A Shanghai Dispensary Incident by Bertha L. Selmon

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 9, 1913

A Shanghai Dispensary Incident

By Bertha L. Selmon

There were three members of the Li family,—father, mother, and a little boy of eight years. Poverty had compelled the father to leave home in search of work. The family had seen better days, for the mother had a fair education for a Chinese woman. She has been attending the Bible class in the Shanghai chapel for some time, and reads her Bible readily. She and the child were living in a little, dark, dingy room, and eating what even the poorest Chinese look upon as very coarse food. The little boy became very sick, and it seemed he would surely die. He was so sick that the mother could not take him to the dispensary, and as she had no money, how could she ask the doctor to come to see him? But our Bible woman visited them, learned their pitiful plight, and at once told the missionary doctor. The doctor called, and the child was treated and soon showed marked improvement. As soon as he could sit up in the bed, he would say to his mother every afternoon: “Mother, you go and worship God. I am better now and can stay alone.” Young as he was, he realized that it must be a good thing to worship God, for he knew that as soon as the “worship-God-people” learned that he was sick, they came to help him.

This was the kind of work done by our Saviour when here on earth. The record says that he “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” By ministry to the physical needs he found entrance to the hearts of the sufferers. He is the same merciful, compassionate Saviour today.

BERTHA L. SELMON, M. D.