Medical Missionary Work in Boston
By G. B. STARR
It is a pleasure to report steady progress in this work. The Massachusetts Conference employs four persons for local medical missionary work, and for the spiritual work and teaching connected with the New England Sanitarium, at Melrose, Mass. This teaching force includes two graduate nurses, Mrs. Starr, and the writer. The interest of the Melrose church in this work, and their faithfulness in the payment of the tithe, have resulted in an amount being paid into the treasury each month just about equal to the wages and expenses of these four workers. We hope that it will soon exceed the full expense. We feel sure that this co-operation on the part of the church, the conference, and the sanitarium is meeting the mind of the Spirit of God. We are at present conducting five schools of health each week. The first of these is in Social Hall, at Tremont Temple, in the very center of the city of Boston. It is the plan to keep this school, or “institute of health,” as we advertise it, open every Tuesday afternoon throughout the greater part of the year. This institute is attended by from forty to fifty women. We notice a change in faces, and form new acquaintances, each week; so we know we are reaching more than fifty separate families. This company includes many of the most active and influential women in the city. Through them we receive invitations to gatherings of societies and churches and to visit private homes; thus many doors are opened wide to us, friendly associations are formed, and prejudice is removed. Many of these persons visit the sanitarium, and thus that institution and its work are becoming more widely known. The collections at Tremont Temple nearly meet the hall expense. At this institute we are assisted by the sanitarium physicians, the chef, and the physical instructor, who lecture and answer questions. At Cambridge we conduct a school of health every Wednesday morning, at the Y. W. C. A. parlors. Here we secure an attendance ranging all the way from fifteen to thirty-four, including the mothers and wives of some of Boston’s leading educators. Wednesday afternoon we have a school of health at West Newton, in the large parlors at Mrs. Yelland’s. Here we have a regular attendance of eighteen ladies. In the W. C. T. U. parlors at Lynn we have a night school, attended by from ten to fifteen persons. At these schools, the health talks are given by Mrs. Starr and the writer, and the demonstrations by the nurses. Here at the sanitarium we prepare all the foods used in these demonstrations, and in this are assisted by our able cooks. If our people could see us crossing the city, morning after morning, with from one to two valises each, I am sure we should have their prayers for the success18of the work. We rejoice to be able to do “errands for Jesus;” and the people are so appreciative, and so ready to adopt the reforms suggested, that we are quite repaid for the labor put forth. Many are leaving off tea, coffee, and flesh foods. We are keeping a list of all who take this stand, and hope to be able to report later the results in improved health and also spiritually. The time has come when dietetic reform should be presented to our own and other people, and when there should be a response to it; and there always is a response when the matter is presented calmly, earnestly, and intelligently by those who believe and practise it themselves. The Lord has entrusted this people with precious light on this subject; and when it is heeded by us, and carried to others, it will be received and appreciated by them. G. B. STARR.