The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-06-07


a small pocket in which to put your fees,
a large pocket in which to put your annoy
anCes.'
In the first place. the physician has no
Sabbath. Busy merchants, and lawyers,
and mechanics, cannot afford to be sick
during the secular week, and so they
nurse themselves along with lozenges and
hoPehound candy until Sabbath morning
comes and then they say: Il must have
doctor" And that spOils the Sabbath
morning church service for the physician.
Beside that, there are a great many men
who dine but once a week with their ram
lilies During the secular days they take
a hasty lunch at the restaurant, and on
the Sabbath they make up for their SIX
days abstinence by especial gCrmandiZing
which, before night makes their amazed
digestive organs cry out for doctor. Ana
that spoils the evening church service for
the physician.
Then they are annoyed by people com
ing too late Men wait until the last fort
ress of physical strength is taken, and
death had dug around it the trench of the
grave, and then they run for the doctor.
The slight fever which might have been
cured with a foot bath, has become vru-
lent typhus, and the hacking cough, kill
ing pneumonia. As though captain
should sink his ship off Amagansett, and
then put ashore in yawl, and then come
to New York to the marine office, and
want to get his vessel insured. Too late
for the ship, too late for the patient.
Then there are many who always blame
the doctor because the people die, forget
ting the divine enactment: 1T is APP
pointed unto all men once to die" The
father in medicine who announced the
fact that he had discovered the art by
which to make men in this world i'm
mortal, himself died at A years of age
showing that immortality was less than
a
it is when people die, to cry out, ''mal-
practice" Then the physician must bear
with all the whims, and the sOphistries
and the receptions, and the stratagems
and the irritations of the shattered nerves
and the beclouded brain of women, and
more especially of men, who never know
how gracefully to be sick, and who with
their salvated mouth curse the doctor
giving him his dues, s they say-abOut
the only dues he will in that case collect
The last bill that is paid Is the doctors
bill. 1t seems so incOherent for a restored
patient, with ruddy cheeks and rotuud
FORM to be bothered with bill charging
him for old calomel and jalap. The physi-
clans of this country do more missionary
work without charge than all the other
professions put together. From the con-
cert room, from the merry party from the
comfortable couch on cold night, when
the thermometer is ) degrees below zero.
must go right away. To keep up under
this nervous strain, to go through this
night-work, to bear all these annoyances.
many physicians have resorted to strong
drink and perished Others have appealed
to God for sympathy and help, and have
lived Which were the wise doctors,
judge ye?
Again: The medical profession ought
to be Christians because there are profess
cfo ayi uyhp
Asas destruction by unblessed physicians
was a warning There are awful crises
in every medical practice when a doctor
ought to know how to pray. All the hosts
oil ills will sometimes 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 il be this medicine or that med
icine? 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 drops2 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 circum-
stances a physician needs not so much
consultation with men of his own call
ing, as he needs consultation with that
cells, and swung the crimson tide through
the arteries. You wonder why the heart
throbs-WhY 1t seems to open and shut.
There is no wonder about it. 1t is God S
hand, shutting, opening, shutting, OPEN
ing, on every heart. When a man comes
TO doctor the eye, he ougt to be in COM
munication with him who said to the bind
Receive thy sight" When a doctor comes
to treat a paralytic arm, he ought to be
in communication with him who said
stretch forth thy hand, and he stretched
II forth" When man comes to doctor
a bad case of hemorrhage. he needs to be
in communication with him who cured
the issue of blood, saying: Thy faith
hath saved thee"
do not mean to say that piety will
make up for medical skill A bungling
doctor, COMPOUNDED with what was not
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, hes in 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 in that sentence. Do the best
we can and ask God to help us. There are
| no two men in all the world 1T semes to me
that so much need the grace of God as the
minister who doctors the sick soul and
the physician who prescribes for the dis
| Another reason why the medical profess
| sion ought to be Christians. is because there
| opens before them such a 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
practitioner of New York, told me in his
last days: Il always present the religion
of Christ to my patients either directly or
| indirectly, and l find 1t is almost always
acceptable" Doctors Abercrombie and
/ Brown of Scotland. Doctors Hey and Foth-
ergill Of England. and DIR. Rush of our own
! country, 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
| us" My brother there are severe Illnesses
| in which you will not admit even the
| c.crgy and that patients salvation viii
depend upon your faithfulness. With the
medicine for the body In one hand, aud 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 pill
| grim, and you need to cry into the duh
Il