side and in fullest harmony, will each strengthen the work of the other. According to God's arithmetic, two are worth not merely twice as many as one, but ten times as many. "How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight?" (Deut. xxxii. 30.)

We wish to quote here the words of Professor Miller, in an address at one of the annual meetings of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society. He said :

"When we come before you with Scripture warrant on our side-with the personal example of our Lord and His Apostles not only beckoning us on, but reproving us for not having comewith the successful experience of medical missions, as far as they have yet been tried, speaking strongly in our favour, and with the united and cordial approval of every missionary with whom we have ever come in contact; when missionaries all tell us that they find the medical element so essential to the success of their work that they are compelled sometimes to practise it themselves; when labourers from all quarters of the mission-field, men gallantly bearing the burden and heat of the day, are calling to us anxiously for medical colleagues. not on account of their own health, but to assist them in their great work of reaching the hearts of men whose. souls they seek to save; and when, had we but the means and men, we might now plant, not one or two or three, but many Medical Missions in the very heart and strongholds of heathenism, where they would be gladly welcomed, and by-and-by supported to a considerable extent by the very heathen themselves; with such claims as these, surely it is neither unbecoming nor unwarrantable that we ask earnestly and importunately for your sympathy and aid. And bear with me, if I remind you that you have an important duty to discharge towards the medical profession, that you owe it a debt. Is there any one here who does not feel and acknowledge that debt? Has no father, or brother, or sister, or husband, or wife, or child, been saved to you, under God's providence, by the skill and care of the physician? At a time when all seemed dark and hopeless, and you dared not look into the future, at a time when the blackness of despair had settled down, and well-nigh shut out heaven from your sight and prayer from your lips, at

164

A Double Debt and Double Duty.

a time when you would gladly have given all the earthly treasure you possessed, or ever might possess, in barter for the life which seemed so fast and hopelessly ebbing away, has not the physician then seemed to you as a ministering angel sent to comfort you? Have you not then clung to him as your best earthly friend, your only earthly hope and stay? And when success attended his efforts in battling with disease and death, when life, and hope, and health came smiling back, have you not wet his hand with your tears of gratitude, and sent him away laden with your blessing and your prayers? Or was it your own life that was quivering in the balance at a time, perhaps, when a downward turn would have hazarded a double death, but when the upward cast, still due, apparently, to the hand of the physician, bade you live again for time and for eternity? Ah, then surely the argument we now venture to use will come home with a double force. Each one who has felt this, or aught like this, will surely acknowledge a large and growing debt of obligation. Let those debts be all accumulated into one vast whole, not due, or at least not to be rendered to the individual man, but to the God-like profession which they represent. The opportunity is given you to discharge in some measure that debt now.

"Honours, in old times, were freely accorded to individual practitioners of renown; medals were struck in their honour, bearing the legend 'ob cives servatos' (on account of citizens preserved). We seek no such personal gifts, but we ask you to honour the profession by helping it to honour and adorn itself, by helping it to write on the bells of the horses Holiness unto the Lord,' by helping it to be instrumental in saving the souls as well as the bodies of men, by helping it to place in its coronet new jewels of greatest value and of brightest lustre, by helping it to twine in its garland a new wreath from the ever-green and ever-growing plant of renown. And let me add that, in thus honouring the profession, you will honour also that profession's Head. Medicine has been at no time without her gods. The early Greeks owned Apollo; after him came Æsculapius; and gods and demigods followed in abundance. But the power of advancing civilization struck away those unsightly capitals from the otherwise goodly column; not to leave it mutilated and bare, but to make way for the true headstone, to exalt and acknowledge the great Physician, Jehovah Rophi, the Lord the healer-no mythical personage, but He who in very deed dwelt with men upon the earth, who went about continually doing good, and who has promised to be with His faithful followers alway, even unto the end of the world.

"Such is the double debt and double duty which we ask you now in part, at least, to discharge. But do not mistake the nature of the claim which we make. We seek your pecuniary aid to carry on this great and noble enterprise so beneficent to men, so glorifying to God; but we do not want your money only. Your money or

A Startling Demand.

165 your life' is the startling demand of the highwayman; ours is more startling still— 'Your money and your life.' Of some select, gifted, and gallant few, we seek their lives, wholly devoted to the death if need be, in the service of their great Master. But of all, we seek their life in one sense, in the sense of claiming that on which true life depends, that whereby spiritual life is fed and maintained, without which it dies, prayer--intercession at the Throne of Grace! . . . And if it be true that the deadly conflict is now at hand between truth and error, between the powers of light and the powers of darkness, if the time is now near when we shall be involved as combatants for very life in that eventful struggle, how can we look for Heaven's aid, how dare we ask it, unless we be on Heaven's side, and doing the will of Him who sits almighty there? How can we, in the shock of the coming battle, and in the turmoil of the approaching fray, be otherwise than helpless and overborne, unless, as faithful soldiers of the Cross, we be found mustered around and fighting under the banner of the Captain of the hosts of the Lord, following where that banner leads, losing neither sight nor hold of it-the banner of Him, whose latest command it was, whose very watchword of the fight is, Go ye unto all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.'

"And He sent them to preach the Kingdom of God, and to heal the sick . . And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the Gospel and healing everywhere.'" (Luke ix. 2-6.)

By cam' a minister o' the kirk: "A sair mishanter!" he cried;
"Wha kens whaur the villains may lurk? I's haud to the ither side.'

By cam' an elder o' the kirk; Like a young horse he shied;
"Fie! there's a bonny mornin's wark!" An' he spang't to the ither side.

By cam' ane gaed to the wrang kirk, Douce he trotted alang;
"Puir body!" he cried, an' wi' a yerk, Aff o' his cuddy he sprang;

He ran to the body an' turn'd it ower, "There's life i' the man!" he cried;
He wasna ane to stan' an' glower, An' haud to the ither side.

He doctor'd his wounds an' heised him on To the back of the beasty douce;
An' held him there, till, a weary man, He 1 ngt at the half-way house.

He ten'd him a' nicht, an' at dawn o' day, "Lan'lord" (he says) "latna him lack;
There's auchtecnpence; ony mair ootlay I'll sattle as I come back."

Sae nae mair, neibors-say nae sic word, Wi' hert ave arguin' an' chill;
No, "Whae's the neibor to me, O Lord?" But, "Wha am I neiber till?"