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Counsels on Health
how interestedly the angels of God are looking upon the institutions
for the treatment of the sick. The work in which the physician is
engaged—standing between the living and the dead—is of special
importance.
God has given a great work into the hand of physicians. The
afflicted children of men are in a degree at their mercy. How the patient
watches him who cares for his physical welfare. The actions and words,
the very expressions of the physician’s countenance, are matters of
study. What gratitude springs up in the heart of the suffering one when
his pain is relieved through the efforts of his faithful physician. The
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patient feels that his life is in the hands of him who thus ministers
to him, and the physician or the nurse can then easily approach him
on religious subjects. If the sufferer is under the control of divine
influences, how gently can the Christian physician or nurse drop the
precious seeds of truth into the garden of the heart. He can bring the
promise of God before the soul of the helpless one. If the physician has
religion, he can impart the fragrance of heavenly grace to the softened
and subdued heart of the suffering one. He can direct the thoughts of
his patient to the Great Physician. He can present Jesus to the sin-sick
soul.
How often the physician is made a confidant, and griefs and trials
are laid open before him by the sick. At such a time what precious
opportunities are afforded to speak words of comfort and consolation
in the fear and love of God, and to impart Christian counsel. Deep
love for souls for whom Christ died should imbue the physician. In the
fear of God I tell you that none but a Christian physician can rightly
discharge the duties of this sacred profession.