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SUCCESS OF MEDICAL MISSIONS.

who is a physician is pardoned for being a Christian; religious and national prejudices disappear before him; all hearts and harems are opened; and he is welcomed as if he were carrying to the dying the elixir of immortality. He more than any one else possesses the mollia tempora fandi." In the wilds of the Assyrian mountains, Dr. Asahel Grant, "armed with his needle for the removal of cataract, forced mountain passes" which the sword could not command; and "amidst ferocious warriors won his way to their homes and their hearts. On account of his professional skill he was enabled to traverse in safety regions heretofore untrodden by civilized man; where inevitable death met the ordinary traveller, and in whose defiles an army would perish in attempting to effect a forcible entrance." 2 In Damascus, "while all other Franks were grossly insulted and pelted with stones, Dr. Thomson was allowed to pass unmolested." 3 A Missionary of thirty years' standing in India has declared, that, "but for the attention he was at some pains to render the sick, he knew not how he could have gained the confidence and ultimately the affection of the natives."4 Mr. Gerstmann, "by the exertion of his

1 Douglas on Missions.

2

Macgowan, p. 24. 3 Third Annual Report of Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society, p. 19. 4 Presbyterian Review, No. XII., p. 368.

medical skill amongst the people (at Jerusalem), was the means of bringing large numbers of the Jews to listen again to Christianity, after they had entirely withdrawn themselves, at the command of the Rabbis."1 In Siam, Dr. Bradley introduced vaccination, and became something more than the Jenner of an empire of four millions. In Ceylon, Dr. Scudder, by his wonderful healings, eclipsed the great idol Corduswammy; and, as in Lystra of old, they sought to worship him as a god.2 In China, progress has been great, and promises almost unlimited increase. In 1820, Dr. Livingston established a small hospital at Macao; in 1827, he was followed by Mr. Colledge; and to both of these British Medical Missionaries "the sick, the maimed, and the blind resorted in crowds." In 1835, Dr. Parker, from America, settled in Canton; and to him "patients of all ranks flocked from all quarters." Other labourers have joined since. Now the applicants for relief are counted by thousands; and, true to the apostolic plan, while they are "healed of all manner of disease," they have also "the Gospel preached unto them."3 So bright is the prospect of success in that vast country, that we find one of the Mission

1 Address to Medical Students by Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society, 1842, p. 16.

2 Macgowan, pp. 24, 25.

8 See Appendix, I.

aries thus expressing himself: "I have no hesitation in stating it as my solemn conviction, that, as yet, no medium of contact, and of bringing the people under the sound of the Gospel, and within the use of other means of grace, can compare with the facilities afforded by Medical Missionary operations."1 Nearer home, the labours of Dr. Kalley, in Madeira, have proved so signally triumphant as to awaken the fiercest rage of the adversary; and the very expulsion of the Missionary and his converts, from the island, stands recorded as the measure of his faithfulness and success.2

While we thank God, and take courage, for such signs of favour and measures of hope, let us glance for an instant at the advantages which Medical Missions are likely to confer on medicine as a science. So far from dreading deterioration and relapse, as in the dark ages, formerly alluded to, we confidently look for blessing and increase. Additions of great importance and variety are likely to be made to the Materia Medica. Vast treasures of both the vegetable and mineral kingdoms are yet. to be explored; and it is not to be forgotten how largely the scientific world is indebted to Dr. Carey for its knowledge of the Flora of India; and that we 2 See Appendix, K.

1 Fourth Annual Report, p. 29.

owe the Cinchona bark to those who, Jesuits though they were, still bear the name of Missionaries. Diseases, if not actually new, will be found in new phases and forms. Those which are peculiar to the countries visited, may throw new and important light on others of a cognate kind at home. Those which, like the cholera, leave their primary seat, and approach with uncontrolled advance our own shores, and settle here, may be shorn of half their danger and all their dread, by the enlightened missionary having long before investigated them fully in their distant home. By him his native land, early forewarned of the else mysterious and appalling stranger, may be saved at least from panic and dismay. But, above all, let us remember, that surely our own noble profession can receive no shame or harm from having its energies thus directed towards God's glory. On the contrary, will not honour and blessing doubly descend when "her merchandise and hire shall be holiness to the Lord?" The enlightened heathen of old raised the skilful physician to the rank of demigod. "Homines ad deos in nulla re propius accedunt, quam salutem hominibus dando." But how much greater the worth, how much nobler the honour and rank, if while bringing health to the body, he seek and obtain also the salvation of the soul?

In God's providence it is to our profession that Britain stands indebted for her first footing in India, in the seventeenth century; and since then, what vast heaps of Indian gold have been borne away to increase our nation's prosperity. Let now that nation be both just and generous; and through the instrumentality of that same profession send back a knowledge of the "true riches," unlimited and imperishable, to the teeming millions of benighted India. While people of another clime are flocking in thousands to newly annexed territory, in selfish and sordid search of the gold that perisheth; and while this grovelling lust serves but to brutalize humanity, inflaming the passions, and aggravating crime-proving how helpless are such things to satisfy the heart of man, or better his condition, by or for even a little,-let our affections and energies, soaring beyond earth, seek for treasure elsewhere, and with hearts opened wide by Christian love, strive to bring all nations in our company to the El Dorado which shall satisfy and shall endure to the obtaining of that "fine gold" which makes the possessor both rich

in time and rich

throughout eternity. China and Africa have been lately made to feel the force of Britain's arm; a

1 See Appendix, L.

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