quainted with its pathological soundings; only by assiduous and prolonged study can he hope faithfully to prepare himself for his work."

3. Good health.-Clearly the work is intense with heavy responsibilities. Physically and mentally he is ever subject to an exceptional strain. "Add to this the enervation of a foreign climate and the occasion for sound health is at once manifest. The student who is able at the present time to endure the pressure of a three or four years' medical course in addition to a preliminary education without impairment of his general health or nervous system, will promise well for successful endurance on the foreign field. It is not always necessary that a student possess an athletic physique or robust appearance, but the work does call for the power of endurance, a temperament neither nervous nor phlegmatic, a disposition devoid of irritability, but hopeful and courageous. An extraordinarily healthy appearance, though desirable, is not always demanded, but good staying qualities are indispensable. It is not always those who apparently are best fitted to withstand the strain of work and climate that actually enjoy the best health. Indeed the reverse is often the case. A previous record of good health under continued mental pressure and physical trial at home augurs well for continued good health abroad, and is probably the best guide in the decision as regards bodily endurance abroad.*

4. It is desirable, though not essential, that the missionary doctor be apt to teach. "He is often the entering wedge for others, he is a buttress to his evangelistic colleagues, he is often preaching best when practising in the name and spirit of Christ. But if he has also the gift of speech, not necessarily of making speeches, but of apt, ready use of his opportunities by well-chosen words of sympathy, advice, rebuke, instruction and inspiration, his influence will be two-fold. For this purpose he should be specially grounded in the Scriptures and imbued with the spirit of prayer. As his acumen in diagnosis is only a prelude to his skill in prescribing the medicine or performing the operation which offers hope and life, so

*The Medical Mission. W. J. Wanless. Pages 72, 73. The italics are our own.

should his spiritual insight into the wants of his patient be a preparation for the words which may reform his life and save his soul."

Appeal.

We have seen the need of the heathen world; we

have realized a little of the value of Medical Missions, directly, indirectly and reflexly.

What are we going to do? Shall we stay here in America, where there is a physician to about every 550 people, or shall we go to India, where it is estimated by no less an authority than Sir William Moore that not 5 per cent. of the population is at present reached by medical aid? It is stated that even in Calcutta, one of the best medically equipped cities of Asia, three-fifths of the people have no medical attendance in their last illness. And this in India, with her government hospitals and dispensaries and her magnificent Lady Dufferin Scheme of relief. Do we not hear the mute appeal from China? In North America there are considerably more than 4,000 physicians to every two and a half million people. China has but one medical missionary for a similar population, though her need is a hundred-fold greater.*

We have in addition to the physicians our great hospitals, nursing institutions, orphanages, convalescent homes, and homes for the incurable and dying. We have the knowledge of the laws of health, hygiene and sanitation. If recovery of a friend is unsatisfactory, there are specialists and consultants by the score in our great cities, whose help may be secured. Skilled nurses are obtain

"The following statistics include data which have been verified and may stand as a fairly approximate-not absolutely complete-representation of the philanthropic agencies of missions The total of medical missionaries at present is 680; of this number 470 are men and 210 women. There are 45 medical schools and classes, with 382 male and 79 female students-makin‹ a total of 461. There are 21 training schools for nurses, with 146 pupils Neither of these statements includes 240 female medical students now in trainin as physicians, nurses and hospital assistants, under the care of the Lady Du erin Association in India There are 348 hospitals and 774 dispensaries. Exact statements as to the number of patients annually treated have been obtained from 293 hospitals and 661 dispensaries, the total patients recorded in these returns being 2.009.970. representing 5.087,169 treatments. If we make a proportionate estimate for the 5 hospitals and 113 dispensaries from which reports of the number of patients have not as yet been received the sum total of those annually treated will be not far from 2,500,000. If we allow an average of three separate visits or treatments for each patient the total of annual treatments will be 7 500.000. There are 97 leper asylums homes and settlements with 5453 inmates, of whom 1987 are Christians There are 227 orphan and foundling asylums with 14.695 inmates." (Christian Missions and Social Progress, Vol. 11. Dr. Jas. S. Dennis.)

able at an hour's notice, and the presence of sickness in our midst draws forth at once the tenderest of care and sweetest forethought from relatives and friends. It does not state the case therefore to look merely at the lack of doctors alone, though that is to pronounce China's need as four thousand times greater than our own. Her cry is loud and long and so few hear or heed.

Accountability is equal to capability. Our training in the school of sympathy, our knowledge of the remedial agents of disease and our personal realization of the need of sin for a supernatural salvation constitute a call from God. Coal on a great vessel is only so much ballast until turned into steam. So these talents given by the Spirit of God are only ballast in our lives till employed for the highest purposes for which they were granted.

If the reader is a follower of Christ, it is to Christ that he must look for instruction as to his life-work. We have no right to drift into it through forces of environment or heredity; nor have we a right to choose it because it pleases our scientific tastes or because it offers a congenial employment with pecuniary remuneration, and social status. Before all or any of these things must be heard the definite asking of God for the light of His plan for our lives. "Every man's life is a plan of God," and until that is seen let us not step into our life-work. Emerson says that the great crises of life are not marriages and deaths, but some afternoon at the turn of a road when your life finds new thoughts and impulses. Such crises occur as a man hears the strong crying of a great need unrealized before, and which he is conscious could be met by his own life service.

In some great hospitals a bell is rung each time an accident case arrives. Can you not fancy-and after all it is not very largely imagination-that you hear the sound of that accident bell, reverberating round the world?

Did you hear it just now-it was from China that the sound came. A poor Chinaman has fallen from a tree and injured himself. A crowd gathers round; they gaze and laugh at his sufferings, and when they have had enough, move off and leave him to die.* Exaggeration, * This, and each of the following cases, is a fact.

you say? No, sober truth; there is no Red Cross man there to take him to a hospital, no ambulance to carry him, no hospital to which to take him. If he cannot move, his fellow countrymen will not help him. He will lie there and die.

The bell is ringing in India. A boy has broken his leg. A string will be tied tightly round the fractured limb until at last gangrene sets in and a foreign doctor is sent for to amputate in order to save his life.

The sound of the bell in Persia is wafted to us across the great plains and mountains of Asia. It tells of a woman in the hour of nature's sorest trial. The husband is by and also a medical missionary. "No, thanks; you needn't trouble to operate; it's only a wife; I can easily get a new one, and I want a change."

Now, it is booming and tolling in Africa, for a child in convulsions. What is to be done? A red-hot iron is pressed to the skull till a hole is burned down to the brain to let the demons out. Why not, it's only a girl; let her die.

The bell sounds clearer and nearer now; it is ringing in a city of America. Some poor fellow has had his arm wrenched off by machinery. What is going to be done? He is taken to a hospital, an interne or house surgeon sees him, a nurse is there to carefully tend him, to-morrow he will be seen by a visiting surgeon. If it is an operation, it will be done under an anesthetic.

It rings again in the home land; this time a child is sick. If it is a poor child, our splendid children's hospitals are open for its reception. If it is the child of rich parents, the nursery will be made bright, relatives and friends will bring flowers and toys and fruit; a trained nurse will be y to relieve every discomfort and a physician stands there doing his noble best for the little life which hovers on the borderland of life and death. And all for a little child.

A

It rings once more a loud and urgent summons. sister in the pangs of motherhood. Thank God, there are gentle voices, hushed footsteps, the skill and care of doctor and nurse-all these are immediately and as a simple

right bestowed on her and on the little life for whose sake she is in sore travail. Thank God it is so!

Brothers, and sisters, why this difference? Has the voice of Jesus become so feeble that we cannot hear it? Or, are we standing out of hearing distance? These are no imaginary instances; they are real. Thousands are uying every day because Christian physicians have preferred to stay at home and fight for a living with fellow practitioners, instead of forsaking all to follow our Lord and fight the battles of the King. Do you think that if you go there will be a single case untended, a single accident untreated? You know that scores are pressing and pushing behind you and will take up all the work that you lay down. But over there-if you neglect the opportunity of this love-service, they must suffer in unrelieved pain, and if death occur, there will be no comforter at hand to point them to the Guide of the shadowed valley. Not because of the needs of the heathen, not because of their ignorance or superstition or cruelty, but for the sake of Him Who loved us and gave Himself for us, shall we not go?

Duty, opportunity, altruism are in themselves motives insufficient to impel us forward with fire and fervor which shall stand the strain and stress of disappointment and ingratitude and fatigue. There is but one motive powerful enough; it is the greatest thing in the world-LOVE.

What holds us back? A silver dollar, a medical diploma, a life of comfort or distinction-these may loom so large in our vision as to shut out the face of Jesus as He bends in compassion over the suffering ones and turns to us with that piercing look and says, "Inasmuch-inasmuch as ye did it not ye did it not unto Me." If He, the Master of men, were here on earth to-day and wandered into one of our out-patient departments, would not we esteem it a royal privilege to bind up a finger of the Lord Christ, to be even for once His court physician?

And this is the privilege to which He invites us, if we would hear some day those other words: "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these, My brethren, even these least, ye did it unto Me.”