It is not necessary to prove to readers of the Ministry the place or the importance of medical missionary work in the last great religious awakening of the world. The final warning will be a complete message of salvation, dealing with man's physical, mental, and moral natures.
When Jesus was on this earth, He devoted more of His time to helping the people with their physical problems than to sermonizing or abstract teaching. He healed the sick and relieved their physical troubles. He fed them and gave them drink, ' helped them to relax when fatigued, and put their minds at rest when they were worried and fearful, and instructed them how to find rest for their souls.
Today this same Jesus is working through His people, inspiring them to do this same complete missionary work for a sin-sick world. In the parable of the good Samaritan the modern medical missionary has a graphic demonstration of what the church should be doing.
The Lord has clearly indicated that He would have all His people operate medical missionary work in the closing years of earth's history. We are instructed to carry on a health-promotion work by individual activity, and also by such institutions as churches, schools, sanitariums, hospitals, treatment rooms, health-rest homes, health-food restaurants, health-food factories and bakeries, and by training schools for nurses, dietitians, physicians, laboratory technicians, and others.
We are instructed (Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 113) that every city church should be equipped to give treatments for common ailments, even though the building and equipment are very simple.
As a people we should have many sanitariums and hospitals located outside the cities, with surroundings as attractive as possible. The sick should be cared for away from the bustle of the city. (Volume 7, p. 8b.) From these outpost centers, the cities are to be worked. These institutions will draw a large percentage of their patronage from the cities, and their work of education in the principles of health and salvation will be carried by those they contact to others.
We have been instructed that these health centers, which are so located that they may have land for cultivation, can be as far even as forty miles from the city, where they can surround patients with the beautiful things of nature. "'Out of the cities,' is my message. Our physicians ought to have been wide awake on this point long ago."—Volume 7, p. 83.
We are instructed, furthermore, that it is wise for our larger schools and sanitariums to be closely associated and located on a farm. Teachers, doctors, nurses, students, and even the patients should have opportunity to participate in the raising of food. Such a plan, we are told, will be mutually beneficial to institutions, to students, and to patients.
Postwar leaders now recognize that such an educational and health setup is ideal, and they are advocating it. We should be the head and not the tail in pushing this plan to the front.
We are cautioned not to make our medical institutions too large. When such a center reaches a certain point, it should foster small medical missionary enterprises in its neighborhood, operated by some of its own staff or by its students in training. We are instructed that there should be a hundred workers where there is now but one.
The manufacture of health foods is another avenue through which our churches and their membership may be of invaluable assistance to the world. These institutions are instrumentalities by which prejudice may be broken down, and ways opened for presenting the complete message.
There are places where Christian families are serving wholesome, well-baked bread and fresh vegetables from the home garden to the people of the community, with most encouraging results. Today, as never before in our history, the world needs the food our people should be prepared to serve. When people are fed from your hand, the way is often open to feed their souls also. These are simple methods of ministry that appeal to the common people, and if encouraged, will set hundreds to work who will take for wages "what is right," but who are now practically idle in the market place. These are phases of missionary work spoken of as "the right arm of the message," "the entering wedge," or "the gospel in practice."
Many of these types of missionary activity can be carried forward without a large outlay of means.
They are types in which individual church members can invest their own means and operate on a self-supporting basis. They may come to have a financial value as they are patronized by people of the world who bring their money with them.
Over forty years ago the management of the Madison rural school in Tennessee was instructed that it should operate a sanitarium on its campus. There was to be the closest co-operation between the school and the medical institution. The school in those days was young and feeble, but a small sanitarium was started, and for forty years the two institutions have grown together, under the same management, with the same objectives, to train young people to minister to the needs of the world as the Saviour set the example.
It is the testimony of those who have been in close touch with this combined medical and educational institution that the college has been a great help to the medical institution, and the sanitarium has been a wonderful blessing to the college. The two have been a demonstration of the possibility of major institutions working together in even lines for mutual benefit.
Madison was instructed to operate in this way when it was very young, and it has lived to see the value of the instruction. During these years more than a score of other rural institutions have been established as extensions of Madison, and in each case this combination of organization has been maintained.
These institutions have exerted a far-reaching influence throughout the southeastern section of the United States. A farm, a school, a small rural sanitarium, a church organization—that is the history of this missionary work.
This combined medical and educational work in rural districts sets a pace for a large work by lay people of the church. World conditions emphasize the importance of•0-etting our people out of the cities onto farms were they can make for themselves a place in the Master's vineyard. An example has been set and a demonstration made of what can and should be done in hundreds of places on a self-supporting basis by consecrated lay members of the church.
Christian families can associate in the conduct of such centers, and this will afford training ground for lay workers. They can teach the art of co-operation, of simple living, of self-maintenance, of daily service for the good of others. This has been called "the very work that Christ did."
These rural centers demand a variety of skills. They make a place for men and women of differing ability, and their combined efforts result in a much more extended work with a wider influence than any one of them could do alone. One can "chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight," so rapidly is effort multiplied when the Lord's methods are followed.
In these combined enterprises the farm produces the food; the school educates the workers; the sanitarium breaks down prejudice, is an entering wedge, and brings in much money for the service it renders. And is fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy that the wealth of the Gentiles shall flow unto us.
Every member of the group should have a part in the operation. The carrying of responsibility in this broad way is an important education to church members. Such a center becomes in reality a church at work—at work every day and at all hours of every day. It is a setup that calls for courage, consecration, faith, and trust. It brings the working force to its knees and is a mighty power in the development of Christian experience. Such an institution, rightly conducted, is a light to the world; it is a city set on a hill whose light cannot be hid.
This type of medical missionary work affords opportunity for wide expansion. One godly physician can be instrumental in placing many other people to work. Our churches have been compared to nursery stock too crowded for growth. The members need to be transplanted from crowded city churches to needy places, where they can regroup themselves according to God's plan.
One well-equipped sanitarium, hospital, and school can act as sponsor to a number of small institutions, or health homes, or convalescent homes, having a school for the children of the group and their neighbors in connection with each center. Families with children can locate near such centers, own their own farms, and co-operate with the institution, thus saving much expenditure for heavy machinery and other equipment. They can operate their farms on a simple plan, and contribute to the welfare of the community and the advancement of the church. In some cases private homes may care for a sick person or two. There are many sick who need rest, a Christian atmosphere, a rural environment, and the wholesome diet that can be supplied by a well-organized Christian home, under the direction of a physician in some medical institution within reach.
It is well to remember that true Seventh-day Adventists, by virtue of their conversion and the change in living habits which should follow, are qualified by the very nature of their religious experience to care for the sick. Their habits of kind consideration of others, willingness to serve, adherence to health principles and present truths, together with some instruction in nursing, give them ability and the confidence of the sick. Such homes may become places of refuge with which the Lord loves to co-operate.
We are facing a definite effort to lead people out of the cities. The plan outlined for a combined educational, evangelical, resident colporteur and medical missionary work will be a potent factor in that movement. We can predict this as a result of the demonstration that has been made in the Southern States.
We need the wisdom of God as much as did Moses when he led Israel out of Egypt. There are many side paths that must be avoided. If we can follow the instruction of the Lord, it will lead us as did the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, when the children of Israel crossed the desert into the Promised Land.
As a people, we are wonderfully blessed by having the Spirit of prophecy to guide and direct our movements. We are fortunate in having a health work, with many variations, that will be a powerful factor in the message we have for the world at large and for our own people in a special sense.
