The Training of Medical Missionary Workers
By S. P. S. Edwards
I HAVE been much interested in the proper training of physicians for our work. As I have been thinking of the work, I felt that I must write a few lines on this question, to be used if thought of sufficient interest. It seems to me that it is not so much a question of what school one is graduated from, though that has a vital influence on the nature of the work done by17a physician; neither does the matter of previous nurses’ training nor internships in our sanitariums determine the efficiency of a physician. The physicians who occupy positions in our institutions, and who go out as representatives of our denominational work, should not be mere professional men, but in the strictest sense, medical missionaries. The health reform work, including dress reform, diet reform, proper methods of treatment for the sick, and all other phases on which the Lord has given us special light, is a part of the third angel’s message, just as much as are the prophecies, the Sabbath question, or the tithing system. This is a thing that we must have so thoroughly impressed upon us that when we get at our work as physicians, and come up against a problem as to what we shall do in a given case, it will not be a question so much as to what some authority has said, but the first and most important question will be, “What would Jesus do?” What has the Lord said in regard to this matter? Is it right or wrong from the light given us as a people? Why should we indorse the work of physicians, or employ them in our institutions, simply because they are professed Seventh-day Adventists, if they know but little, or perhaps nothing, of what the Lord has taught us as to right living and right principles in the cure of the sick, or if, knowing these things, they fail to realize that these principles are a vital part of the gospel for these days, and that God will hold each one responsible for the way he relates himself to them? There are doctors who, before their study of medicine, had taken a thorough nurses’ course and received a thorough knowledge of physiologic methods and of health reform in general, but were found more expert in the use of the hypodermic and in the subject of materia medica, than in hydrotherapy, massage, or proper dietetics. Such physicians give a low religious standard to the work with which they may be connected, neglect the missionary side of the physician’s work, and overlook the proper training of nurses. The work of some physicians is defective, not because of deficient sanitarium training, but because they are not thoroughly converted to the whole message. And he who fails to live up to God’s truth in one particular will fail in others. Not only will such a physician find it easier to give drugs to his patients, but also easier to forget to pray with and for them, and, after a while, it will be easier to give up the whole truth and go where he can make bigger wages, and not have to bother with diet and treatments and religious work. What we need is a thorough study of the foundation principles of the truth, the instruction that God has given us as to what and how to do for our patients, and also what not to do. Then we shall not find so frequent occasion to use morphin, strychnin, arsenic, whisky, port wine, sleeping-powders, ad nauseam. We need also to know that this instruction is not given to us for our amusement, or to be accepted or rejected as we see best; but that when God speaks, he holds us accountable if we neglect to study the truth, and then with prayer and hard work, put it into practise. We may say that it is not an easy thing to throw aside drugs, improper food, dress, etc., and use only what the Lord has told us to use. True, but how often have we seen apparent impossibilities accomplished, to God’s glory, when we have by faith done what we knew, and prayed for wisdom to do more! Many a time, more wisdom has been acquired by a few minutes on bended knees before God, than from hours of study of the materia medica or the world’s greatest authors. Let those whom God calls to enter the medical missionary work as physicians get all the training possible, in medical schools, in our institutions, and in whatever avenues may open; but any and all of this will avail little if there is not a realization of what is God’s truth, and of the physician’s relation to it. It has been said that the medical missionary evangelist can do ten times as much good as the evangelist without the medical training. The devil knows this better than we, and is doing all he can to prevent all who enter the medical work from becoming useful workers, by blinding their eyes to the relation which the principles of health reform, and the instruction given in regard to it, sustain to the rest of the message; by keeping them in ignorance of what these principles are; and by making wrong principles and his methods so much easier and more convenient that some in their love of ease, will do the easiest thing, and neglect the good, hard mental effort which would enable them to know God’s way, and the good, hard physical effort which would enable them to do God’s way. Is there a company of workers that needs the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, with wisdom, with a spirit of service, with a spirit of hard study and complete surrender of the old ideas and ways to God’s ways and methods, more than does this body of medical workers? Will not a complete and whole-hearted belief of what God has said in the instruction given by the spirit of prophecy, and a doing of that, simplify the question of the training of workers? Without that belief, with any amount of training, they will soon settle back into the old ruts; but with it, even without the special training, any worker who will take the instruction given us and study it carefully and prayerfully, will find ways and means of doing the right thing at the right time; and I believe that such study will result in new light and new methods, which will astonish the world, and we shall not have to depend so much on worldly authors. The best ideas in regard to rational therapeutics did not originate with the great medical men of the world, but with such humble, praying men as Pastor Kneipp, and Priessnetz, and John Wesley. Why should Seventh-day Adventist medical missionaries be backward in seeking God for light and wisdom? Let us praise God for what he has given us, and let us seek forgiveness for our slowness to believe, and let us seek for the Holy Spirit to lead us to all the truth he has for us, is my earnest prayer.