The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-06-11

the Govt, and Shows Why tho Doctors
Could Not Cure Him-Pie'y and Medical
Skill.
1t is not often hat men of
on. profession have much en-
enlargement for men Of another
profession, but his sermon prepared
by DIR. Talmage contains enthusiastic
words for a clergyman to physicians.
The text is II Chronicles xvi, IL, 13,
~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 the
Lord, but to the physicians. And Asa
slept with his fathers"
At this season Of the ear, when
medical colleges Of all schools Of medi-
cine are giving diplomas to young doc
tors. and at the capital and in many
of the cities medical associations are
assembling to consult about the ad-
vancement of the interests Of their pro-
ft-ssion, I feel this discourse is appro-
pirate.
KING ASA'S GOVT.
In my text Is King Asa with the
gout. High living and no exercise have
vftiatr j his blood, and my text presents
him with his inflamed and ~bandaged
feet on an .ttOman. In defiance of God,
whom he hated, he sends for certain
conjurors or Quacks. They come and
gfnve him al! sorts of lotions and pana-
ceas. The bleed him. They sweat him.
They mani ulate him. They blister
rim. They poultice him. They scarify
him. They drug him. They cut him.
They XIII Tim. He was only a young
man had , bad disease which, though
very pail. al, seldom proves fatal 10 a
young ma, and Ne ought to rave got
well, bat he fell Il victim to chariatan-
ry and empiricism. And Asa in the
thirty and ninth year of his reign was
diseased in his feet until his dt-sase
was exceeding great, yet in his disease
TIE sought not to the Lord, but to the
physicians. And Asa slept with his IA
thers." That is, the doctors killed him.
In this sharp and graphic way the
Bible sets forth the truth, that YOU have
no ri sht to shut God out from the
realm Of pharmacy and therapeutics.
" asa had said: % Lord. | am sick.
Bless the fundamentally employed for
my recovery" Now, servant. go and
get the best doctor you can find"-he
would have recovered. In other words,
the world wants divinely directed ply
5iCians. There are a great many such.
The diplomas they received from the
academies of medicine were nothing
compared with the diploma they re-
ceived from the High Physician of the
universe on the day when they started
oct and he said to them, eco heal the
sick and cast out the devils of pain and
open the blind eyes and unstOp thedeaf
80 80 cod 1ne. th1- ~ un1l tha.
world over, and let all the hospitals
and dispensaries and infirmaries and
asylums and domestic circles of the
earth respond, amen"
Men Of the medical profession we Of
ten meet in the home of distress. We
shake hands across the cradle of ago.
nGzed infancy. We join each other in an
attempt at solace where the paroxysm
Of grief demands an anOdyne as well as
a 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 today 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 go out of it. In the clos
ing moments of our earthly existence,
when the hand of the wife or mOtherOr
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 tOday,as in other days,
in houses of distress, but by the pleas
ant affairs of God, and I propose a ser
mon of helpfulness and good cheer. AS
in the nursery children sometimes re-
enact all the scenes of the SickrOOm, so
today you play that you arethe patient
and that I am the physician, and rake
my prescription just once. 1t shall be
a tonic, a sedative, a dietetic, a disin-
fectant, a stimulus and an anOdyne at
the same time. us there not balm in
GiIead? Is there not a physician there
AN HONORABLE CALLING.
In the first place, I think all the med
seal profession should become Chris
tians because of the debt of gratitude
they owe to God for the n he has
put upon their calling. No other call
ing in all the world, except it be that
of the Christian ministry, has received
so great an honor as yours. Christ
himself was not only preacher. but phy-
stefan, surgeon, aurist, ophthalmolO-
giSt, and under his mighty power optic
and auditory nerve thrilled with light
and sound, and catalepsy arose from
NlS ILL.,, diIu VIC CT ~ VIZ HN>N
ed. and anchy1osis went out of the
stiffened tendons, and the foaming
maniac became placid as a hild and
the streets of Jerusalem became an eX-
xemporized hospital rowded with con-
yalescent victims of casualty and in
validism. All ages have woven the
garland for the doctors brow. Homer
said:
A wise physician, skilled u wounds
to neal,
Is more than armies to the pubhc
veal"
Cicero said, There is nothing in
which men so approach the gods as
when they try to give health to other
men," Charles TX made proclamation
that all the Protestants in france
should be put to death on St. Barthol-
Dmew's day, but mad one exception.
and tina the case of Pare, the father of
French urgery. The battlefelds OF the
American revolution welcomed Drs.
Mercer and Warren and Rush. When