Ready for Every Good Work
[
Health, Philanthropic, and Medical Missionary Work, 36-40
(1892).]
The Lord will hear and answer the prayer of the Christian physician,
and he may reach an elevated standard if he will but lay hold upon
the hand of Christ and determine that he will not let go. Golden
opportunities are open to the Christian physician, for he may exert a
precious influence upon those with whom he is brought in contact. He
may guide and mold and fashion the lives of his patients by holding
before them heavenly principles.
The physician should let men see that he does not regard his work
as of a cheap order, but looks upon it as high, noble, elevated work,
even that to which is attached the sacred accountability of dealing with
both the souls and the bodies of those for whom Christ has paid the
infinite price of His most precious blood. If the physician has the mind
of Christ, he will be cheerful, hopeful, and happy, but not trifling. He
will realize that heavenly angels accompany him to the sickroom and
will find words to speak readily, truthfully, to his patients, that will
cheer and bless them. His faith will be full of simplicity, of childlike
confidence in the Lord. He will be able to repeat to the repenting soul
the gracious promises of God and thus place the trembling hand of the
afflicted ones in the hand of Christ, that they may find repose in God.
Thus, through the grace imparted to him, the physician will fulfill
his heavenly Father’s claims upon him. In delicate and perilous opera-
tions he may know that Jesus is by his side to counsel, to strengthen,
to nerve him to act with precision and skill in his efforts to save human
[341]
life. If the presence of God is not in the sickroom, Satan will be there
to suggest perilous experiments and will seek to unbalance the nerves,
so that life will be destroyed rather than saved.
A physician occupies a more important position, because of dealing
with morbid souls, diseased minds, and afflicted bodies, than does the
minister of the gospel. The physician can present an elevated standard
of Christian character, if he will be instant in season and out of season.
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