Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1908-03-26


arm about hayward brothers neck
than for the graceful gesture of the De-
mosthenean pulpitcer More need Ia
there for noble pastors sympathetic
prayer by the sickbed than for a pulpit
orator who can deliver classic eulogy
by the bier of a dead president. More
need is there for loving ministerial
friend than for one who is trying to
build up his church through the influ-
cnce of his Sunday services alone. and
yet. as our cities are growing larger
and larger each year, as the need Of
pastoral work is becoming greater and
greater, because there Is more danger
of men and women becoming lost IN
the crowds, the fact remains that the
pastoral work Of the minister Is be-
coming loss and less. Who will make
pastoral visitations life passion I?
who will say, Lord, make me q hunt
or for single souls during the week and
not simply great preacher on the
Lords day." Young men about to
leave our Theological scminaries, will
you pick MP this mantle which some
brink of the grave?
The Modern Doctor.
As we see the individual work Of the
ministers for individual souls being
neglected on account Of the congesting
of large numbers of people in our
towns and cities. so we find the moral
and the spiritual work of the old fash
toned Christian doctors Is also passing
away. The modern physician is as
unlike his predecessor of the past gen
Grafton as the work of the average city
minister is different from the old fash
toned country pastor who used to move
in and ont among his people in the
small villages where our grandmothers
ana grandfathers were born.
There are many reasons for this
change. The electric cars and the ele
waited trains and the suburban rail
road have made the neighborhood
/ family physician n relic of the past
| The family physician twenty years
ago always had his office in his home
lie never thought of having an office
downtown I'm some big Office building,
rs the physicians do now. The result
was the old family doctor, because he
was a neighhorhood doctor. became Il
personal adjunct of every family. He
had his patients individual interests
at heart. The boys and the girls of the
street were his boys and girls. They
were all his children.
Not only has the old fashioned
neighborhood physician passed away
through the introduction of the tele-
phone and the electric cars and the
downtown offices. but also because OF
the specializing of the difero Mt depart.
ments of medicine and surgery. Once
you felt that the family physician
knew n great deal but now you have
come TO the conclusion that one ply
sician can know but very little. If
you have anything the matter with
your eye YOU must go to an oculist; or
with the throat, to throat specialist;
or with the lungs to a lung specialist:
or with the skin, to skin specialist
or with the nerves, to q nerve special
list. We have made fad out of this
specialist business. Thus, instead Of
today having one doctor whom we call
a family doctor, most families have
four or five doctors on their Dayrolls.
They have one doctor for the babies
and another for the father and another
doctor for the mother and another doc
tor for the sister. The result IL, in
stead Of a physician being Il neighbor-
hood doctor and being part Of that
neighborhood, he Is but one in a pro-
cession. His patients come to him one
day and do not come to him the next.
Thus, instead of having the strong
personal interest in his patients which
he used to have. the age doctor
looks at his patients simply as cases
with so many sores or so many coughs
or with so many stomach complaints
or with SO many skin diseases. When
he has cured the physica ailments his
interest in the patient ceases. The
physician of the past was generally n
pious man. He knew how TO speak the
sympathetic word to the sufferers and
as he stood by the bed of the dying to
breathe a word of faith and hope. Who
knows the good he did? Now, my
friends, who is going TO do ttle work
of the old fashioned Christian physi
clan: You and | know that the work
the old fashioned Christian physician
| did was second only in eternal impor
/ tance 10 what was accomplished by
the Christian minister himself
DR.. Livinestone's Way.
When David Livingstone wanted T.
become missionary TO darkest Africa
what did he do? Did he say. Il viii
enter a theological seminary and Learn
how 10 preach:' No. He said; Il WI
enter the medical school and learn how
to be doctor, Then when can stanC
| by the sick bed of the black man | will
bind up his wounds and as bind then
will tell him about Christ, who wa.
sufferers come to me for relief | viii
tell them about that Christ who car
cure them of their sins as well as thei
pains" o Christian physician. arr
you willing to be an old fashioned med
zeal missionary To the sufferers of thu
slums Of the poor as David Livingston,
was medical missionary to the heath
en- of darkest Africa? WIN you, II
Christs name. administer medicine Il
the soul rs Well rs to the body? Wher
that young nan and that young woman
come to you with physical ailments
will you tell them about Christ. whC
will save than from their aina7 Whoy