No commencement address should be given without placing proper emphasis upon the new obligations which the graduates face. What I may say is only an exhortation. It shows no lack of confidence, and is prompted solely by a desire to be helpful. We older ones have learned something from life and experience that youth has not yet acquired.
Everyone with the least comprehension of life's duties acknowledges that each individual owes something to society. We have no right to receive and not give. A grave danger confronts us all. And that is that we may grow weary in well-doing, that we may lower our standards, forget our ideals, compromise or temporize with the easy way, come to feel that it is of no use to struggle against evil; admit defeat. This is a danger that older ones also must meet. But here you have an advantage, for youth loves to try hard things. May Cod keep you young and hopeful and optimistic.
The only excuse or reason for Seventh-day Adventists' operating schools, whether they be literary, medical, or nursing, is to prepare for service young men and young women who will be imbued with the idea that they are debtors to every less fortunate person whom they meet—in other words, to give Christian training.
Sometimes our boys and girls feel that the facilities we have to offer are too meager ; that the lack of large endowments, the best of equipment, and great names in the schools that Adventists operate, constitute too great a handicap. Because of this, some of our youth drift to worldly educational institutions. But the world's greatest educators know, and admit, that no material thing can take the place of moral and spiritual values
Knowing your teachers, and knowing well the things they represent, I also know that you need no sympathy. To be instructed by one who has made a monetary sacrifice to follow a light, to adhere to an aim, to remain loyal to a conviction, is to receive an inspiration that one who is moved only by mercenary motives can never impart. Your teachers work for the higher purpose of seeking to share their learning with others, that the good work of Christian nurses may be spread abroad, not only for the healing of bodies, but for the binding up of wounded souls.
In Pursuit of One Great Aim
It is a wonderful thing to be connected with an organization that unites its members in the pursuit of one great aim. I would be untrue to my convictions if I did not remind you again that your school of nursing came into being, and is operated, for one purpose and one purpose only. The training of professional nurses is not its main goal. The training of soul savers is the real purpose for its existence.
Perhaps in the hurry of everyday classwork and clinical instruction, spiritual things have seemed far away and impractical, and only the thing at hand has seemed really worthwhile. But the influence of your Christian teaching has found a deeper lodgment in your hearts than you may realize now. A Catholic priest was once told that a certain noted philosopher had denied ever having had a religious experience. To this he explained, "Poor man ! Did he never see his mother saying her prayers?" A Protestant writer, in an article which appeared in a recent issue of the Christian Century, declared:
"I trace back my first and deepest religious experiences of childhood, not to the Sunday school where I fought and scratched with the best of my small, rowdy companions, but to seeing my uncle, a deeply pious farmer, saying grace at meals. He never lectured or scolded. He was never holier than thou. But he made me as a small boy feel the presence of the unseen Guest at every meal in his household."
For three years you have been where the influence of such worship is strong, and you can never be as you might have been if you had not had such surroundings. There will be calls for you from the world. The demand for nurses outside our denomination is at present very great.
What opportunities are yours as Christian nurses ! Who after receiving your skillful, devoted ministry could refuse to listen to your admonition to put his confidence and trust in the Christ who was Himself the greatest medical missionary ? It is not enough merely to patch up broken bodies. It is not enough simply to seek to restore to a measure of health those who have, by their indulgences and ,excesses, brought sickness upon themselves. To complete your work, to accomplish what you might accomplish, to be all that you have .a right to be, you must be able to point the sick and sinful to a way of escape from those things which have in the past held your patient in their evil grip.
While there may be no need here to stress the effect of faith in curing the sick, there can be no harm in emphasizing it. When everything that you know to do has been done, as far as professional learning is concerned, when every treatment and every drug have failed, there is yet One all-powerful agency that you must never forget to use. It is yours for service. How sad it would be if you were to neglect it. I refer to prayer. An item in Newsweek caught my eye a While back. Here it is:
"At Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Chaplain Roy Reynolds visited a man dying of surgical shock, read him the Bible, and got him to pray. The patient next day asked for a Bible, and eventually recovered. Army doctors agreed that religious faith had saved him."—Aug. 4, 1941.
Value of Spiritual Things
May I, as one who wishes you well, urge you never to forget the value of the spiritual things that you know, and that you have been commissioned to give to others. If you had no higher motive than to achieve success as professional men and women, it would serve your best interests to know these things and to practice them. But if you would reach the heights that you may attain, you must never forget them.
Your work is hard and exacting. Bedside nursing is particularly difficult. Perhaps there is no other line of work that women do that imposes a greater physical strain. But in cases of severe illness, no other method of bringing relief and effecting a cure is more adequate than the ministrations of a capable bedside nurse.
In the old days when men really learned their trades, when every craftsman spent some time preparing to do good work, when -men took pride in their skill, it was required that every beginner serve a term as an apprentice. After that he worked as a journeyman for a long time before he was known as a master in his trade The time you spend in bedside nursing will not be lost. It will prepare you as nothing else can for posts of greater responsibility.
When you are called, I hope every one of you will give first consideration to the nursing needs of our denomination. I am informed that the shortage of nurses observed in our country generally is almost, if not quite, as acute within our own ranks. Since Adventist nurses recognize the need of something beyond mere professional skill, and since all of you know the seriousness of the time in which we live and the magnitude of the work committed to our hands, it is scarcely necessary to stress the advantages of being connected with and directed through some branch of our denominational medical work. There is much strength in the united effort of those moved by a common purpose, following a common aim. It is much greater than the sum of the efforts of each. Biblical arithmetic teaches that one shall "chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight."
Your work in the ranks of Seventh-day Adventists will generally be supported by the work of Christian doctors—men and women who will not sneer at your faith or your efforts to help your patients by prayer and natural means. Further, in working in close affiliation with your church, all its agencies for help will be at your command. You will enlist the interests of its members in the welfare of your patients and call upon its ministers, when advisable, to join you in prayer that Heaven's special blessing may rest upon your ministry.
Nurses often see mankind in unlovely forms. When you have done your best, we, your patients, are often petulant and critical. Many grownups are like that—more cross than sick. Tired of inactivity, compelled by circumstances to be out of life's activities, they vent their temper and "meanness" upon the nurse. Under such circumstances your religion will be needed.
One of the marvels of the universe is that the God of heaven uses mortals in His work.
With legions of angels eager to do His commands, eager to carry out His wishes, He turns to mankind. And you can do what few others can. Your testimony by simple word and kindly deed can often accomplish what even the preacher cannot do. We ministers are handicapped. Men think we talk of the power and the love of Christ because it is our business, because we are paid to do it. But no such motive can be ascribed to you, and thus your message reaches a readier ear.
Often those whom you seek to serve seem most ungrateful. The patient who remains cheerful through pain, who remains thoughtful though he suffers, is so rare as to be almost unheard of. Sometimes you will have to take care of those who are not as sick as you are.
Worst of all, you will be called upon to care for some who have nothing organically wrong with them, but who think they have. Not only will you be called upon to give physical strength, but most trying, most wearying, you will be called upon to give mental strength. Would you like to run away from it all? If so tempted, remember the lesson of this bit of verse:
"O God," I cried, "why may not I forget?
These halt and hurt in life's hard battle throng me yet
Am I their keeper ?—only I, to bear
This constant burden of their grief and care ?
Why must I suffer for the other's sin?
Would God my eyes had never opened been
And the thorn-crowned and patient One
Replied, "They throng Me, too ; I, too, have seen."
"Thy other children go at will," I said, protesting still.
"They go unheeding. But these sick and sad,
These blind and orphan, yea, and those that sin,
Drag at my heart. For them I serve and groan.
Why is it? Let me rest, Lord. I have tried."
He turned and looked at me: "But I have died."
"But, Lord, this ceaseless travail of my soul,
This stress, this often fruitless toil, Thee souls to win!
They are not mine. I brought not forth this host
Of needy creatures struggling, tempest-tossed,
They are not mine!"
He looked at them—the look of One divine;
He turned and looked at me:
"But they are Mine !"
"O God," I said, "I understand at last!
Forgive! And henceforth I will bondslave be
To Thy least, weakest, vilest ones;
I would no more be free."
He smiled and said, "It is for Me."—L. R. Meyer.
So I salute you each—the servant of God and humanity !
