THE CASE FOR MEDICAL MISSIONS By Don Hillls, Bhusaval E. K., India
became the prominent issue of that day and that place. Clear-cut preaching fol lowed, culminating in the fact that “many of them that heard the word be lieved; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand” (Acts 4:4 A .V .). For the past one hundred and fifty years, it is the medical missionary who has introduced cleanliness and health to millions who before had known little more than filth and squalor. It is he who by patience and perseverance has broken down the superstitious and usually harm ful practices of the witch doctor. It is he who by hard, sacrificial service has made the advantages of modern medical science available to those who otherwise could never afford or enjoy such aid. It is he who by loving compassion has de stroyed the barriers of prejudices that are so often raised against Christ and His servants in non-Christian lands. In a small village in western India, a crowd sat listening attentively to the missionary as he recounted the stories of Jesus’ healing the sick. All at once, the meeting was interrupted by the voice of an elderly Indian farmer. He was saying, “Sir, I know your Jesus. He lives at the mission hospital. He per formed an operation on me and made me well.” Loving hands and. a successful operation had united in their testimony to this old man that Jesus must at least be one of great and tender compassion. The true medical missionary is a twentieth century John the Baptist, pre paring a way for THE WAY . Great is the need of such “way preparers” on every mission field of the world today. Through the missionary doctor’s operation, this little lad may some da/y be able to walk upright again.
for the very multitudes upon which Christ’s compassion was outpoured, came to Him repeatedly with no higher mo tive than that of obtaining more physical aid. Later they were the very ones who cried, “ Crucify H im!” Personally, we cannot concede any more in this argument than to admit that the miracles of Christ did not al ways appear to produce the results that we might have expected. Furthermore seeming failure was in most cases but temporary. On the credit side of the ledger, we have our Lord’s own statement as to His motive in the healing of the sick. He stated plainly, “But that ye may know that the Son of man hath authority on earth to forgive sins, I say unto thee. Arise, take up thy bed, and go . . . unto thy house” (Mark 2:10, 11 A .V .). Those who stood within hearing distance of this open declaration of motive, “glori fied God saying, We never saw it on this fashion.” Elsewhere we read, “Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are writ ten, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believ ing ye may have life in his name” (John 20:30, 31 A .V .). We do not fail to appreciate the fact that the Lord carried in His heart a deep compassion for suffering humanity, and were the physical welfare of man, life’s highest goal, He would have healed the world’s suffering masses regardless of their apparent lack of appreciation. It is, however, difficult for us to conceive of the Christ who came to earth with the express purpose of teaching man that his spiritual sickness was the one great eternal curse of life from which all lesser curses spring; that this Christ who gave His own, life on the cross for the spiritual healing and salvation of mankind, could have any basic motive for healing the body than that of win ning men unto Himself for the sake of their eternal redemption, in and through every possible means. It was John the Baptist who in the darkest hour of his many dark hours, sent this urgent inquiry to Jesus, “Art thou he that cometh, or look we for an other?” Significantly, our Lord replied, “Go and tell John the things which ye hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good tidings preached to them” (Matt. 11:2-5 A .V .). Armed with the commission to preach the gospel and to heal the sick, the early disciples attacked an unbelieving world. The healing of the lame man at the Gate Beautiful produced “wonder and amazement” in those who saw and heard. As a result the NAME of Christ
The witch doctor treated this little fellow’s enlarged spleen by branding him with a hot iron. M EI LIN was only a sickly little old Chinese widow for whose physical well being few had ever cared even in the days when she was younger and more attractive. As for her spiritual welfare no man had ever cared for her soul until the day that she entered the mission hospital. There she daily heard of the love of God and of the glories of heaven from the lips of a faithful Chinese Bible woman. After several weeks of loving care and helpful instruction old Mei Lin was asked by the missionary doctor what she thought of heaven. With only slight hesi tation, she replied, “Doctor, that which I have seen of it thus far is wonderful!” Though various versions of this little story could be repeated from every mis sion field of the world, yet it must be freely admitted that in some Christian circles the subject of medical missions is looked upon with misgivings and that not entirely without cause. Beyond question, the most apt criti cism leveled against this form of Christian missions is that it so often becomes an end in itself, rather than a means to the end for which it was originally intended. There are those in the Christian medical field who would sincerely contend that medical missions was never meant to be a “means to an end.” They feel that Christ healed sick multitudes out of the sheer overflowing compassion of His heart of love. They argue that His acts of mercy were not done to bribe men to come to Him as the Saviour. Furthermore, they feel that if healing was a means to an end that it proved to be little more than a failure, O C T O B E R , 1 9 4 9
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