〉 Physicians and Evangelists
Physicians and Evangelists
Encouraging Words to a Physician [A circular letter (1910).] The work you have been doing in the cities is meeting Heaven’s approval. What you have done demonstrates that if our physicians and our ministers can work together in the presentation of truth to the people, more can be reached than could be influenced by the minister laboring alone. I trust that your example in this respect may be followed by other physicians. (CH 543.1)
You need not feel that the Lord has separated you from the sanitarium because you have made more direct efforts to reach the souls in our cities, who need to be converted. You have a burden for this work of presenting the message to the people. Present Christ as the healer of the sin-sick soul. In your work in the field you will gain a broader and more extended influence than if you were confined to an institution. (CH 543.2)
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. Arrange your plans so that you can engage in this line of work with freedom, and so that your absence will not hurt the work of the institution. (CH 543.3)
Present before the people the need of resisting the temptation to indulge appetite. This is where many are failing. Explain how closely body and mind are related and show the need of keeping both in the very best condition. The health talks which you give in the meetings will be one of the best ways of advertising our sanitariums. (CH 543.4)
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. (CH 544.1)
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. Every physician should know how to pray in faith for the sick, as well as to administer the proper treatment. At the same time he should labor as one of God’s ministers, to teach repentance and conversion and the salvation of soul and body. Such a combination of labor will broaden his experience and greatly enlarge his influence. (CH 544.2)
In Touch With the People
One thing I know: the greatest work of our physicians is to get access to the people of the world in the right way. There is a world perishing in sin, and who will take up the work in our cities? The greatest physician is the one who walks in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. (CH 544.3)
There is a work to be done in all our cities, and those who still work and walk humbly with God, striving daily to be overcomers, will gain precious victories day by day. The work that is done in humility will bear the divine credentials. Let us hide in God. That which I see most clearly is the necessity of men and women’s being united in doing the work that needs to be done in our cities.... The Lord bears long with men, and He calls earnestly for everyone to repent. Will the ministers, will the physicians, take up this work that has scarcely been touched? May God help us to be faithful and to do the very work that is now most essential. (CH 544.4)
Now is our time to make decided efforts to awaken the people who have never yet been warned. Much thought and labor is given to the printed page. This is well, but if more efforts were given to sending forth the living missionary to preach the truth, many more souls would be aroused and won to the truth. While Jesus ministers in the true sanctuary above, He is through His Holy Spirit working through His earthly messengers. These agencies will accomplish more than the printed page, if they will go forth in the Spirit and power of Christ. Christ will work through His chosen ministers, filling them with His Spirit, and thus fulfilling to them the assurance, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Matthew 28:20. (CH 545.1)
It is well, in presenting the truth to unbelievers, first to present some subjects upon which they will agree with us. The principles of health and temperance will appeal to their judgment, and we can from these subjects lead them on to understand the binding claims of the fourth commandment. This work our physicians can help in doing. When the people see the value of instruction given regarding healthful living, it gives them confidence to believe that the teachers of these principles have the truth in other lines. (CH 545.2)
It is the Lord’s plan that physicians well versed in Bible truth shall unite with ministers laboring in the cities and aid in giving as a whole the harmonious message of warning that should be given to the world. Some of the very best-qualified men in our institutions should be chosen for this work. (CH 545.3)
To some it may seem unwise to take men qualified for the position of head physicians and put them to labor in the cities, even though chosen men fill their places in the institutions. But we need to take a broader view of the work and to consider that the Lord is calling for a special line of work to be done in the cities, a work which requires the efforts of men of clear perception, and who, in the power of the Holy Spirit, can present before large congregations the principles of health reform. (CH 545.4)
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. (CH 546.1)
Practical Hints to Physicians
I am concerned because so many things engage the minds of our physicians which keep them from the work that God would have them do as evangelists. From the light that God has given me, I know that the living preacher who is consecrated and devoted, and knows how to put his trust in God, is greatly needed. We need one hundred workers where now we have one. There is a great work to be done before satanic opposition shall close up the way, and our present opportunities for labor shall be lost. Time is rapidly passing. Our publications are numerous, but the Lord calls for men and women in our churches who have the light to engage in genuine missionary work. Let them in all humility exercise their God-given talents in proclaiming the message that should come to the world at this time. (CH 546.2)
I hope you will exercise all your capabilities in this work. Present the importance of present truth from the physician’s standpoint. The educated physician will find entrance in our cities where other men cannot. Teach the message of health reform. This will have an influence with the people. (CH 546.3)
The Lord will assuredly guide you if you will seek to do His will, even though it should interfere with some of your desires and plans. As you walk and work in the counsel of God, doors will be opened before you of opportunities for uniting the work of the ministry and that of a physician. (CH 547.1)
If in the city of Boston and other cities of the East, you and your wife will unite in medical evangelistic work, your usefulness will increase, and there will open before you clear views of duty. In these cities the message of the first angel went with great power in 1842 and 1843, and now the time has come when the message of the third angel is to be proclaimed extensively in the East. There is a grand work before our Eastern sanitariums. The message is to go with power as the work closes up. (CH 547.2)
Let your words be of a character to exalt the word of God. Live and teach the principles of health reform. Emphasize your belief in the great truths upon which Christian people generally will agree with you. As you advocate the truth of God, you are in every respect to be an example to the believers. (CH 547.3)
The importance of making our way in the great cities is still kept before me. For many years the Lord has been urging upon us this duty, and yet we see but comparatively little accomplished in our great centers of population. If we do not take up this work in a determined manner, Satan will multiply difficulties which will not be easy to surmount. We are far behind in doing the work that should have been done in these long-neglected cities. The work will now be more difficult than it would have been a few years ago. But if we take up the work in the name of the Lord, barriers will be broken down and decided victories will be ours. (CH 547.4)
In this work physicians and gospel ministers are needed. We must press our petitions to the Lord and do our best, pressing forward with all the energy possible to make an opening in the large cities. Had we in the past worked after the Lord’s plans, many lights would be shining brightly that are going out. (CH 548.1)
In connection with the presentation of spiritual truths, we should also present what the word of God says upon the questions of health and temperance. In every way possible we must seek to bring souls under the convicting and converting power of God. The believers in our churches need to be aroused to act their part. Let seasons of prayer be appointed, and let us earnestly seek the Lord for an increase of faith and courage. Let ministers and other church members labor for souls as never before. We are not to spend our time merely in repeating over and over the same things to the churches where the truth is well known. Let the church members labor unitedly in their several lines to create an interest. The disciples of Christ are to unite in labor for perishing souls. Let the laborers invite others to unite with them in their efforts, that many may be fired with zeal to work for the Master. (CH 548.2)
I entreat the church members in every city that they lay hold upon the Lord with determined effort for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Be assured that Satan is not asleep. Every obstacle possible he will place in the way of those who would advance in this work. Too often these obstacles are regarded as insurmountable. Let everyone now be soundly and truly converted, and then lay hold of the work intelligently and with faith. (CH 548.3)