This issue of the paper, as our readers will observe, is given almost exclusively to the consideration of medical missionary work, and particularly to what may be accomplished in heathen lands by the skillful practice of the Christian physician and nurse. No greater helper can be sent to the dark lands of superstition and heathenism than the Christian man or woman who has a well balanced medical training.
The missionary pioneers in heathen lands, regardless of denominational name, have recognized these facts, and have urged that a large proportion of the missionaries sent out should have the training of physicians; for in the majority of instances, in those benighted lands, the superstitious rubbish in the way of notions concerning the body, must be swept to one side before the soul can be touched with the healing message of salvation. Indeed, a perfect gospel always requires the salvation of the body as well as of the soul. The two must go together. Hence the Christian physician will be as earnest in teaching the principles of healthful living, so that the people may properly care for themselves and remain well, as he will in laboring to restore the sick to health.
In view of the urgent needs of efficient medical missionaries, our people, as set forth in numerous articles in this issue, established a school at Loma Linda, California, for the purpose of giving the class of training required by the medical worker in heathen lands. It is readily seen that the tests for admission to such a school must place Christian character in the very forefront; for if this one essential item is lacking, no matter what the other qualifications are, the individual is unsuited to take the training for the great work in those needy fields.
It should go without saying that among the tests of admission to the Loma Linda school, no man or woman, either young or old, will be received who uses tobacco in any form, or who indulges in any kind of intoxicating liquors. Indeed, our school goes a step further than that, and the milder beverages, tea and coffee, are banished; and the student is taught, and in turn he teaches others, that any of these narcotics and stimulants, interfering as they do with the nervous system, and generally deranging the functions of the body, cannot be indulged in if the highest physical and mental as well as spiritual and moral attainments are reached.
W. O. Clough on a medical missionary trip in the highlands of Bolivia, South America
The character qualifications produced by a strong life of temperance and practical Christianity develop a body and a mind that are the soundest and best for any of the purposes of life, and that are an absolute necessity for those who are going out into the wide, sick world to act under the leadership of the great Physician Himself in winning souls to the ways of peace and happiness for this life, and preparing them for the eternity beyond.
There is no more inspiring sight for the human eye to behold than an earnest, clean, pure-minded class of young men and women who have a strong purpose in life, and who are cultivating mind and heart and body with the one aim before them of going among the hardest, the most trying, the darkest, and the most undesirable classes of people, and laboring for their uplift and salvation.
