A Plea for Medical Missionaries
      
      
        [
      
      
        Testimonies for the Church 9:167-172
      
      
        (1909).]
      
      
        We are living in the last days. The end of all things is at hand.
      
      
        The signs foretold by Christ are fast fulfilling. There are stormy times
      
      
        before us, but let us not utter one word of unbelief or discouragement.
      
      
        He who understands the necessities of the situation arranges that
      
      
        advantages should be brought to the workers in various places, to
      
      
        enable them more effectively to arouse the attention of the people.
      
      
        He knows the needs and the necessities of the feeblest of His flock,
      
      
        and He sends His own message into the highways and the byways.
      
      
        He loves us with an everlasting love. Let us remember that we bear a
      
      
        message of healing to a world filled with sin-sick souls. 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.
      
      
        Sanitariums As Missionary Agencies
      
      
        There are souls in many places who have not yet heard the message.
      
      
        Henceforth medical missionary work is to be carried forward with an
      
      
        earnestness with which it has never yet been carried. This work is the
      
      
        door through which the truth is to find entrance to the large cities, and
      
      
        sanitariums are to be established in many places.
      
      
        Sanitarium work is one of the most successful means of reaching
      
      
        all classes of people. Our sanitariums are the right hand of the gospel,
      
      
        opening ways whereby suffering humanity may be reached with the
      
      
        glad tidings of healing through Christ. In these institutions the sick
      
      
        may be taught to commit their cases to the Great Physician, who will
      
      
         [393]
      
      
        co-operate with their earnest efforts to regain health, bringing to them
      
      
        healing of soul as well as healing of body.
      
      
        Christ is no longer in this world in person, to go through our cities
      
      
        and towns and villages, healing the sick; but He has commissioned us
      
      
        to carry forward the medical missionary work that He began. In this
      
      
        408