The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-02-01

the love of the Good Physician Christ, | would you not have listened to him and have gladly said "Amen?"
 Young man about to enter the medical
 profession, by the recital of this simple scene, a specimen of the experience which
 at some time or other takes place in every
 home, I want you to fully realize your
 glorious gospel opportunities. l want you to be able, like the good old Dr. Luke, to-
 go to the patients bed with a prescrip-
 tion suggested by your medical books in one hand and a spiritual prescription
 taken from your Bible in the other hand.
 l want you to be a glorious Christian phy- sician, like Dr. John Brown of Scotland
 or Dr. Rush of Philadelphia or Dr. James Y. Simpson of anaesthetic fame or like
 Bishop Matthew Simpson, who learned
 how to be the greatest Methodist preach
 CT of his day by being first practicing Christian physician and by praying at the
 bedside of his sick patients. Your gospel
 work can be made glorious for God and for the betterment of the world if you will here and now promise to love and live for the Good Physicians who rat Lag arus' tomb called the dead back, to life.
 Medicines Chief Triumphs. | But :.the purpose of the me dioal pro- | fession is not only to make the sick well, | but also to prevent the we'll from. getting l sick. We are all ready to agree that the chief duty of the good lawyer Is to keep his clients out of court. Why should we
 not be ready to confess that the chief 1 purpose of the doctor is to keep his pa- tients out of the hospital and the sick room?
 l That the chief triumphs of the medical profession have been won during the last century in the prevention of disease rath-
 CT than in the cure there is no doubt. How have the great plagues which used
 to sweep over Europe been halted? By
 the power of the sword? No. By the power of the bacterfoogist's microscope
 and the physicians pen Dr. Earle, a leading professor in the Chicago College
 of Physicians and Surgeons. told me that
 when he first commenced his practice In
 Chicago thirty per cent. of the patients | sicknesses were due to bad water and
 poor drainage. With the improvement of Chicago's drainage system that thirty per
 cent of sickness is being gradually elm- | mated. Why Is the longevity of the hu-
 man race being increased year by year?
 Because people do not work as hard as
 they used to work2 Oh. mol An average
 man today goes through more hard work
 and nerve exhaustion and excitement in week than his grandfather did In a
 whole year. The longevity of the human
 race Is increasing fin spite Of the strenu-
 ous life we lead. It Is increasing because the doctor, year by year, is telling us how
 to eat how to dress and in what kind of
 houses we should live.
 Young man about to enter the medical
 profession, you are soon to be one of the
 great band of teachers of physical hy-
 giene. Can you not be leader in spir- , itual hygiene also? Your calling opens for you the door of many homes. It not only opens for you the front door, but also the closet door. in which hang the 1 beached bones of a family skeleton. You are to be the recipient of the hearts se- | crets as no one else in the community You will have your finger upon the pulse
 of community and will ultimately know whether 1t beats sinfully fast or sinfully
 slow. Will you not say the right gospel word to that young man who is doing what he ought not to do? Will you not | speak warning word to that wife, that l mother, that child, who may be drifting into sin? They will gladly take Chris
 tian advice from you, which perhaps they
 would not take from a minister. They
 may say, "A minister is merely working | for his salary" but they will know that
 you are disinterested in speaking in the
 name of the Lord Jesus. In Christ's
 name, will you not try. to prevent sin as well as to cure sin after it has already
 comey
 1 I have been trying to show you the
 sician's life. F,ut now there comes over me the overwhelming thought that per- | haps you not Christian young man. | Perhaps you may be very brilliant in your medical studies. but have never yet confessed the name of Jesus Christ "Yes," answers some young man in