As soldiers for Christ in a war to save human beings from eternal destruction, we should make all personal lines of work secondary to the primary duty of saving souls. It is a sad mistake to think that when any one of us carries on his or her work efficiently, that is all that is required. We all might have our special lines of work, yet we all are required to attend efficiently to our primary duty of giving the third angel's message to the world.
We may have chosen our special line of work, our trade or profession, or perhaps the Lord or others have helped us to choose, but our primary work—the spreading of the saving truth and winning souls to Christ—has been assigned to us by our Saviour. What an authority ! How dare we neglect this duty and run the risk of being weighed and found wanting. The excuse of "being very busy" cannot be taken as an excuse but is only the sound of brass or the tinkling of a cymbal.
For an Adventist physician to help the sick to regain physical health and let the work for their spiritual health go by is a serious mistake. In fact, a physician's education and training can be used to great advantage in church and evangelistic work. The following messages from the Spirit of prophecy should arouse the religiously inactive in the medical profession.
Pertinent Spirit of Prophecy Counsel
"Christ has given us an example. He taught from the Scriptures the gospel truths, and He also healed the afflicted ones who came to Him for relief. He was the . greatest physician the world ever knew, and yet He combined with His healing work the imparting of soul-saving truth. And thus should our physicians labor. They are doing the Lord's work when they labor as evangelists, giving instruction as to how the soul may be healed by the Lord Jesus. . . . At the same time he [the physician] should labor as one of God's ministers, to teach repentance and conversion, and the salvation of soul and body."—Counsels on Health, p. 544.
"The acquaintances you make as you attend meetings and present the truth from the physician's standpoint, will help to give you an influence, and this line of work will be the means of bringing to our sanitariums a class of people who can be greatly benefited."—/bid., p. 543.
"The Lord bears long with men, and He calls earnestly for everyone to repent. Will the ministers, will the physicians take up this work ?"—/bid., p. 544.
"The presenting of Bible principles by an intelligent physician will have great weight with many people. There is efficiency and power with one who can combine in his influence the work of a physician and of a gospel minister. His work commends itself to the good judgment of the people."—Thid., p. 546.
"Let the medical workers present the important truths of the third angel's message from the physician's viewpoint. . . .
"God is calling not only upon the ministers, but also upon physicians, nurses, canvassers, Bible workers, and other consecrated laymen of varied talent who have a knowledge of present truth, to consider the needs of the unwarned cities." '
"As physicians unite with ministers in proclaiming the gospel in the great cities of the land, their combined labors will result in influencing many minds in favor of the truth for this time."—Review and Herald, April 7, 1910.
"With him [the physician], religion is not to be merely one influence among others. It is to be an influence dominating all others."—Ministry of Healing, p. 117.
"It is by neglecting your daily opportunities that you become fruitless and withered."—Testimonies, vol. 9, p, 129.
When we work to advance the cause of God, He will help us in our secondary lines of work, and His help we greatly need. Once, while on a consultation visit in the home of a sick person, after giving my opinion of the case I talked to the patient about Christ. The other doctor told me that it would hurt my medical work to talk that way to patients. Well, it has not hurt ; in fact, our medical work here has grown since then. We must talk to the sick about Christ's saving power, and we must pray for them and with them. How do we know that we shall see them again after the first visit? We cannot tell how helpful our talks and prayers are for those who go on the operating table.
In the absence of a regular ministerial worker a physician will do well to take the visitors' class in the Sabbath school. Some of his patients might join the class, if invited. As to prayer meetings and church services, a physician can and should take a turn at preaching. As the foregoing messages make clear, physicians should hold religious meetings, presenting Bible truth to those not of our faith.
In mission fields where Seventh-day Adventists do not have the Testimonies in their languages, an hour or more a week for the study of the Testimonies on different topics is very helpful. This would be of help in our home churches, too. Then there is the promoting of the health reform work, which is primarily a physician's work and serves as an opening wedge for presenting religious topics. Religious and medical work can be combined well to help in our evangelistic work, so a full-rounded message can be given to the world.
"The Lord speaks to all medical missionaries, saying, Go work today in My vineyard to save souls. God hears the prayers of all who seek Him in truth. He has the power that we all need. He fills the heart with love and joy and peace and holiness. . . . We cannot afford to spend the time working at cross-purposes with God."—Testimonies, Series B, no. 5, pp. 30, 31.
Brethren and sisters, let us pray for a greater burden for the advancement of His cause. Let us not be found as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
