REFLEX INFLUENCE OF MISSIONARY WORK.
By David Paulson, M.D.
ONE day as I was working in my room in the Training School Home in Chicago, making preparations to leave for a meeting in an adjoining State, one of our medical-mission young men came in to ask me to go with him to see a sad case which he had found. I did not feel that I had the time at my disposal, but he seemed disappointed and said it was a very pitiful case. All at once there flashed across my mind the parable of the good Samaritan, and how the priest and Levite were so busy going up to the temple to officiate that they did not have time to turn aside to serve Christ in the person of one of His unfortunate brethren who lay in distress by the roadside. I changed my mind and accompanied the young man. He led me to the very center of the slum district of Chicago, and then into a house whose general appearance, as well as that of the men and women who were lounging around in front of it, suggested that its occupants did not earn their livelihood in any legitimate manner. We climbed the weary length of four flights of stairs, the last one being almost dark as midnight, and passed into a small room where no light of heaven's sun could ever penetrate, being lit only by a small, smoky lamp. On some rough boards was a bed of straw with an oilcloth spread over it. There lay the emaciated form of a young man, while his aged father, true to that paternal instinct that we often see preserved even under these trying circumstances, was attempting to offer him some kind of assistance. I found upon a brief examination that he had two deep abscesses in the small of his back, out of which was oozing foul pus. To all appearances, there was no food in that room for the next meal, and the father told me, with tears in his eyes, that his son had been in this condition for several months, and that he had not been able to earn anything during that time. O, how glad I was that I was acquainted with a Gospel that reached even to the very bottom of sin and degradation! How eagerly they tried to catch the thought that the Lord could work some good even out of all this! Reader, do you sometimes feel discontented with your home and its pleasant surroundings, and with the opportunities that God in His mercy has showered upon you so richly? If so, unless your case is incurable, go and familiarize yourself with these scenes of suffering, and you will return to your allotted position where God has placed you, and almost imagine that you have been transported into the Garden of Eden.