Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 12 (1897)

Ms 181, 1897

Medical Missionary Work in Cooranbong

September 8, 1897

Previously unpublished.

There is work to be done here. Physicians charge a great price for coming twenty-five miles to visit a patient. The poor people suffer much before they will go for a physician. This injured lad [see Ms 97, 1897 and Ms 176, 1897] was two weeks in his agony of suffering with an awful cut, not knowing what they should or could do. He was in a high fever when Miss Sara McEnterfer was sent for. The appearance was terrible, but disgusting and disagreeable as the work was, she undertook the case, telling them she had no one to counsel with. The foot was in such a state that blood poisoning was feared. 12LtMs, Ms 181, 1897, par. 1

The child could not eat and that was a good feature in the case. He had, they said, been a plump, healthy boy, and now he was so reduced he was little more than skin and bones—last Wednesday, September 1. It is now September 8. We took the boy to our own home. His mother’s sister is with him, and we feed and give treatment asking nothing for our labors. It is a very serious case, for the lad is a great sufferer. Sara has a very severe work to do to manage this suffering boy. Thus we made our home a hospital. We pray for the sick child. After about three weeks he is out of danger and can be cared for at home. 12LtMs, Ms 181, 1897, par. 2

We cannot tell what influence these attentions given in all kinds of sickness may have. They break down prejudice. This family was Catholic except the grandmother of the boy, an excellent woman, and she was sick and died soon after. The grandfather of the boy, who has had the care of him, brought him to the Avondale school, so you see the work of the Lord is going on. Treating so many bodily infirmities has broken down the prejudice and given us the confidence of the people. All seem to be interested to have a sanitarium in Avondale. 12LtMs, Ms 181, 1897, par. 3

We have not had the least doubt or drawing back from the decision that this is the place for the school, for everything that we do prospers. The land is wonderful. Souls are being added to the numbers of those who are preparing to do the will of God. Meetings are held by students in different places and in the bush, which is miles out of Cooranbong, and there are souls converted, while there are sick and suffering ones relieved. Souls as well as bodies are saved to the Lord Jesus. 12LtMs, Ms 181, 1897, par. 4

We have been perfectly reconciled to the apparent delay of the Lord’s coming, for we see the goodness and the mercy of our Lord in His word, “though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” Habakkuk 2:3. But first the warning must come to all places of the world. The people perishing in their sins must hear the message of the truth from the Word. We are to reach the people in every part of our world where there are settlements. 12LtMs, Ms 181, 1897, par. 5

There is too much self-indulgence, too much seeking individual ease, too much gratification of appetite, too much adornment of dress. When the money is unnecessarily used to adorn the body, little is spent to make it possible for souls to have the words of warning and they are being left unwarned and are perishing out of Christ. 12LtMs, Ms 181, 1897, par. 6

We sorrowed much in being disappointed in our expectations of the Lord’s coming at the time expected, but we see now the great goodness of God. We may now use our every capability to present the Word of God to all parts of the world. Our missionaries are occupying new territory, for we are not to confine the truths to a narrow compass. All the features of our faith are to be given in foreign fields. 12LtMs, Ms 181, 1897, par. 7

*****

It is not wise for poor people to crowd into these wicked cities to make their home. It has been said that even in the neighborhood where we are, and in the country round about, all kinds of wickedness is practiced. That may be, for wicked people are found everywhere. No mountain home or secluded location in the bush or woods can enclose us from the enemy who found his entrance at the gates of Paradise. No seclusion from the companionship of the world can sanctify and cleanse from moral defilement of sin. 12LtMs, Ms 181, 1897, par. 8

The people of Nazareth had become proverbial for their wickedness. They were considered the worst of the people of Palestine. Yet Jesus made His home among the people of Nazareth for thirty years. He lived there unhonored and unknown—in a town from which it was thought a wonder if any possible good thing could come. This great and mighty work began there in that place of bad reputation. 12LtMs, Ms 181, 1897, par. 9

Christ was the mighty Worker to uplift and regenerate the whole human soul. He commenced amid moral darkness and misery, by becoming a citizen of that place. Thus He set His own feet upon the paths which the poor and neglected souls must tread. Thus the Light of the world pours contempt upon human pride of place, station, honor, and fame. 12LtMs, Ms 181, 1897, par. 10

He might have made His home in places of renown, but He did not, lest His followers who were compelled to live in these lowly places should frame an excuse for their sins and for their rough, hard, uncourteous characters. One who left the courts of heaven and took humanity upon Himself, to live out a pure human character, made His abode among those who were far down in the scale of popularity and morality, that He might demonstrate to the world that any place, however hard and lowly, if it is our post of duty, can be made honorable by our own fidelity. 12LtMs, Ms 181, 1897, par. 11