A Plea for Kindness and Understanding

HEALTH EVANGELISM: A Plea for Kindness and Understanding

medical evangelism

M.D., President of the College of Medical Evangelists

I had an experience as a child which I think has influenced me, especially in my attempts at public speaking. I remember that on the trip home from church a Sister Nelson would ride with us. She had lived in Sister White's home and had helped to take care of her. After each church service this sister always had a comment to make. She either said, "He had a message," or, "He didn't have a message." So it has been quite a concern of mine as I accepted speaking engagements to know whether I had a message.

In thinking over what I might say this morning to this group, I had great difficulty to decide. In fact, I even tried to avoid it. But I believe that if I can bring to you a picture of certain brethren whom some of you may not understand as well as you ought, perhaps I can be of some service, and fulfill my opportunity to help someone here today. I bring the following verses to you because they contain a message I want to take to my own heart: "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Eph. 4:31, 32. We take that too much for granted among Christians.

At times we are not so kind and forgiving or so understanding of each other as we ought to be. I had this brought to my attention by a note that one of the doctors handed me just a few weeks before I left Los Angeles. I had been under some pressure and strain, and this doctor just handed me a note which stated, "Your slip is showing; you need more rest." I wondered what he meant at first, but as I thought about it I realized that I had been under pressure and strain, and that I had been irritable, and had been a bit impatient in some of the things that I had said. The little note brought to my attention that during a period of fatigue and irritation I could also see right through people. That is, I could see all their faults, and it was difficult to see their virtues.

And so we as Christians, especially as ministers, need to stop once in a while and see whether we are getting enough rest and meditation. Are we taking time out for prayer, so we can see good in people and not just their faults? If we could know each other more completely, I doubt whether any of us would be too critical of others.

I recall that when I was elder of the church in Worthington some years ago we had a problem in that one of the sisters had been indiscreet in some of the things she had said about other members. I was on the committee to speak to her about it. We asked her husband to meet with us. It was apparent that she lacked in judgment, and that she had said things which were unwise. After we had talked to her for a bit, we enlisted her cooperation.

At the close of the meeting her husband stepped out with me and said, "You know, doc tor, in spite of her faults, she is the best wife a poor man ever had." I have had a greater respect for that man since that time, and for her, because she had qualities which inspired the affection and trust of her husband, and he was big enough to say so.

A while ago I had occasion to feel critical of one of the men who was on our faculty, until I heard him tell his story. There were certain things about his attitude and viewpoint with which I could not agree. In my own mind, at least, I was critical and faultfinding. But when I heard his story I saw him in a different light.

At one of our student meetings he told that one of the most vivid recollections of his child hood was that each year at Christmas a tag was hung around his neck by relatives who cared for him after the death of his parents, and he was placed on a train so that he could meet the brothers and sisters once a year, in order that they would not forget each other. He had had an experience that few others had had. While growing up he had been passed from one person to another, none of them wanting him, and yet having only an annual meeting with his brothers and sisters. Undoubtedly this had changed his outlook on life. Now as I think of him, I am much more forgiving and understanding, and more tolerant of some of his views than I was before.

As I have gone about my duties in the medical school and have met with our doctors I have had certain impressions. I want to leave a few with you as my message this morning. I happened to be in the town of a girl I knew who was practicing medicine. When I called her on the telephone she said, "Oh, it is nice of you to call. You don't want to come out to see me, do you?"

I responded, "Why not?"

She said, "Well, I'm not attending church right now."

I said, "That is all the more reason for my coming out."

Then she remarked, "You know, since I haven't been going to church our people don't call on me, so I feel I am just an outcast." I assured her that I felt the same as ever toward her, for she was the same person I had known before, and I expressed my personal interest and my hope that she would return to the church and attend regularly.

I thought that was an exception, but in visiting another town, I called up a classmate. He said, "I'd like to have you come out to, stay with us for the night, but I suppose you will be staying elsewhere."

"Why?" I asked.

"Haven't you heard of us? I'm a kind of heathen."

And I said, "What makes you think that?"

"Well, we haven't been attending church."

As I was sitting in the White Memorial church a few months ago, I saw an individual with whom I had gone to school some time ago. She wore earrings and had dark glasses on to disguise herself. I suppose she had come to church deliberately with earrings. You know when people begin to smoke and put on ear rings and other forms of ostentation, it is often an attempt to disguise themselves. Or perhaps 'it is a sign language, and they do it so we will not ask them whether they are still Adventists. And it does frighten us away, doesn't it? We allow those little outward things to keep us from making the contact that might save a soul and bring him back into the church. I know, because I have talked with some of these indi viduals, and find that they very much desire to have someone come and talk with them.

Putting Up a False Appearance

I think this applies particularly to those of you who visit our doctors. There are doctors who, because they have an expensive car or a spacious home, are isolated just as much as if they had smallpox. Some of you are afraid to go to them because you are impressed with material things, and mistakenly think they must feel different since they have all these possessions. Many times those doctors have bought large cars just to make you think they are satisfied. They aren't happy. They don't feel so se cure as you think. It is just a fagade they put on to fool the public and to protect themselves from the appeals which, deep down inside, they wish would come to them. I am sure that we allow many of our good Adventist men and women (and I am not speaking only of doc tors) to go without an invitation to our church services and gatherings because we take it for granted when we see some of these outward signs that they are beyond the appeal of the Spirit. But I know they are not.

I will pass on to some of the things that en courage me regarding our medical college. I have had opportunity to hear our men who have returned to the school speak to the students—men like Sherman Nagel, who is here today. He spoke in our chapel and in Bible classes about his experiences in Africa. As I hear the thrilling stories that come to us from other fields by our missionary doctors, and particularly those told by Roy Parsons, it makes me feel sure that the College of Medical Evangelists has a very real place in the worldwide work of our church. Although many may be doing rather inconspicuous service, the few who are out on the firing line make up for many.

"Alumnus of the Year"

Dr. Parsons attended meetings in Los Angeles and spoke to the students, with the result that many were inspired to do missionary work in foreign fields. I look forward to seeing many who will be influenced in their choice of life- work by the visits of these men. Dr. Parsons was honored by the College of Medical Evangelists Alumni Association by being made "the alumnus of the year" at the annual banquet.

This fall Governor Earl Warren, of California, was the honored guest in addition to Dr. Parsons. Before the governor, the presidents of the county and State medical associations, and a number of distinguished citizens, in addition to an audience of a thousand of our alumni, their wives, and friends, Dr. Parsons' work in Africa and his sacrifice in the mission field were presented. He was honored as the alumnus of the year in a way that made every person present know that the College of Medical Evangelists stood for that type of service, and that he was the flower of our graduates. I can assure you that Governor Warren, who sat next to me, was deeply impressed by the better understanding he obtained of our medical work that evening. J. L. McElhany was present, and told of the place of our school in the work of the church. Altogether the occasion was an important one, and impressed those who were present.

I wish I could tell you of the students who are in our school. Those of you who attend our colleges know what fine young people they are. We have representatives from all our colleges, and it is a real experience to meet them and to hear their commitments for the future. I have not been there long enough to make any comparisons, but I cannot believe that the young people who are there and who have dedicated themselves so wholeheartedly to the work of this church, and to giving their lives in service for others, will fail us in the future, when they have completed their work.

One of our young colored students, George Benson, gave a straightforward testimony. He said that as a boy he grew up on the farm which his great-great-grandfather took up as a government grant in Indiana. "The inspiration to become a doctor has come to me through the encouragement of my mother," he said. "She always told us we were the only colored family in our county, the only representatives of our race, and also the only Seventh-day Adventists. As the only representatives of our race and religion, we must be very careful in everything that we did. My prayer is that I may properly represent both here in this school, so that I will be a credit to my church and to my mother." That testimony and many others like it constantly strengthen my confidence in the possibilities before these students and in the divine purpose of our school.

I wish to voice an expression of appreciation to each one of you here and to those you represent for the generous special offering which the College of Medical Evangelists received. This amount of money was not requested for extension, not for buying new equipment, but for maintaining our regular budget. It was re quested because we had no other means of meeting our need. The response from the field exceeded our anticipation, and it made us feel certain that we have the support of many in all the conferences.

I want to assure you that in my coming and going among our students and in my contacts with our faculty I have a daily conviction that I am living with godly men and women, who are quite as much a part of this denominational work as foreign missionaries. I hope that we who are responsible for the instruction of our young men and women will be able to give them a true vision of their work, and that their religious convictions will strengthen them as they go out to do the Lord's work, which we know and intend must be more than simply medical work—real medical evangelism. That is the purpose of our school.

 

 


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M.D., President of the College of Medical Evangelists

March 1950

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