In the evangelization of the world, and the amelioration of human woe, medical missionary work has come to be recognized as an essential factor. Many mission boards, those operating in the home land as well as in foreign fields, have encouraged the training and education of this class of workers. This is in recognition of the great truth that the Gospel of Christ has to do with the physical as well as with the spiritual nature of man. But it should not be considered that the development of such workers, nor the recognition of this truth, were foreign to other ages than our own. We have only to look at the earthly life work of Christ to see an exemplification of both the worker and the work. It is but necessary to read the Gospel story to discern the ways and means adopted by earth’s greatest Teacher in the accomplishment of the work He came to do. Christ was a true type of the missionary, and without limiting the word to its proper scientific sense, Christ was the true type of a medical missionary. He did what every missionary should do to-day; and if Christ did what every missionary should do to-day, the converse is equally true, that every missionary to-day should do what Christ did. In other words, every laborer for God to-day should be, in the liberal sense in which we use the word, a medical missionary, “going about doing good,” ministering to the bodily necessities as well as to the spiritual needs, teaching men how to live here in order that they may live hereafter.
THE COLORADO SANITARIUM NURSES AND THEIR INSTRUCTORS.
Of all men, the missionary, whether laboring at home or abroad, should be an intensely practical man. The spiritual, the intellectual, the physical, and the temporal, should claim his attention. By life and precept he should teach men how to serve God with every attribute with which the Creator has endowed them. Only by such methods can the development of well-rounded Christianity in the lives of the believers be secured.
In the denomination represented by this journal, special encouragement has been given to this class of labor during the past few years. In this country, in connection with the four sanitariums established in various parts for the treatment of the sick, schools have been established for the education and training of medical missionaries. The same is also true of the sanitariums of Switzerland and South Africa.
The accompanying cut is made from a photograph of the Colorado Sanitarium nurses and their instructors. The Colorado Sanitarium school for nurses was established in the fall of 1896. Thus far two classes have entered the work. The course of instruction covers a period of two years, and embraces instruction in Bible, anatomy, physiology, hygiene, hydrotherapy, massage, calisthenics, Swedish gymnastics, physical culture, electricity in its various forms and applications, general, surgical, and special nursing, as well as a study of disease and its symptoms. The instruction includes both class work and practical work. Much importance is attached to the practical side of the art of nursing, and the student becomes thoroughly acquainted with his life-work by doing the things while in training that he will be obliged to do after he leaves the school.
As the sanitarium contains constantly from 50 to 100 patients, ample opportunity is afforded for practical experience in the application of the principles of instruction. The members of this school are all Christian young men and women, and are thoroughly imbued with the sacredness and responsibility of the work to which they have given their lives. The large majority have already signified their intention of entering the foreign mission field when Providence shall so indicate. It is indeed encouraging to see such a company of noble youth devoting their lives to such an unselfish calling. But it might be added here that the opportunities for such labor are not necessarily confined to those who may have had the advantages of a training-school, nor is it necessary to go to foreign lands to find openings for such work. Every hamlet and neighborhood presents avenues for labor, and every follower of the Lord Jesus has the blessed privilege of engaging in this class of work. Wherever the hungry are to be fed, the naked clothed, or the sick visited, are presented opportunities for medical missionary effort.
And what a need is presented to the world to-day for this class of labor! Discouraged hearts, depressed minds, and afflicted bodies, are found on every side. To minister to the physical gives access to the spiritual nature. It is not enough to say to the hungry who apply to us for aid, “Depart and be ye fed;” nor to the naked, “Depart and be ye clothed.” It is not enough to answer the cry for bread with a religious paper or tract alone. It is indeed true that the hungry and destitute need Christ above every earthly blessing. But let the needy individual first see Christ in temporal blessings, then can he more readily grasp Him in the realm of the spiritual. In the temporal good bestowed will be a foretaste of the eternal good derivable from the same source by closer search and deeper application.
The world to-day needs a practical Christianity. Too long has the professed church of God been content with the promulgation of a theory. It is for Christ’s disciples now to prove in their lives, and by their works, the power of God in the Gospel of Christ. The hungry man can see more of God and more of the Gospel of Christ in a loaf of bread to satisfy the gnawing pangs of hunger, and satisfy the mouths of his famished children, than he can in all the religious talk and exhortation which might be forced upon him. With his temporal wants thus satisfied , the way is opened for ministry to his soul’s needs.
The greatest missionary this world ever saw was the Man Christ Jesus. And the next greatest missionary this world will produce, will be the disciple who follows most closely in the footsteps of his divine Master.
FRANCIS M. WILCOX,
Chaplain of Colorado Sanitarium.
