Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-03-27

not simply Il great preacher on the
Lords day." Young men about to
leave our theological seminaries, will
you pick mp this mantle which some
old fashioned pastor has dropped at the
brink OF the grave7
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 rs the work of the average city
minister is different from the old fash
Toned country pastor who used to move
In and out among his people In. the
small villages where our grandmothers
and grsndfsthers were born.
There are many reasons for this
change. The electric cars and the ele-
waited trains and the suburban rafl-
road have made the reighborhood
family physician a relic of the past
The family physician twenty years
ago always had his c.fice in his home.
He never thought of having an Office
downtown in some big office building,
as the physicians do now. The result
was the old family doctor. because he
was neighborhood doctor, became a
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
ighborhood 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 different depart
merits 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
stefan can know but very little. II
you have anything the matter with
your eye you must go to an oculist; or
with the throat, to a throat specialist;
or with the lungs, to a lung specialist;
or with the skin, to a skin specialist;
or with the nerves. to n nerve special
ist We have made a 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 payroils.
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 is, in
stead of a physician being a 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 average 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 physical ailments his
interest in the patient ceases The
physician of the past was generally n
pious man. He knew how TO speak tho
sympathetic word to the sufferers and
as he stood by the bed OF the dying to
breathe word OF faith and hope. Who
knows the good he did? Now. my
friends, who is going to do the 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-
lance TO what was accomplished by
the Christian minister himself.
DR.. livingstone's Way.
When David Livingstone wanted 10
become missionary to darkest Africa.
what did ne do? Did he say. 81 will
enter theological seminary and learn
how To preachE' No. lie said: II will
enter the medical school and learn how
to be doctor. Then when can stand
by the sickbed of the black man | will
bind up his wounds. and rs bind them
/ will tell him about Christ. who was
wounded for us. When the lifelong
sufferers come TO me for relief will
tell them about that Christ who can
cure them of their sins as well as their
pains" Christian physician. are
you willing to be an old fashioned med
ical missionary 20 the sufferers OF the
C-ams of the poor, as David Livingstone
was medical missionary TO the heath
en- OF darkest Africa? VIII you, In
Christ's name. administer medicine 10
the soul as we'll as to the body? When
that young man and that young woman
come TO you with physical ailments.
VIII you tell them about Christ. who
viii save them from their sins? When
va
kneel. like the old Christian physician
used 10 kneel. by the sickbed and ask
Gods blessing upon that Invalid? In
this age of medical specialists will you
become the noblest of all specialists, a
medical missionary for Christ? Who
among the young men In our medical
schools will take up the fallen mantle
OF the old fashioned Christian family
doctor? VIII you. young man? WIN
you, young woman?
Having sought successors to the old
fashioned Christian pastors and the
old fashioned Christian doctors. shall
we not lovingly speak about the fallen
nantes OF the old fashioned Christian
lawyers? The Christian lawyers both
IN the present and IA the past have too
often been sneered at and 5eered at
with words or contempt When Rome
was overthrown by the barbarian con-
querors the latter flung all the Roman
lawyers into jail: then they cut out the
tongues of some and sewed up the
mouths of others and sent them forth
into the world with this fiendish COM
ment: Now we have drawn the adder's
fangs and choked the viper's hiss, and
they can no longer do us harm" Thus
some people OF the present generation