16
SERMON TO PHYSICIANS.
Rev. Or. Talmage Points Out the
Good That Can Be Done
by the Medical Profession. and Testihes
TO Their Great Work for Mankind
Hing Asa Called Upon Earthly
Physicians, but God He
Hated aud Dened.

Shron XVI l., 10. ana Asa, IN the
thirty and ninth year of his reign, was
diseased in his feet until his disease
was exceeding great; yet in his dis
ease he sought not the Lord, but to
the physicians And Asa slept with
his fathers
Atthis season of the year, when med
heal colleges OF all schools of medicine
are giving diplomas TO young doctors,
and at the capital and in many OF the
cities medical associations are assem-
bling to consult about the advance
ment of their profession, l feel this
discourse is appropriate.
In my text is King Asa with the
govt High living and no exercise
have vitiated his blood, and my text
presents him with his inflamed and
bandaged feet on an ottoman. In de-
hance of God, whom he hated, he sends
for certain conjurers or quacls. They
come and give him all sorts of lotions
and penaceas- They bleed him. They
sweat him. They manipulate him.
They blister him. They poultice him.
They scarify him. They drug him.
They cut him. They kill him. lie
was only young man, and had a dis
ease which, though very painful, sell
dom proves fatal to young man, and
he ought to have got we'll; but he fell
victim TO charlatanry and empiri-
cism. And Asa, in the thirty and
ninth year of his reign, was diseased
in his feet, until his disease was ex-
ceeding great; yet in his disease he
sought not the Lord, bat to the physi-
clans And Asa slept with his faith
ers. That Is, the doctors killed him.
In this sharp and graphic way the
Bible sets forth the truth, that YOU
have no right TO shut God out from
the realm of pharmacy and therapeu-
tics. IL Asa had said: 80 Lord, ! am
sick; bless the fundamentally en-
ployed for my recovery" Now, ser
want, go and get the best doctor you
can find"-he would have recovered.
In other words, the world wants di-
vinely physicians
There are great many such. The
diplomas they received from the
academies of medicines were nothing
compared with the diploma they re
ceived from the Head Physician OF the
universe on the day when they started
out and lie said to them: Go heal the
sick, and cast out the devils of pain.
and open the blind eyes, and unstop
the deaf ears God bless the doctors
all the world over! and let all the hos
pitfalls, and dispensaries, and infirm-
aries, and asylums, and domestic
circles of the earth rcspond, Amen"
Men of the medical profession we
often meet in the home of distress
We shake hands across the cradle OF
agonized infancy. We Join each other
IN an attempt OF solace where the
paroNysm Of grief demands an anodvne
as well as prayer. We look into each
others sympathetic faces through the
dusk, as the night of death is falling
in the sick room. We do not have to
climb over any barrier to-day in order
TO greet each other, for our profess
sions are in full sympathy. You, doe
tor. are our first and last earthly
friend. You stand at the gates OF life
when we enter this world, and Won
stand at the gates o, death when we
go out Of it, In the closing moments
of our earthly existence when the
hand of the wife, the mother, or sister.
or daughter. shall hold our right hand.
il will give strength TO our diving mo-
ment if we can feel the tips of your
fingers along the pulse OF the left
wrist We do not meet to-day, as on
other days in houses of distress. but
by the pleasant affairs of God, and
propose a sermon Of helpfulness and
good cheer. As in the nursery chill
dren sometimes re-enact all the scenes
OF the sick room, so to-day you play
that you are tine patient and that | am
the physician, and take my prescrip-
ton just once. 1t shall be a tonic,
sedative, dietetic, a disiufectant,
stimulus. and an anodyne at the same
time. is there not a balm in Gilead?
is there not physician thcre?'
In the first place, ] think that all the
medical profession should become
Christians because of the debt of graf
itude they owe TO God for the honor he
has put upon their calling. No other
calling in all the world, except it be
that of the Christian ministry. has re-
ceived so great an honor as yours
Christ himself was not only preacher.
but physician, surgeon, aurist, oph-
thalmologist, and under his mighty
power optic and auditory nerve
thrilled with light and sound. and cat
alepsy arose from its fiji. and the club
foot was Strengthened. and auchvlo.is
went out Of tine stiffcncd tendons. and
the foaming maniac became placid as
child, and the streets OF Jerusalem
became an cNtemporized hospital.
crowded with convalescent victims of
casualty and invalidism All ages have
woven the garland for the doctors
brow. Homer said.
n wise physician skilled our wounds I'm heat
JIG more than armies 90 the pubic veal
Cicero said: There is nothing in
which men 50 approach the gods "a.
when they try 20 give health 20 other
men, Charles y made proclamation
that all irOtestants iu France should
bc put 20 death on ST.. Bartholomew.
day, but made one exception. and that
the case Of Pare. the father Of French
surgery The battlcfc.ds of the
American revolution welcomed Drs
Mercer, Warren and Rush. When the
French army was demoraIized AT fear
or plague, the leading surgeon of that
army inocu.ated himself with the
plague 20 show the soldiers there
was no cOntagion in IL. and their cour.
age rose and they went on 20 the com
hict God has honored this profession
all the way through on the
Advancement from the DAYS when Him.
pccrates tried TO cure the great Peric,e.
with hellebor and haxsecd pouIticcs
down TO far later centuries when Hal
Ter announced the theory OF ra.,i--