THE PURPOSE OF MEDICAL MISSIONS n — r 7.^ Jlashville ^ ^ Pju XJennessee EDUCATIONAL h Hm department \}^st Office \| .1 \f J3o^ 330 U - V, ^lAz lu This leaflet is condensed from an article by Dr. W. T. Reid, Songdo, Korea, which appeared in The Korean Magazine, March, 1919. Introduction and Scripture selec- tions by Rev. S. H. Chester, D.D. The of Medical Missions The divine warrant for medical missions is found in the following passages from the Gospel of Matthew: Chapter IV. 23, 24. — “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their syna- gogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of sick- ness and all manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and He healed them.” Chapter VIII. 5-7, 13. — “And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto Him a centurion, beseeching Him, and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tor- mented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. . . And Jesus said unto the centurion. Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the self- same hour.” Chapter IX. 20-22. — “And, behold, a woman which was diseased with an issue 3 of blood twelve years, came behind Him, and touched the hem of His garment. For she said within herself. If I may but touch the hem of His garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned Him about, and when He saw her. He said. Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.” Chapter X. 1, 7, 8. — “And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples. He gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of dis- ease . . . And as ye go, preach, saying. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.” Chapter XI. 2-5. — Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto Him, Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them. Go and shew John again tho.se things which ye do hear and .see : the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them.” Chapter XX. 30-34. — “And, behold, two blind men, sitting by the wayside, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying. Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace : but they cried the more, saying. Have 4 mercy on us, O Lord, Thou Son of David. And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said. What will ye that I shall do unto you? They said unto Him: Lord, that our eyes may be opened. So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes : and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.” Many other passages might be cited, but these are sufficient to show that the work of healing was from the beginning, and in the very nature of the case must con- tinue to be, an important element in the propagation of the Gospel. The purpose of medical missions is the same purpose as any kind of missions, namely to make the people know the true God whom to know aright is eternal life, and the effectiveness of this method of procedure toward the common end can be measured by the fact that it appeals to those senses by which men most easily and most thoroughly learn new truths, that is, sight and feeling. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing cometh by the preaching of the Word of God. This is perfectly true but not till we see with the inward eye the uplifted cross, and feel in our inmost soul the tragedy and marvel of it, can we under- stand that faith without love profiteth nothing, and that love is made manifest by works. It is to make manifest to sight and feeling the love of God that medical missions are established, and with this in view they should be cherished and operated. 5 It lias seemed to me that the Church has found it easier to admit the usefulness of medical missions in lands where it has not been able to obtain an entrance save at the point of the lancet than it has in the case of lands where this does not hold good. I think this is true because that while the Church has realized by experience the power of this method in gaining entrance to closed and antagonistic lands, it has failed to fully realize the power thus possessed for gaining an entrance for the truth into closed and antagonistic hearts. Since the latter is really what we are after, medical missions must not be considered useful only in so far as they can be turned to opening the path into closed lands, but should be regarded as a permanent sine qua non in all missionary operations be- cause of its value in unlocking closed hearts to the Gospel story and making blind eyes see that God is really love by the manifestation of His nature in works of mercy at the hands of His servant, the medical missionary. I therefore magnify my office, for if the feet might be taken to represent the preacher, for we read — How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings — and if the tongue might be taken to represent the teacher, with here a precept and there a precept — then it seems to me that the medical work might be represented by the hands with which a man may lift up his fellow and bind up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. \\''e are all members of the body of Christ and have need one of another and if 6 the Church is to present an unmutilated body of truth to the heathen for their ac- ceptance it cannot be done without the healing ministry any more than it can be done without preaching and teaching. The purpose of medical missions might be considered in a threefold aspect. First, it is peculiarly the “Labor of Love” by which the other forms of evangelistic en- deavor can vindicate their doctrine of God’s love for the whole man. Second, it is the conserving power, in that by guard- ing the health of the other missionaries it prevents their work being hindered. Third, it is a shelter of light in dark places. First as the Labor of Love, it is the good Samaritan of missionary propaganda and fulfills in unique measure our Lord’s own golden rule of doing unto others what we would that they should do unto us. It is noteworthy that in the judgment of the sheep and the goats the Judge names a list of deeds of kmdness to the body the doing or not doing of which brings reward or penalty, saying, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these ye have done it unto me.” For this reason were medical missions an end in themselves sim- ply as a labor of love all that has been or ever will be put into them is fully jus- tified, nay more, the Church needs to look well to herself lest she be condemned for not putting more heart into her medical missions for “Inasmuch as ye have not done it unto the least of these ye have not done it unto me.” I would like to specially emphasize here the responsibility of the 7 Church if possessing as she does all the blessings of modern medical science she fails to do her duty by the poor and sick and suffering in her mission fields but like the priest and the Levite of old passes by on the other side heedless of the anguish it lies in her power to relieve. About the second aspect of medical mis- sions I need say very little, because it is a self-evident fact that no missionary can be an efficient worker if encumbered with sicknessj and since missionaries are very carefully picked people and not overly numerous or easy to replace, the preserving of their health and efficiency is a very important function of medical missions. As for the third aspect of medical mis- sions as shedders of light in dark places, I suppose it is difficult if not impossible for dwellers in our home lands to imagine one-half of the misery and despair and death due to the ignorance of the quack doctors and medicine men in heathen lands. The deceit that is practiced, the harm that is wrought, and the darkness that results is almost impossible to describe. It is the function of medical missions to combat these quacks and medical men and to dissipate the darkness and ignorance of their theories and methods and prac- tices and thus pluck many thousands from a premature grave, to say nothing of days and nights of anguish and fear prevented. The contrast cast by the light of western medicine over against the darkness of heathen methods makes a powerful argu- ment for the causes medical missions are 8 established to represent. That the brighter the light, the more evident the darkness is an argument for making our medical missions the very best of their kind and as a reason for discarding as a relic of the past old ideals and slip-shod methods of carrying on medical mission work. Cleanliness is said to be next to godli- ness and no small part of the change and cleaning up of Christian homes and the contrast presented between their present estate and the filth and squalor and super- stition of their heathen days is due to the teaching and example of medical missions. By the training of natives in medical knowledge both as doctors and nurses and selecting for this training Christian youth the work of medical missions multiplies itself and sheds abroad more and more the light it was established to send forth and in this as in its other functions it is well worth the heartiest support of the Church it represents. But over and above these benefits the jl work of medical missions does produce fruit ] in many brands plucked from the burning ! and many souls brought from death unto 'I life, from darkness to light and from ' ignorance to the knowledge of God and that which is thus blessed and used of ij God in the salvation of souls is worth all that the Church can put into it and far more than the Church has been putting into it in the past. 9 For Additional Literature on Medical Missions Write to the Educational Department Executive Committee of Foreign Missions Box 330 Nashville, Tennessee Williams — Nashville 10-20-28 — IM