Dr. Richard Cabot, of the Massachusetts General Hospital, said: "Our profession, the profession to which you as nurses and we as physicians contribute what we can, brings us constantly into contact with human souls. We are with our fellow creatures in their hours of storm and stress when what is truest and deepest in them comes to light. Such contact is sure to affect us in one of two ways. It can ennoble us or it can make us cal lous. There is no alternative." Continuing, Dr. Cabot said:
"I have watched nurses become coarsened, hardened by their work. It is inevitable when nursing is only a means of earning a livelihood. You can not pass through such an ordeal without showing the scars. We must pass through a fire that consumes if it does not purify. "Our profession cannot remain secular. If it attempts to do so, it becomes a trade and a low one. What do I mean by the spirit of religion in the work of nurses or physicians? I mean the missionary, not the proselyting spirit, but the spirit of service, the sense of working for a cause that is absolutely and infinitely worth while in which we can spend ourselves without stint, without restraint, without reserve. "We deal with human life, not with human bodies alone; yet we are trained exclusively in the care of bodies. No wonder that the souls in those bodies rebel, now and then, and demand someone who recognizes their existence; or else what is worse, catch from the nurse the material istic and mechanical view toward which all the nurse's training tends. When our training schools admit that to minister to a human being, we must know the whole being, not only " half of him, then it will be impossible any longer to keep them secular, and the spirit of religion will bring about the re-organization of the training there given, nd of the type of nurse that graduates."
Years ago I felt the need of prayer in order to exert a saving influence. I recall the time when my associate and I used to meet together in a dark closet each morning before opening our offices to receive patients. Our methods then were simple. Prayer, we felt, was a necessity. In the multiplicity of our modern medical appliances we are in danger of losing sight of the fact that real success depends now, as truly as in the days gone by, upon the Christian influence exerted by physicians and nurses.
The famous Dr. Charles Dana once said, "The practice of medicine is three fourths behavior [that is, of knowing how to manage people] and one fourth technique."
The confidence of the patient in his physician is frequently in itself a guarantee of recovery.
Impressions that are made by the physician upon patients are never effaced. The blind man whose sight was restored by Christ, when ac costed by the Pharisees who said, "Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner," replied, "Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." John 9:24, 25. Later after he was cast out of the synagogue and excommunicated, the Saviour found him and said to him, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" Then the blind man said, "Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?" And Jesus answered, "Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee." The blind man replied, "Lord, I believe." Then he worshiped Christ. (Verses 35-38.) Christ did not say, "You must believe I am the Son of God, or I cannot heal you." The healing gave him faith, and when a suitable time came the Saviour revealed Himself to him as the Son of God, the Saviour of man kind. There is a lesson in this for us as physicians.
I have received letters from some very prom inent men who had been patients at the sanitarium. I shall quote from one who was at the time one of the leading educators in the United States. He said:
"I look back on the brief period I spent at the sanitarium as a blessed rest in an all too busy and harassed life. Everyone there seems to mingle the spirit of devotion with that of service. The kindly care for me will always remain one of my cherished memories. My personal contact with you has been for me a real spiritual experience. Your kindly sympathy, your fine outlook on life, your sincerity, and your trust in the grace and providence of God have left me with the wish that I might be able to sit at your feet and learn how to live. Physically I feel that I am better. From time to time I hope to come back to the sanitarium for treatment, but chiefly for new contacts with you. What I can say would in no sense express my appreciation of what you have done for me. May the choicest blessings of God be upon you and yours. "Why I should bore you I cannot express, but you laid yourself open to it by proving yourself to be what I have needed all my life, a true friend and comforter. I fear that I have been too self-reliant. Now that all iny self-sufficiency has slid away from me" I realize that I need help myself. I do not believe that I fully realized what prayer meant before. My trouble is, as Shakespeare phrases it, 'My prayers fly, My thoughts remain below. Prayers without thought seldom to heaven go.' That is just the outpouring of a soul that has been pent up and earthbound for more than half a century. You have partly at least released me, and I thank you."
Then he continued: "This may mean little to you, but the writing of it has been much help to me. When the weather settles I am coming to see you."
The judge of a county court wrote some time after he had taken his departure from the sanitarium: "After enjoying a long life and in a reminiscent mood, thinking of the men and women whom I have met in life who really made a lasting impression for good and made me feel that their presence was a divine benediction, I invariably think of you. I am really ashamed of the fact that I have not written you before and expressed my love and affection for you, and thanked you for your kind treatment of me while I was in your sanitarium and hospital. You do not know how anxious I am to see you and shake your hand; but, you see, I am judge of our county court, and it is next to impossible for me to visit you. I trust you have not forgotten me, and rest assured that I have the very highest personal regard and esteem for you. I hope your health is good and that you are growing old as gracefully as your humble friend. "My health continues good, and I am at work every day. If I can get off sometime in the near future, I want to spend a week at Takoma Park. I am sure a good handshake with you will do me much more good than a pill. With such love as one man can have for another, and sometimes it is very great, I remain, sincerely your very dear friend."
A banker wrote: "I wish to report I am feeling like a new man since my return from your sanitarium. My personal contact with you has benefited me physically, mentally, and spiritually. You are one of God's chosen physicians to administer to poor sick humanity, and I trust God will spare you to us many more years. As instructed by you, I have stopped smok ing. I assure you I am telling all my friends about your wonderful sanitarium and how you cured me. Since I left your sanitarium I have enjoyed the best of health."
The mayor of one of the cities of North Carolina wrote: "I want to thank you for your wonderful kindness, sweetness, and helpfulness that you uniformly gave me without stint for the seven weeks that I was in the sanitarium. I want you to know that I enjoyed the very comforting Christian atmosphere which gave me a satisfaction that I have never experienced before in all my life, and I attribute this more to you and the godlike spirit that you exemplify and live more than any other factors. I have seen and talked with numerous of your friends. We all are of the same opinion. You are trying to carry out the Master's injunction and getting a real pleasure out of doing everything for the other fellow in a sweet, noble, unselfish way. I don't know how long I may live, but I want you to know this, that there never shall be a day that passes over my head but what in reverence I shall thank God that He gave me the privilege of know ing you and spending the time that I did spend under your care and under your influence. I do wish that I was gifted with language that I might in some little way express my deep love and affection for you, and let me beg of you, when you talk to the Great Physician always to remember in your own way to mention my name to Him. I am promising myself the pleasure of seeing you again in the not distant future, and I assure you it will be a happy day for me. May God's blessing be upon all of the sanitarium and His richest blessings upon you."
The Spirit of God can use consecrated physi cians and nurses, as well as other workers in our medical institutions, to make lasting impressions for good upon the hearts of many who will someday trace back to their contacts with us the influences that led to their conversion and salvation.