With the instruction pertaining to the responsibilities of the physician, the conception of the combined ministry for soul and body was clarified and emphasized. A portion of this counsel, which was written in 1884 and published in 1885, has already been quoted. In this same connection are found further striking statements:
"The work of the Christian physician does not end with healing the maladies of the body; his efforts should extend to the diseases of the mind, to the saving of the soul. ...
"The physician should know how to pray. ... Prayer will give the sick an abiding confidence; and many times if their cases are borne to the great Physician in humble trust, it will do more for them than all the drugs that can be administered. ...
"The physician needs more than human wisdom and power that he may know how to minister to the many perplexing cases of disease of the mind and heart with which he is called to deal. If he is ignorant of the power of divine grace, he cannot help the afflicted one, but will aggravate the difficulty; but if he has a firm hold upon God, he will be able to help the diseased, distracted mind. He will be able to point his patients to Christ and teach them to carry all their cares and perplexities to the great Burden Bearer."--Testimonies for the Church 5:443, 444.
To All Nations
At this time Seventh-day Adventists had attained a membership in the United States of about twenty thousand. They were conducting missions in central Europe, Scandinavia, Great Britain, and Australia; but there were less than five hundred members in lands across the sea, and no missions had as yet been started among heathen peoples. In God's providence they were soon to embark upon a missionary expansion that must culminate in their carrying to "every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people" the message committed to them of heaven. They were to unite with and supplement the great worldwide mission movement which began with the opening of the nineteenth century. And steps were now being taken so that when the time was ripe and conditions made it possible for them to take their place in the foreign mission enterprise, they would be able to send out missionaries trained to relieve human suffering.
We have portrayed in outline only certain reform movements in temperance, diet, rational therapy, and health education in the early part of the nineteenth century. And so also it will be of interest to note the preliminary medical missionary phase of the great evangelical movements, to which Seventh-day Adventists were now being called to give heed.
Foreign Medical Missionary Work
The union of the medical and missionary work was providentially associated with the very beginnings of the modern missionary movement. It was in 1785 that Dr. John Thomas, a young physician on board an East Indian vessel, went ashore in Calcutta. The suffering and squalor of the people touched his heart, and instead of going back home as he had intended, he remained and for seven years devoted his life to the suffering poor in that great city. Then, with failing health, he returned home, earnestly praying that the Lord would send forth laborers into the great heathen lands of earth.
Even as he was praying, William Carey and Andrew Fuller were meeting and talking together about missions. Soon after landing in England, Dr. Thomas met these two men and shared with them the burden for foreign missions. When, in November of that year (1792), the Baptist Missionary Society was formed, the first missionary appointed by them was Dr. John Thomas. The second was William Carey. They both went to India, and seven years later the first convert from Hinduism was baptized in the Ganges. This Hindu, while working on the house in which the missionaries lived, had fallen and been severely injured. "The doctor attended him, preached to him, by act as well as by word, and so he won him to Christ."--Dr. George D. Dowkontt, in The Medical Missionary, July, 1905.
A few years later, in 1818, Dr. John Scudder, a young physician in New York, reading a little book descriptive of native life in India, was so touched with sympathy for the poor people of that land that he decided to give up his opportunity for fame and fortune at home in order that he might give his life to them. He and his wife labored self-sacrificingly and devotedly in India for a period of thirty-five years.
His was a missionary family. Of his seven sons and three daughters, all but one daughter became missionaries. Five of his sons became physicians, following in the footsteps of their father, Dr. John Scudder, "the first medical missionary to leave the United States for heathen lands."--Ibid.
Dr. Peter Parker
In 1834 a ship making its long, tedious journey to the Orient carried as one of its passengers Dr. Peter Parker, also from the United States. Dr. Parker, having studied both theology and medicine, had been ordained to the ministry in the Congregational Church and was now en route to the Far East as a missionary for that denomination. He began his work in China by establishing a small hospital at Canton, which very soon became an important center. His fame as a skillful physician and surgeon gave him access to multitudes of people, among whom he quietly but effectively bore witness to the Lord Jesus as the healer of soul as well as body.
On the outbreak of war between England and China in 1840 his hospital was closed, and he returned for a time to the United States. While passing through Edinburgh, Scotland, he was entertained by Dr. Abercrombie, who was so greatly interested in Dr. Parker's experience that he invited to his house a few influential friends, that they might hear his story showing the great value of the healing art in connection with the preaching of the gospel.
This group of interested listeners were thus led to become the nucleus of an organization called The Edinburgh Association for Sending Aid to Foreign Countries. It was later known as The Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society. For a number of years the society functioned chiefly in seeking to inspire medical missionary activity in heathen lands by disseminating information regarding its effectiveness. In 1851 they began to use some of their funds in helping worthy medical missionary students through their college training.
In 1848 Dr. Handyside, one of the directors of the society, received a request from a missionary to visit professionally some of the sick poor in Edinburgh, and soon the doctor and the missionary were laboring side by side.
"It was not long till Dr. Handyside discovered that the kind and successful treatment of the wounded and diseased body opened a way for the application of the 'balm of Gilead' to the sin-stricken soul; and, revolving in his mind how best to turn to account the influence thus acquired, the idea suggested itself of establishing a medical missionary dispensary."--John Lowe, Medical Missions, Their Place and Power, p. 206. Chicago: Fleming Revell and Company, 1886.
In an old whisky shop, which was temporarily vacant, the Cowgate Mission Dispensary was opened, where both medical and evangelistic lines of work were carried forward for the poor. Christians of all denominations were welcomed as helpers, and scores of young men passed through the doors of this institution, working among the poor and needy in their spare time while taking the medical course in regular medical schools. Then, as representatives of various mission boards, they went forth into the dark places of the earth to spread the gospel of life and light.
Rapid Growth
We may judge the rapid growth of the medical missionary program for foreign missions by a statement by J.G. Kerr, who for many years labored in China and was active in promoting the work of the China Medical Missionary Association. Writing in 1895, he said:
"It is only within recent times that the association of medical practice with the preaching of the gospel has been generally recognized as a department of mission work. In 1850, less than half a century ago, there were only 12 or 15 medical missionaries in all the known Christian world, and it is safe to say that more than one half of the 359 now in the field were commissioned in the last 15 years."--J. G. Kerr, in Medical Missions, p. 3. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publications, 1895.
The apostle of this forward movement in the United States was George D. Dowkontt. A native of England, he was at an early age left an orphan. He knew the depths of misery, degradation, and poverty. During a period of service in the British navy he was converted and zealously worked for the salvation of his associates. At Edinburgh he saw the noble work carried forward by the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society, and brought to the United States the knowledge and experience he had gained there. After completing his medical course in Philadelphia, he went to New York City, where he was successful in interesting Christian men of means to support his efforts to promote a society similar to that in Edinburgh. Of the growth of this undertaking he wrote in 1894:
"Beginning with a mission in the worst part of the city, the work was developed until no less than eighty-two of the students of the society, now called the International Medical Missionary Society, have been appointed to India, China, Africa, and other parts of the world."--George D. Dowkontt, M.D., in Murdered Millions, p. 72. New York: Office of the Medical Missionary Record, 1894.
In 1885 Dr. Dowkontt rented a large double house as a residence for medical students who were interested in training for foreign mission service. Here they might have the advantages of a Christian home and, as supplemental to the college course, receive additional instruction that would be helpful to them in their soul-saving work. They were also given opportunities for practical service in connection with the several dispensaries now operated by the society.
Dr. Dowkontt's Solution
For a number of years the medical colleges in the city of New York granted to the students recommended by the International Medical Missionary Society a very liberal reduction in tuition fees, but at length these concessions were entirely withdrawn. This action brought great embarrassment to Dr. Dowkontt and his co-workers. They were faced, on the one hand, by "a crowd of noble young men and women ... clamoring for admission and aid that they may respond to the cries for help in these dark lands; while on the other, the colleges demand such high fees that it is not in the power of the society and these applicants to meet [them]."--Ibid., 73.
Dr. Dowkontt felt that the only solution to this problem was the securing of a charter for a medical missionary college that might be operated by the society. On inquiry at the state offices in Albany, New York, he learned that it would be necessary to raise $50,000 for this purpose, and even this would vest them with authority only to give the necessary instruction, the examinations and degrees to be granted the finishing students by accredited medical schools.
A silver dollar which had been given to one of his dying children, and which had been cherished for some years as a treasured memento, became the first dollar of a fund looking toward the raising of the amount necessary for the charter. By 1898 Dr. Dowkontt reported that the fund had by that time reached $5,000, and pleadingly said: "When this is multiplied by ten, ... we can obtain our charter from the local authorities and found our college, and for this we pray and labor and plan and wait."--Tell Them, 249. New York: Office of the Medical Missionary Record, 1898.
At this point the train of influences reaching from Dr. Peter Parker to Dr. Abercrombie and the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society and on to Dr. Dowkontt and the International Medical Missionary Society in New York City reached and profoundly influenced the early work of the Seventh-day Adventists. In order to make this point of contact clear we must go back a few years to the summer of 1891.
Plans for Caring for Students
While on a visit to New York City, Dr. J.H. Kellogg saw at first hand the noble, philanthropic lines of work carried on by Dr. Dowkontt and his associates, and his plan for maintaining a home for such medical students as were fired with missionary zeal and planned to become medical missionaries. Of this he wrote:
"We had the pleasure, a few weeks since, of spending a few hours with the doctor in New York, visiting the home where the students of the medical missionary school reside, and also one of the dispensaries, or medical mission stations, maintained in the city. The good work we saw there, and the earnest words we heard uttered, impressed us that this is a most blessed kind of work and a most fruitful field of labor."--The Medical Missionary, June, 1891.
Had we been in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a few months later than this in 1891, we might have seen on Jefferson Street a two-story building where, within a few minutes' walk of the state university, a group of Seventh-day Adventist youth who were to continue their training at the medical college there were moving in. These were the young men and women previously selected by the collaboration of the General Conference Committee and the Medical and Surgical Sanitarium Board (of the Battle Creek institution) to be encouraged to become qualified as Christian physicians. The commodious house was capable of accommodating several more than the eighteen occupants, for the sanitarium board felt confident that by the beginning of the following year the family of students would be considerably augmented as more young people caught the vision of medical missionary service.
Thus was taken the first major step in surrounding the denominational medical students with an environment that would be helpful to them in holding fast to their objective. During the summer most of them attended "preparatory medical school" at the sanitarium, where they had an opportunity to observe and to take part in the sanitarium methods of treatment of the sick. In addition to the classes in the "medical missionary school," they received more advanced studies in anatomy, materia medica, and physiology. During a portion of this time each one was assigned to be a doctor's office assistant, to give the students an opportunity to observe the methods of diagnosis and of prescription for the sick. In return for their board, room, and instruction, they had given eight hours' work daily. Now they were entering upon the final three years at the state university, at an estimated cost of from $700 to $900, with opportunity to lessen this amount by their earnings. Those who were unable to meet these expenses were, if accepted by the sanitarium board, given whatever assistance they required. The Medical Missionary, November and December, 1892.
The Students' Home
We are informed that the students' home on Jefferson Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan, was planned as "a pleasant, healthful, homelike place, where order, decorum, and wholesome moral influences shall prevail, and a Christian spirit reside." The sixteen rules prepared for the guidance of the inmates included provisions for neatness and tidiness of the rooms, keeping them "suitable for inspection at any time"; economy in the use of water and fuel, promptness at meals, circumspection in the relations between gentlemen and lady students, quietness during study period, one hour's manual labor daily, and attendance at "family worship, Sabbath school, and Sabbath meetings." Ibid., October and November, 1891.
The supervision of the home was placed upon certain members of the class themselves. D.H. Kress, who had been a young licensed preacher in the Michigan Conference, acted as chaplain. Mrs. D.H. Kress, who as a member of the teaching staff of the medical missionary school at Battle Creek had for two years been giving instruction in physical culture and conducting cooking schools, acted as matron. The office of steward was filled by W.F. Hubbard, who ten years previously had been a dyspeptic, but through adopting the principles of the health reform regained perfect health. In his enthusiasm he had purchased a set of the health charts and begun lecturing. At length he had gone to the sanitarium for further instruction and had then decided to take the regular medical course.
Other members of the happy group in Ann Arbor were George W. Burleigh, Miss Abbie Winegar, Frank Moran, W.A. George, Alfred B. Olsen, Howard F. Rand, David Paulson, Edgar Caro, Arthur Herr, Lou Cleveland, A.M. Beatty, F.E. Braucht, and George H. Dow. The future activities of most of these indicate the care with which they had been selected, and reveal their consecration to the true work of the medical missionary.
The Daily Program
The day's work was regulated by a printed daily program. At the early hour of five in the morning the rising bell aroused the sleeping inmates of the home. The kerosene lamps by which they studied were to be extinguished at ten in the evening, "unless special permission otherwise" was granted by the matron. Fifteen minutes morning and evening were devoted to the worship period, and two silent periods of twenty minutes each afforded opportunity for individual quiet meditation. Class session at the university lasted from nine thirty in the forenoon till five in the afternoon, with an hour and a half of intermission for dinner. Ibid., October and November, 1891.
"Sabbath is as busy a day with the students as any other day of the week, but in a different line," we are informed by Dr. Kellogg, who reports a visit to the students' home at Ann Arbor. (Ibid.) As on week days, everybody was awake at five o'clock in the morning. At nine o'clock the entire family joined a group Bible class under the auspices of the Y.M.C.A. The regular Sabbath school hour was followed by a church service, and another meeting for Bible study was held in the afternoon.
The religious life of the medical students in Ann Arbor was not confined to Bible study and prayer. They found time for Christian service of varied kinds. The conducting of Sabbath schools, Sunday schools, work with gospel literature, and ministry to the needy poor were expressions of their practical interest in their neighbors. Through their influence many of their fellow students became interested in the principles of health and temperance. A hygienic boarding house was soon established in the city, which proved inadequate to accommodate the large number of people who were led to appreciate the advantages of dietetic reform. In the second year at Ann Arbor, one of the students wrote:
"First one and then another of our number found openings for personal Bible work, until at the present time several spend all their spare time in this work, and every day brings with it a cheerful report of an awakening love for God in the hearts of those who are the recipients of this instruction. ... The knowledge of nursing is a great blessing to us in our work for the poor, for many hearts have been cheered by a little suitable treatment applied to aching heads and painful joints."--Ibid., June, 1893.
Dr. David Paulson's Experience
A few of the students from Ann Arbor took their final year in medicine at the Bellevue Hospital in New York City. One of these young men, David Paulson, lived in a small rear room in the mission home conducted by Dr. George Dowkontt, the medical director of the International Medical Missionary Society.
At this time (in 1893), Dr. Dowkontt was still hopefully working for the establishment of his medical missionary college. Of that experience, Dr. Paulson relates how he used to meet for prayer every Tuesday morning with Drs. Dowkontt and Keller, the latter being a missionary who later served in China. The burden of their prayer was "that the Lord might open the way for him [Dr. Dowkontt] to establish a medical missionary school."
"One morning," wrote Dr. Paulson, "the truth flashed into my mind that what I was asking God to do in New York would be done in Battle Creek. I was so confident that this would take place that when a few weeks later, on my return, I met Dr. Kellogg at two o'clock at night, he said to me, 'What great thing do you suppose the board did tonight?' I replied immediately, 'Started a medical school.' In surprise, he said, 'How did you find out so soon?' I said, 'That is just what I have been praying and looking for.'--Ibid., July, 1910.
The establishment and maintenance of a medical school equipped and staffed and able to meet the advanced standards upheld by the American Medical Association, and that by a small denomination, seemed incredible to many, and the story of the providences connected with it and leading up to it can be told but briefly in the next chapter.