through which travelers were constantly passing and where many often tarried.

Christ sought the people where they were, and placed before them the great truths in regard to His kingdom. As He went from place to place, He blessed and comforted the suffering and healed the sick. This is our work. Small companies are to go forth to do the work to which Christ appointed His disciples. While laboring as evangelists, they can visit the sick, praying with them, and if need be, treating them, not with medicines but with the remedies provided in

nature.

SMALL PLANTS IN MANY PLACES

There are many places that need gospel medical missionary work, and there small plants should be established. God designs that our sanitariums shall be a means of reaching high and low, rich and poor. They are to be so conducted that by their work attention may be called to the message God has sent to the world.

May the Lord increase our faith, and help us to see that He desires us all to become acquainted with His ministry of healing and with the mercy seat. He desires the light of His grace to shine forth from many places. He who understands the necessities of the situation arranges that advantages shall be brought to the workers in various places to enable them more effectually to arouse the attention of the people to the truths that make for deliverance from both physical and spiritual ills.

COMPASSION AND SYMPATHY TO BE CULTIVATED

The tender sympathies of our Saviour were aroused for fallen and suffering humanity. If you would be His follower, you must cultivate compassion and sym

pathy. Indifference to human woes must give place to lively interest in the sufferings of others. The widow, the orphan, the sick and dying, will always need help. Here is an opportunity to proclaim the gospel,—to hold up Jesus, the hope and consolation of all men. When the suffering body has been relieved, the heart is opened, and you can pour in the heavenly balm. If you are looking to Jesus, and drawing from Him knowledge and strength and grace, you can impart His consolation to others, because the Comforter is with you.

You will meet with much prejudice, a great deal of false zeal and miscalled piety; but in both the home and the foreign field you will find more hearts that God has been preparing for the seed of truth than you imagine, and they will hail with joy the divine message when it is presented to them.

Many are suffering from maladies of the soul far more than from diseases of the body, and they will find no relief until they come to Christ, the wellspring of life. The burden of sin, with its unrest and unsatisfied desires, lies at the foundation of a large share of the maladies the sinner suffers. Christ is the mighty Healer of the sin-sick soul. These poor, afflicted ones need to have a clearer knowledge of Him whom to know aright is life eternal. They need to be patiently and kindly yet earnestly taught how to throw open the windows of the soul and let the sunlight of God's love come in. Complaints of weariness, loneliness, and dissatisfaction will then cease. Satisfying joys will give vigor to the mind and health and vital energy to the body.

Reference for further study: "Christ's Object Lessons," pp. 376-389, "Who Is My Neighbor ?"

MEDICAL EVANGELISM

Melbourne, Australia, Sept. 16, 1892.

It

I am deeply interested in the subject of medical missionary work, and the education of men and women for that work. I could wish that there were one hundred nurses in training where there is one. ought to be thus. Both men and women can be so much more useful as medical missionaries than as missionaries without the medical education. I am more and more impressed with the fact that a more decided testimony must be borne upon this subject, that more direct efforts must be made to interest the proper persons, setting before them the advantages that every missionary will have in understanding how to treat those who are diseased in body, as well as to minister to sin-sick souls. This double ministration will give the laborer together with God, access to homes, and will enable him to reach all classes of society.

An intelligent knowledge of how to treat disease upon hygienic principles will gain the confidence of many who otherwise would not be reached with the truth. In affliction, many are humbled in spirit, and words in favor of the truth spoken to them in tenderness by one who is seeking to alleviate physical sufferings, may touch the heart. Prayer, short, weighted with tenderest sympathy, presenting the suffering ones in faith to the Great Physician, will inspire in them a confidence, a rest and trust, that will tend to the health of both soul and body.

I have been surprised at being asked by physicians. if I did not think it would be more pleasing to God for them to give up their medical practice and enter

Medical Missionary, November and December, 1892.

the ministry. I am prepared to answer such an inquirer: If you are a Christian and a competent physician, you are qualified to do tenfold more good. as a missionary for God than if you were to go forth merely as a preacher of the word. I would advise young men and women to give heed to this matter. Perilous times are before us. The whole world will be involved in perplexity and distress, disease of every kind will be upon the human family, and such ignorance as now prevails concerning the laws of health would result in great suffering and the loss of many lives that might be saved.

While Satan is constantly doing his utmost to take advantage of men's ignorance, and to lay the foundation of disease by improper treatment of the body, it is best for those who claim to be sons and daughters of God to avail themselves while they can of the opportunities now presented to gain a knowledge of the human system, and how it may be preserved in health. We are to use every faculty of mind which God has given us. The Lord will not work a miracle to preserve anyone in health who will not make an effort to obtain knowledge within his reach concerning this wonderful habitation that God has given. By study of the human organism, we are to learn to correct what may be wrong in our habits, and which, if left uncorrected, would bring the sure result, disease and suffering, that make life a burden. The sincerity of our prayers can be proved only by the vigor of our endeavor to obey God's commandments.

VIRTUE OF CHARACTER

Evil habits and practices are bringing upon men disease of every kind. Let the understanding be convinced by education as to the sinfulness of abusing

and degrading the powers that God has given. Let the mind become intelligent, and the will be placed on the Lord's side, and there will be a wonderful improvement in the physical health. But this can never be accomplished in mere human strength. With strenuous efforts through the grace of Christ to renounce all evil practices and associations, and to observe temperance in all things, there must be an abiding persuasion that repentance for the past, as well as forgiveness, is to be sought of God through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. These things must be brought into daily experience; there must be strict watchfulness and unwearied entreaty that Christ will bring every thought into captivity to Himself; His renovating power must be given to the soul, that as accountable beings wé may present to God our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto Him, which is our reasonable service.

Will those who claim to believe the solemn, sacred truth for this time arouse their sluggish energies and place themselves in the channel where they can gather to their souls every ray of light that shines upon their pathway? God calls upon all who claim to believe advanced truth to exert every power to the uttermost in gaining knowledge. If we would elevate the moral standard in any country where we may be called to go, we must begin by correcting their physical habits. Virtue of character depends upon the right action of the powers of the mind and body.

WILLING IGNORANCE A SIN

Guilt rests upon us as a people who have had much light, because we have not appreciated or improved the light given upon health reform. Through misunderstanding and perverted ideas many souls are