p. 16 | The Nurse a Factor in Molding Public Sentiment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 1, 1914

The Nurse a Factor in Molding Public Sentiment

By H. N. Sisco, M. D.

PUBLIC sentiment is the court of last appeal in all questions of public moment. Every secular propaganda seeks to mold public sentiment in its favor. This is legitimate. And the gospel ought also to avail itself of every legitimate means within its reach for molding the minds of the people in its behalf. The platform is doing a grand work, the press is a powerful educative factor in society, but the life lived right among the people is the most convincing argument of all. The following incidents point out a way that ought to be used much more than it is in reaching the hearts of the people:—

A nurse, recently graduated from one of our sanitariums, was invited to the home city of one of her patients while in training; and there she is today, nursing among the best families of the place, and living and teaching the truth of the gospel for this time in a most effectual way.

Another nurse is in the home of a wealthy physician in one of the large cities of the East, caring for his little child. The physician himself is not a Christian. He asks her many questions about her religion. She has wonderful opportunities in this home. She is simply living her convictions daily before the members of that household. She has sold several copies of our books in the family; holds Bible study every week with the servants, of whom there are eight or ten regularly employed; and has induced several persons to attend the services held in our church. She is secretary of the small Sabbath school, and organist at the church services in the church to which she belongs while in the city, and is faithful in attending the religious services as far as her work permits.

These cases probably are not isolated ones, and all such nurses are doing a most laudable and effective kind of missionary work, and are creating public sentiment favorable to the truths of the Bible for this time.

Now, all the nurses graduating from our sanitariums cannot hope to find employment in our institutions, and only a few are employed by the conferences. Then why should not many now in training and many now graduated look forward to this mission field in the homes of the people in the great cities and towns of the land? Why should not our large centers of population be literally dotted with God-fearing nurses, affiliating with our churches where they go, and demonstrating the truths they know? To many of these families, literature can never penetrate; the Bible reader cannot gain access; and the preacher is likewise powerless. Only the nurse can reach the citadel of these homes and hearts; and once inside, no other work can outrank in nobility the work thus done.

Such nurses must, of course, be first-class operators in their profession; they must be thorough Bible students and be able to instruct others; they must be intelligent on the issues of the day, and see their real relation to the gospel work for this time; and they must have the courage and the ability to go out into the seething masses of the great cities and make standing room for themselves. A livelihood will thus be secured, and the highest type of work for God and humanity will be done. They will be powerful factors in molding public opinion in favor of the truth. This article is written with the hope that many nurses will see the great opportunities before them in the great cities.

H. N. Sisco, M. D.