St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1897-07-10
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Words Of Advice and Encourage
meEt to the Doctors.


Now God Has Honored the Profession
why Doctors Should be Christians-
Their Opportunities for
Christian Usofulness.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage sends out the
following sermon containing words of
encouragement to the medical profess
sion. 1t is based on the text:
And Asa in the thirty and ninth year Of his
reign, was diseased in his feet until his disease
was exceedingly great: yet In his disease he
| sought not to the Lord but to the physicians
! And Asa slept with his fathersL-u Chronicles,
| xvi IL
At this season of the year, when
medical colleges Of al schools of medi-
cine are giving diplomas to young doc
tors, and at the capital and in many Of
the cities medical associations are as
sembling to consult about the advance
ment of the interests of their profess
sion. feel this discourse Inappropriate.
In my text il King Asa. with the
gout High living and no exercise
have vitiated his blood. and my text
L
bandaged feet on an ottoman. In de.
6ance Of God, whom he hated, he sends
for certain conjurors or quacks. They
| come and give him all sorts of lotions
and panaceas. 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. He
was only young man, and had dis
ease which. though very painful. sell
dom proves fatal to . young man, and
he ought to have got well; but he fell
. victim to charlatanry and empiricism.
"And Asa in the thirty aud ninth year
of his reign was diseased in his feet,
until his disease was exceedingly great;
vet in his disease he sought not the
Lord, but to the physicians. And Asa
slept with his fathers" 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 therapeutics.
If Asa had said: 20 Lord, am sick;
bless the instrumentality employed for
my recovery '.Now. servant, 60 and
get the best doctor you can fnd"-he
would have recovered. In other words,
the world wants divinely-directed
physlcianA There are q great many
such. The diplomas they received
from the academies of medicine were
nothing compared with the diploma
they received frora the Head Physician
Of the universe, on the day when they
started out, and He said to them: .Go
heal the sick, and cast ont the devils of
pain, and open the blind eyes, and un-
stop the deaf ears" God bless the
doctors all the world over! and let all
the hospitals, and dispensaries, and in
6rmaries, and asylums, and domestic
circles of the earth respond: "Amen."
Men Of the medical profession we
often meet in the home of distress. We
shake hands across the cradle Of agon-
ICED infancy. We join each other in
an attempt at solace where the parox-
ysm Of grief demands an anodync as
well as . prayer. We look into each |
others sympathetic faces through the |
dusk. rs 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 professions
are in full sympathy. You. doctor,
are our first and last earthly friend. |
You stand at the gates of life when
we enter this world, and you stand at
the gates of death when we 60 out of il
In the closing moments of our earthly |
existence, when the hand of the wife, or
or sister, or daughter, shall
hold our right hand, it will give
strength to our dying moment 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 q sermon
Of kelpfulness and good cheer. As in
the nursery children sometimes re-en-
net all the scenes of the sick room, so
to-day you play that you are the pa
tient and that l am physician, and
take my prescription Just once. It
shall be . tonic, q sedative, dietetic, .
stimulus and an ano-
dyne ut the same time. lis there not
balm in Gilead? Is there not physi-
:ian there"
In the first place, think all the
medical profession should become
Christians because of the debt of graft
tude they owe to God for the honor He
has put upon their calling. No other
Ealing in al the world. except it be
hat Of the Christian ministry, has re-
,eived so great an honor rs yours.
christ Himself was not only preacher,
but physician, surgeon, aurist, ophthal-
notologist, and under His mighty pow
r. optic and auditory nerve thrilled
With light and sound. and catalepsy
lrose from its at, and the club foot was
and anchylosis went out
II the stiffened tendons, and the foam
ng maniac became placid rs . child.
md the streets of Jerusalem became
IN extemporized hospital. crowded
With convalescent victims OK casualty
md invalldism. All ages have woven
he garland for the doctors brow.
Homer said: |
A wise physician, skilled our wounds to heal,
Is more than sznles to the public veal -
Cicero said: There Is nothing in
which men 30 approach the gods rs
When they try 70 give health to other
men," Charles TX. made proclamation
hat al the Pfotestants in France
hould Be put 70 death on St. Bartho-
omews day, but made once exception.
md that the case Of Pare, the father
4 the French surgery. The battle
ields of the American revolution well
,omed Drs. Mercer and Warren and
3ush. When the French army was en-
irely at fear Of the plague. |.
he leading surgeon Of that army inoc-
Hated himself with the plague to show