TEN REASONS FOR MEDICAL MISSIONARIES IN FOREIGN WORK.
I. The better a missionary is equipped in all departments of work the better his success; hence a knowledge of medicine is a benefit. 2. Medicine has been found to be the best means for breaking through prejudices, plowing down old customs, and opening the doors into the homes of the ignorant classes. 3. It is human nature to put confidence in the physician. The more ignorant the patient, the more supernatural do the abilities of the physician seem. Because of the blind reverence of the heathen for the doctor, the medical missionary has a great advantage. 4. Frequently the best time to convert the soul to Christ is in adversity, in sickness, on nearing death. Who can do this work better than a Christian physician in foreign primitive life? 5. The medical missionary, because of his knowledge that disease is the result of sin, and that much of sin is caused by the perversion of laws, can better than any other man convince the heathen of this truth and readily discover the true remedy. 6. The body and soul are intimately associated, one dependent upon another. The medical missionary who considers them so related succeeds better in his work than one who regards the body and soul as distinct one from the other. 7. The missionary, in traveling through filth and among dangerous diseases in foreign lands, needs a knowledge of medicine for self-protection. 8. The medical missionary is often wholly or in part supported by the gifts of grateful patients. This condition of self-support of the missionary is an item of importance in missionary work. 9. While there are many native “so-called doctors” among heathen nations, there is only 1 enlightened physician to every 3,000,000 inhabitants. (In the United States there is 1 physician to every 540 inhabitants.) The sending out of more medical missionaries is worthy of the deepest consideration, because these native doctors, through their ignorance, superstition, and barbarity, practise untold cruelties. 10. We should ever try to follow closely the footsteps of the Saviour. He sent out 82 men, and to all of them gave this command: “Heal the sick . . . and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.”—Selected.