The Johnson City comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1916-1917, 1916-11-30
THE COUN-
TRY DOCTOR
By c. S. Kinzell NJ. d.

peIual source OF INSPIRATION 10 Inc
rhapsodist. The glitter of their re
doubtable blades has caught the ocu
lus of Kipling beneath the Indiar
skies and Leyden's balmy air anC
by the brilliant reflection of his il.
mitable imagination has been re
flected askant toward the occidental
blue against the glittering bayonets
of Soldiers Three" Even vinicivus
from amid the Alpine hills, has looked
Americanward with artistical vision
and a sigh of departed glory, and till
| the Bonnie Brier Bushes cease to
! blooom, will live cries Master Par
son" and his Village Doctor"
For generation after generation in
every cline of the civilized world have
lived together in intellectual brother
| hood, Three Guardsmen of humanity
veal Soldiers Three of Him who
hath measured the waters in the hOl-
, low of his hand. and meted out heaven
with a span, and comprehcnded the
dus. of the earth in a tierce, and
weighed the mountains in scales and
the hills in a balance"
Till the twinkling stars shall fall
and fade, and the beckoning hand of
Christ shall summon before the ON
niscient Throne the humble worthy
who have wrought mighty in the
earth, will mankind fully appreciate
the vast debt of all classes 10 the vii
lag9 schoolmaster, the Parish Parson
and the country Doctor.
While the whole world went mad
over the fCllies of higher criticism
and the thousand other formes of
skepticism and bigotry, the poor par
SON saturated with the care of sound
philosophy and wise in human wretch
edneSs, has held the faith of the peo-
pie loyal to his Heavenly Master.
lie labors increasingly and untir-
ingiy from the first appearance in
the orient of the brilliant streamers
emnating from our great luminary
till far later than the sitting of the
same behind the occidental hills.
At last he stands on the crest of
the wave of times deeting years, at
the threshold of eternity, in the even
ing Of the going down of his last de-
parting sun, with his personal in
dividu2lity almost naked; and bare
before the keen penetrating, unslum-
bering wakefulness of Jehovah's all
seeing eye.
While the millions of the rich and
the state were being used to build
great colleges and educate the few
the village schoolmaster has carried
the treasures of classical letters into
the humble cottages of the many
without money and without price and
from pure love of learning. While
the wealthy were deaf to groans, the
ambitious Needless of pity and we'll
nigh the whole earth blind to pen
niless misery, the country doctor has
stifed his glory-dreams for humani-
ty's sake, and sacrificed his very life
for his supering fellow-creatures.
Indeed, it has frequently seemed to
me that while upon the parish preach
ers has descended the spirit of the
ancient prophecy and while to the
village schoolmaster has been given
the voice of Cristory, to the country
doctor has been requested that nail
pierced hand of the miracle-working
Jesus-and when opening blind eyes,
healing lepcrs, and raising the dead
in his profound unselfshness and
shrinking modesty, he has ever seem
ed to me to enjoin upon the grateful
pawper even as did the lowly Naz-
a~ine; "See Thou tell it to no man
Up and down his little world he goes
in his tender ministrations of mercy;
needy, but never asking aims; ragged
but always respected; meek, but de-
votedly beloved; humble, but grandly
reyerenced. For him the night is
never too dark, the blast too cold, the
flood too high. or the patient too poor
Sun wind and weather, time and space
hunger, thirst and fatigue-all seem
to have plighted faith to him, for to
all he is alike Indifferent
90 consistency thou art jewel
God forgice us for our measureless
ingratitude The most merciful man
on earth to others, is the most mer
ciless to himself and we to him.
By constant and impartial observa-
ton we can see that this man has no
fear in all the world. No other earth
ly being works so many deeds OF
mercy, suffers so many impositions
expend; so much unrewarded energy
lives less for himself, or more truly
dies for his fellow men. Braver is he
than the general who leads his mar
shaled hosts upon the battlefield and
to victory and crimsons the field of
carnage and makes the valleys babble
with rushing streams of pure blood.
Truer is he than Pythias, more un-
selfish than Johanathan. Among the
humble servants he has always been
among the best. Just as the parish
parson has always been for them the
repository of philosophy, and the viii
| lage schoolmaster the treasure of let