Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-06-12
PRAISE OF DOCTORS.
REV. DR.. TALMAaE PAYS A HIGH TRiB
UTE TO THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

REV. DR.. TALMAoE PAYS A HIGH TRtB
UTE TO THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
Uo Takes the Case OF King Asa, Who Had
the Gout, and Shows Why the Doctors
Could Not Cure Hlm-PIety and Medical
Skill.
NEW YORK, Juno Cit is not often
that men of ono profession have much
encouragement for men Of another pro-
fession, but this sermon prepared by
Dr.. Tnlmage contains enthusiastic
words Of Clergyman to physicians The
text is II Chronicles xvi, 10, 10, And
Asa, i'll tho thirty and ninth year Of his
reign, was diseased in his feet until his
disease was exceeding great, yet in his
disease he sought not to tho Lord, but
to the physicians And Asa slept with
his fathers.
At this season of the year, when
medical colleges of all schools Of medi-
cine are giving diplomas to young doc
tors, anG at the capital and in many
OF tho ciAsPs medical associations arc as
semblinsap consult about the advance
ment of le interests of their profess
sion, feel this discourse is appropriate.
King Asa's Gout.
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 infiamed and bandaged
feet on an ottoman. In defiance of God,
whom no hated, he sends for certain
conjurors or quncks. They come and
give him all sorts Of lotions and pana-
oeas. Thoy 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. He was only a young
man and had disease which, though
very painful, seldom proves fatal to a
young man, and he ought to have got
well, but he fell victim to charlatan-
ry and empiricism. And Asa in the
thirty and ninth year Of his reign was
diseased in his feet until his disease
was exceeding great, yet in his disease
he sought not to the Lord, but to the
physicians. And Asa slept with his IA
theirs. 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 ont from the realm
of pharmacy and therapeutics. If Asa
had said: so Lord, am sick. Bless
the instrumentality employed for my
recovery. Nov, servant, go and gel
the best doctor you can fnd"-he would
have recovered. In other words, the
world wants divinely directed physi-
clans. There are great many such.
Tho diplomas they received from the
academies of medicine were nothing
compared with the diploma they re.
ceived from the Head Physician of the
universe on the day when they started
out and he said to them. 100 heal tho
sick and cast out the devils Of pain ano
open tho blind eyes and unstop the deaf
ears" God bless the doctors all the
world over. aud let all the hospitals anc
dispensaries and infirmaries and asylums
sara domestic circles Of the earth re-
spond,I Amen. y
Men of the medical profession we Of
ten meet in the homo of distress. W.
shake hands across the cradle Of ago
nized infancy. We join each other in al
attempt at solace where the paroxysu
of grief demands an anodyne as well az
prayer. We look into each other!
sympathetic faces through the dusk a!
the nightof death is falling i'll the sick
room. We do not have to climb ovel
any barrier today in order to greet eacl
other, for our professions are i'll full
sympathy. You, doctor, are our frs
and last earthly friend. You stand al
the gates OF life when we enter thii
world and you stand at the gates O
death when we go out of it. In the clos
ing moments of our earthly existence
when the hand Of the wife or mother o.
sister or daughter shall hold our RICH
hand, it will give strength to our dying
moment if we can feel the tips of you
fingers along the pulse of the left wrist
We do net meet today, as on other days
in housYof distress, but by the pleasan
affairs Of God, and I propose sermon
of helpfGaaess and good cheer. AS il
the nursery children sometimes re-enac
all the scenes of the sickroom. SO today
you play that you are the patient ant
that 1 am tho physician, and take my
prescription just once. 1t shall be
tonic. a sedativc, dietetic, IA disinfect
ant, stimulus and an anodyne at TIT
same time. lis there not balm in Gil
cad? Is there not physician theref'
An Honorable Calling.
In the first place, think all the med
ical profession should become Christian
because of the debt of gratitude the,
owe to God for the honor no has pu
upon their calling No other calling il
all the world, except it be that of tn
Christian ministry, has received s.
great an honor as yours. Christ himsel
was not only preacher, but physician
surgeon, aurist. ophthalmologist, ant
under his mighty power optic and au
ditory nerve thrilled with light ant
sound, and catalepsy arose from its tit
and the clubfoot was Strengthened, AIT
anohylosis went out of the stiffened ten
dons, and the foaming maniac becam
placid rs child, and the streets of Je
rusalem became an extelnporized hospl
tai crowded with convalcscent victim
of casualty and invalidism. All age
have woven the garland for the doctor
brow. Homer said:
A wise physician, skilled our wounds to hea
| Is more than armies to the public veal
Cicero said, "Thsre is nothing i
which men SO approach the gods a
when they try to give health to othe
men," Charles TX made proclamatlo
that all the Protestantsi in France shout
be put to death on st. Bartholomew
day. but made one exception, and tha
4 the case of Pare, the father Of Frenc
surgery. The battlefelds OF the Amer
lean revolution welcomed Drs. Merce
and Warren and Rush. When the Frenc
army was entirely demoralized by Tea
of the plague, the leading surgeon {
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