Our sanitarium at Caterham has been the occasion of not a little rejoicing during its brief history, as we have witnessed the results that have attended its work, not only on the bodies, but also on the hearts of those who have come to it for the recovery of health. A special note of joy and gratitude, however, was sounded on the eleventh of October, when a large company gathered for the graduating exercises of our first nurses’ class. Five young men and women—Brethren Alf. P. Guyton, Sidney Brown, and Wm. M. Scott, and Sisters Mary Jacques and Winifred Mainwaring—have completed their three years’ course with credit to their training, and with perfect satisfaction to all who have watched their development. Each one has profited in many ways during the training, not the least in their personal health. Brother W. C. Sisley, the president of the Good Health Association Ltd., remarked that the Board had originally entertained doubts as to the ability of some members of the class to stand the work, but now there was no hesitation whatever in accepting all as fully qualified for the work of the medical missionary.
After an excellent hygienic meal, to provide seats at which taxed the utmost accommodation of the institution, all assembled in the gymnasium, which was tastefully decorated with flowers and evergreens. The words “Go Ye,” worked in leaves and hawthorn berries, surmounted a drawing of the mariner’s compass, at one end of the room, reminding the graduates of their liability to be called for service to any part of the world.
Some influential local persons were present, as well as a number of one-time patients, who felt a deep interest in the nurses by whose help they had been restored. Some were present in health and strength who were pitiable and almost hopeless wrecks when they first came to the sanitarium.
Brother W. C. Sisley occupied the chair. The principal address of the evening was given by Prof. H. R. Salisbury. It was a graphic and powerful plea for entire consecration to the ministry of healing instituted by the great Medical Missionary. We read that the Saviour saw the multitude and had compassion on them and healed their sick. Was it not because their own eyes had been opened to the needs of the multitude, and their ears had heard its cry for help, that the nurses who were being graduated had decided to devote their lives to the service of humanity? By many apt illustrations the speaker drove home the truth that to us is given even a greater privilege than to entertain angels; we may perform acts of loving service to Christ himself in the person of his little ones.
Brother E. E. Andross spoke of the trials that lie before the nurses in their life-work. These would come to reveal defects, that, by abandoning wrong principles and methods, the workers might go on to perfection, and finish the work given them to do.
FACULTY AND GRADUATING CLASS
Brother W. H. Wakeham quoted the statement once made by Elder James White that the qualifications of a good missionary were summed up in grit, grace, and gumption. He spoke particularly of the latter, and gave some interesting illustrations of the worthlessness of medical work that lacked this element, drawn from his own personal observation in Egypt.
Brother W. D. MacLay was to have spoken, but ill health prevented him from being present.
Dr. F. R. Richards, superintendent of the Leicester Sanitarium, spoke of “The Nurse We Want,” and referred to the growing appreciation of good nursing by the medical profession.
Dr. A. B. Olsen then presented diplomas to the five graduating nurses, addressing a few personal words to each. He gave the class an impressive charge to be faithful to their high calling as disciples of the pattern Medical Missionary. He said, “Let your hearts ever be soft and tender, warmed with the feeling of compassion and sympathy for the lonely hearts of those that are wandering in darkness. Always be ready to tender the cup of living water to the thirsty soul, and minister the bread of heaven to the hungry, starving souls all about you. It is your double duty, and, I must also add, your double privilege, to minister not only to the body, to the physical suffering of mankind, but also—and more sacred still—to minister to the perishing, sin-stricken soul. This you will always do with tenderness and gentleness, realizing that it is through the avenues of the suffering body that one often finds the gateway to the inner citadel of the soul. And, if you ask, ‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ then I answer, No one is sufficient in his own strength; but the God of love, who sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to heal the sick and to save the lost, gives you the heavenly commission, and it is he who sends you into the world as his true disciples, his representatives on earth, his sons and daughters, to help him carry the gospel of his kingdom to the people of the earth, to succor the suffering ones, to sympathize with the sorrowing ones, and to make known his loving-kindness to the children of men.”
Brother Wm. M. Scott replied on behalf of the graduating class. He referred to some of the early experiences, when the work at Caterham was just beginning, and facilities were few. Those experiences were not very pleasant at the time, but now he looked back to them with special satisfaction, as being the means of teaching valuable lessons. He almost pitied the classes that would follow, as they would be deprived of some of the privileges of this kind which the pioneer class had enjoyed.
There was an unmistakable note of high Christian principle about the meeting, and many present were impressed with a new sense of the meaning of our sanitarium work. A Roman Catholic patient, who has kept away from our religious services, was present and expressed her admiration of the spirit manifested.
Our brethren in America, who sacrificed in order to help us purchase the Caterham Sanitarium, made a good investment, which must greatly increase in value as it sends forth laborers of its own training to extend the conquests of the third angel’s message.
