Opening Exercises of the American Medical Missionary College
By Mrs. E. H. Whitney
These exercises were held Sept. 25, 1902, in the temporary chapel at South Hall. Dr. J. H. Kellogg, president of the college, was in the chair. The program was opened by the hymns, “Am I a Soldier of the Cross?” and “Blessed Assurance,” and prayer by Elder W. W. Prescott. The chairman then made a brief introduction, in which he remarked that this was the eighth annual opening, and welcomed the new students and those returning to their work. The senior class was already in Chicago, where the greater part of their work for the year will be done. Of the faculty present Drs. Paulson, Holden, Thomason, Morse, Dryden, Eggleston, Evans, and Otis addressed the students. The following is but a brief outline of these addresses:— Dr. Paulson referred to his first acquaintance with the medical work at the Sanitarium while he was a student at Battle Creek College. There was then but a handful of medical students, and Dr. Kellogg was urging upon the young people the importance of preparing for medical work. Within a few weeks thirteen students, most of them in their last year at Battle Creek College, decided to study medicine. That this decision was divinely guided needed no clearer proof than that every one of those who took up medical missionary work twelve years ago has been true to it. Several of them have laid down their lives in it, but those who are living are actively engaged in the work to-day. Most of the class of 1892 pursued their studies at the University of Michigan. Drs. Paulson and Dow went to New York, where they were connected during the last year of their studies with Dr. Dowkott’s medical missionary work in that city. Dr. Kellogg had said, “We shall want you to do such work in some of our cities in the future.” The declaration was prophetic. Since then, our medical missionary work in Chicago has far outdistanced the work then carried on in New York. But that was their initiation. For the first time they knelt and prayed with drunkards and criminals, leaving them with a new song in their mouths. Dr. Dowkott was working earnestly for the establishment of a medical missionary college in New York, but circumstances were against him, and he did not succeed. Dr. Paulson, with others, used to pray earnestly for the success of the enterprise; but it came to him one day while they were praying, that it was we who should have the college, as we represented larger ideas and more truth. The idea clung to him after he came back from New York, and when, one evening, Dr. Kellogg asked him, “What do you suppose the board did last night?” he replied, promptly, “They voted to establish a medical missionary college.” “How came you to think of that?”—“Because I have been looking for it.” “Well, that is just what they did.” Everything had to go by faith, but from the start there were special providences attending the work. The Lord helped, and men helped; and to-night, looking back, we can say, “Thus far the Lord hath led us.” Noble men have been graduated from our school, and are laboring in this and other countries,—trained men, with the love of God and humanity. Dr. Holden, who had hastened from the Pacific Coast to be present on this occasion, spoke of the encouragement in regard to the Medical Missionary College he had found in the fact that in his travels through the West he had found its graduates carrying on sanitariums there. The college is represented in nearly all the sanitariums on the Coast. Dr. Whitelock has started a successful work in San Diego, Cal., with very favorable surroundings. The Portland Sanitarium is prosperous in every respect. They are putting up a new building there. They have a good nurses’ class, and there is an excellent spirit among the helpers. The same may be said of the institution at Spokane. Dr. Dunlap has been there, but has returned to his work at Walla Walla, and Dr. Yarnell is at Spokane. They scarcely have room for all their patients. At Tacoma Dr. Allen is conducting a self-supporting work. Dr. Shryock’s work at Seattle is progressing finely. They have nice treatment rooms. The sanitarium at Des Moines, Iowa, is conducted entirely by our graduates, also those at Moline, Ill., and Madison, Wis. At College View it is practically the same. It is a great satisfaction to see in these institutions the results of the training in our medical missionary school. Its students are successful in their work, and have the confidence of the medical profession. Dr. Kellogg added that the Battle Creek Sanitarium might be included in the list, as quite a number of the physicians here are also graduates of the A. M. M. C. Dr. Stewart said that the success of the graduates of the school is due to the fact that they have espoused correct principles. The future greatness and success of the college depend upon the graduates who shall go out from it, and that success depends upon their adherence to these principles. His conception of medical missionary work had grown with the years of his connection with it. It is a solemn thing to engage in this work. The medical man really stands between the patient and his Maker. It is his work not only to help nature in her curative work, but to point the patient to Him who is the real healer. If we do not always recognize this fact, we shall fail in our purpose. Dr. Thomason spoke of the testimony of Dr. Kellogg, and other pioneers in the work to whom he had recently listened, and was reminded of Paul’s testimony in reference to the results of a Christian life. Paul said, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course.” So to Dr. Thomason these few years’ experience in connection with these principles meant more than all the rest of the years of his life. He had the honor of being a member of the first class of the college. If any were tempted to wait till the close of college life before expecting to do much with these principles, he would refer them to what Christ said to his disciples: “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest?” God has given us abundant opportunity to manifest these principles in our lives while passing through our medical course. “We cannot, in one sense, give our lives for these principles; for they are our life. Christ said, ‘I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly,’ and that is what God has given us in these principles, and for this I am very grateful.” Dr. Morse spoke of the word “truth,” so often used in speaking of our work. “Professor Bell once said to his class, ‘The most difficult thing I know of is to tell the truth.’ I have had as many as five patients tell me in one week that they came to the Sanitarium because they knew the doctors here would tell them the truth. That is what we stand for. We are not playing with our patients; we are telling them, as nearly as we can, the truth as God has shown it to us. We cannot teach others that which has not become a part of ourselves. It must be a living thing in us, or we cannot tell the truth in regard to it. If it is not a part of our lives, we have told an untruth somewhere.” The speakers who followed mentioned the desire of many of the patients for a better life physically and spiritually, and urged the students to begin to carry on their missionary work with their studies. Others spoke of the exceptional advantages afforded by the college. Professor Prescott emphasized the thought that it is worth a great deal to be able to recognize truth early in life, and to accept it regardless of outward circumstances. In this time in which we are living he looked for a greater revelation of truth than has been made in the earth since Christ was here in person,—truth that will enlighten the whole earth,—truth that pertains to the well-being of the whole man. To have an opportunity for a preparation for such a work is one of the greatest privileges that ever comes to a young man or woman. Mr. Ossig, who had successfully combated a deadly disease with health principles, and has returned to take his medical course here, said that if he were not connected with this work, he would not consider his life worth living. When he first came here, he knew nothing of this people, except that they were vegetarians and practiced bathing. He was glad that he had found it a Christian institution. Dr. Kellogg said he trusted that it was the love of the truth that had brought the students here. This was not a mill where doctors could be ground out; and while there was no charge for instruction, the students were asked to give more than the students of any other school; for they were asked to give their whole life to spreading these principles and this truth. Referring to the first suggestions regarding a medical school in connection with the sanitarium work, he said that it was suggested thirty-five years ago by Dr. Trall, when on a visit to Battle Creek, and ten years later by Elder Haskell. He then spoke at some length of the conditions which made such a school necessary, the perplexities attending the18first few years of its existence, and the triumphs the Lord had wrought in giving it a standing among the medical schools of the country. His recent visit to Europe had given him opportunity to compare the facilities of the A. M. M. C. with those of the best schools in the world, and he was gratified to find that there were very few superior to it in its facilities, advantages, and instruction. The laboratories of some of the noted scientists of Europe are not better equipped than ours,—some not so well. He found a wonderful increase in interest in physiological therapeutics. The Imperial University in Berlin has now a chair in hydrotherapy, and also one in massage. Some of our methods are in use there. There is much interest in “Light Therapy,” as they call it; and the “Kelloggische Lichtbad,” as they call it, has helped to make our work known. There is no particular credit due us; it is because of the principles which the Lord has given us that we have been able to build up a work in rational treatment which is a little ahead of anything else in the world. But we have only begun to lay the foundation. There is a vast work still to be done. Speaking of the progress of health principles, he read an extract from an article of Dr. Wathen’s, in a recent medical journal, commending vegetarian principles. Dr. Wathen has been a patient at the Sanitarium. This college was not established to prepare men and women to be doctors simply, but to be reformers. Calls are coming from every side. Elder Conradi is asking for help. Egypt is waiting. A lady physician is wanted in the Orient. Two physicians are wanted for Germany, three for Denmark, three for New Zealand, and two for Canada. In our own country we need men and women who are Christian physicians, Christian reformers. If we are truly this, we may be sure there is work awaiting us.