Some of the Medical Missions in the Far East.
By James Johnston
(Continued from page 11.) from three-years journeyings in China, Korea, Japan, and Siberia, refers to the very great impressions which her visits to one hundred and three medical mission stations made upon herself, of the efficiency of the art of healing, and its relations to spiritual blessings. No prophetic sagacity is required to perceive that the medical missionary is a Christlike pioneer for souls, as his ministry is the only effectual agency of pioneering in Korea and in some parts of China. As one representative of the medical stations, the English Presbyterians have an institution at Swatow, which receives more patients than any in the East. It is always crammed, generally containing four hundred patients. In addition to the actually-received patients, hundreds from long distances stand in the court-yard or throng the staircase. So great are the crowds that the doctor is occasionally borne off his chair in the consulting room by the rush of people overpowering the doorkeeper. Admirable as the medical and surgical work is, even more, if possible, are the religious benefits. Dr. Causland himself is an earnest teacher, and usually has fifty inquirers from the hospital patients. The lady missionaries have classes for women invalids, or those approaching convalescence. A large body of men and women have become Christians in the hospital, making it a bulwark of light and healing, both in the big city of Swatow and the area of which it is the center. Ascending the river at Wukingfu, there is another valuable hospital. A further ascent of the river to Hangchau shows one of the finest hospitals in the East, probably the best equipped anywhere. Chinese medical students have done much to bring a knowledge of Western methods within reach of the masses. Every student here must be an earnest Christian, and passes through a course nearly equivalent to that of the Edinburgh University. The cooks, gardeners, or servants employed are similarly devoted Christians, whose lives are powerful examples in commending the doctrine of the Cross. In the Women's Hospital the same principle is adopted, the nurses being Christian women. In the far-away city of Mukden, capital of Manchuria, is the famous Scottish United Presbyterian Church Hospital, superintended by Dr. Christie, and perfectly equipped. In Mukden Dr. Christie is a preacher in season and out of season. One year witnessed the baptism of fifty-four converts, whose lives, investigated in the villages, were of an earnest and devout type of Christianity. Patients in the hospital for six weeks have carried back the Gospel, and taught it so successfully that missionaries, going round the villages, have found the nucleus of a Christian church in several different places, where people met twice each Sunday for worship and fellowship—the hospital becoming one of the brightest of the bright places in the darkness—a darkness that can be felt—of China. A single missionary in these regions might do more, it is declared, than twenty evangelistic missionaries working alone at the present time—in the one hand carrying healing for the body, and in the other, the knowledge of eternal life.—Rev. James Johnston.