Why Our Medical Missionary Work? by L. A. H.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Dec 25, 1913

Why Our Medical Missionary Work?

By L. A. H.

The reasons for the existence of such a line of work as is embraced in our Medical Department, and the relation of that work to our denominational activities, may bear reconsideration. One may ask, Why this system of sanitariums, nurses’ training-schools, treatment-rooms, health food factories, and restaurants, in connection with a work supposedly purely religious? Is all this an essential factor in the giving of the advent message?

We may put the question in another way, and ask if our medical missionary work is fulfilling the purpose for which it was established. Is it giving returns commensurate with the place and attention it holds in the denomination? Does it accomplish all that we have believed it would? Are we carrying it on in the way that will be most productive as a missionary movement? Are we coming nearer the realization of an ideal method, or are we drifting away from it?

Our health work has been coexistent with other branches of our denominational interests, almost from the beginning of our history. It came in as a component part of our belief and message. Its early development in principles and conduct was much the same as that of other phases of our cause, brought about by the interest and efforts of the leaders, and generally adopted and supported by the believers as a whole. Our health work did not come as an after-thought, or an appendage, to the message we hold. It did not originate with a certain class among us, nor at a particular center. It does not represent the peculiar notions or ideas of reform held by a few and finally worked into denominational acceptance. Nor is it to be regarded as a fad, accepted for a time and then given up as unimportant or impracticable, or superseded by a new idea. Let us repeat, it is a part of our message, with the same solid foundation as the rest of the truth, developed and promulgated as a denominational interest, and designed as an important part of the closing work of God in the earth.

The following paragraph presents the close relation of health reform with our cause, and shows that, in its object and purpose, it is distinctively a Seventh-day Adventist work, touching the two cardinal features of our faith, the coming of the Lord and obedience to God’s law:— ‘The health reform is one branch of the great work which is to fit a people for the coming of the Lord. It is as closely connected with the third angel’s message as the hand is with the body. The law of ten commandments has been lightly regarded by man; yet the Lord will not come to punish the transgressors of that law without first sending them a message of warning. Men and women cannot violate natural law by indulging depraved appetite and lustful passions, without violating the law of God. Therefore he has permitted the light of health reform to shine upon us, that we may realize the sinfulness of breaking the laws which he has established in our very beings. Our Heavenly Father sees the deplorable condition of men who, many of them ignorantly, are disregarding the principles of hygiene. And it is in love and pity to the race that he causes the light to shine upon health reform. He publishes his law and its penalties, in order that all may learn what is for their highest good. He proclaims his law so distinctly, and makes it so prominent, that it is like a city set on a hill. All intelligent beings can understand it if they will. None others are responsible. To make natural law plain, and to urge obedience to it, is a work that accompanies the third angel’s message.’—Mrs. E. G. White, in ‘Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene,’ page 9.

While our health work has developed largely into an institutional phase, its objects and purposes remain as before. The addition of sanitariums, training-schools, and other enterprises brings in many problems of finance and questions of administration and management; but with it all, the missionary feature of the work should be paramount and predominant. These additions to the work should be auxiliaries in the truest sense, helping to carry forward the principles of true health reform. The broader development of the medical work, its fuller organization, and the greater increase of its facilities should give greater results as a real missionary factor.

Are we succeeding in reaching more people with our saving truths through our sanitariums and allied enterprises? Are we more than ever making natural law plain, and urging obedience to it? Are we fitting people for the coming of the Lord? Do our training-schools turn out nurses who are burdened for souls? In the training of doctors and other medical workers, now such a prominent feature of our medical work, is the emphasis placed on getting a preparation that enables one to follow closely in the steps of Jesus? Many other questions might be asked; and on the manner in which we can truly answer them depends the value of our medical missionary work. Various phases of this work may be considered in subsequent articles, with the view of helping to find and keep our bearings in this department.

L. A. H.