both to Time and to Eternity. God's Providence and God's Spirit are ever dealing with them. Constant and loud is the entreaty-"Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die?". -"Turn yourselves, and live ye!”1 Ye know how frail and futile are all earthly holds ; how vain and deceitful all earthly hopes; how false and unsatisfying all earthly pleasures. Ye know that man has here no "continuing city;"-that even if he could, it were not well that he should "live alway." And who so well as ye should know the wisdom of seeking that other life-the "life for evermore ;" the safety of making for that better city, "which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God?"2

And responsibility stops not at themselves. Having become Christians, they find it at once their privilege and their duty to become Christianizers too. A privilege-for thus only can they satisfy that burning desire which else consumes them, to make known and convey to others the blessings they have themselves received. And a solemn duty-inasmuch as God has

1 Ezekiel xxxiii. 11; xviii. 32.

2" If an undevout astronomer be mad, how much more mad the educated and instructed, but undevout practitioner, to whom God's handiwork is revealed, and the operations of infinite wisdom are laid open in the living creation, and especially in man, the image of God?"— British and Foreign Medico-Chir. Review, No. III., p. 5.

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22

THE PHYSICIAN'S OPPORTUNITY.

given to them, more than to perhaps any other class of men, many and invaluable opportunities of advancing His glory and doing His will, in the salvation of lost souls-perishing, and yet immortal.

It is commonly said that "man's extremity is God's opportunity." The heart is soft in sickness, and impressible; and the soul, awakened, seeks earnestly for hope and comfort then. The faithful pastor is perhaps little less successful in turning souls to Christ by his ministrations in the sick-room, than by those of the pulpit; and the faithful physician, too, can look back, with thankfulness, to many happy times, when with one hand he healed and soothed the body, and with the other guided the soul heavenward and home. Conversion may come mysteriously and softly, as the breeze-no man knowing whence it cometh, or whither it goeth; at other times, it is dated back to special Providences, in perils and escape. But, oh! how often is it referred, with adoring gratitude, to some lingering disease, or sudden and sore sickness? It is in the fear of death and judgment that conscience regains its power, and speaks for God. Memory upbraids, and conviction grows deeper and darker: but memory alone will never bring relief; news, good news, is eagerly sought-news of hope and salvation. Then is the sowing time, while the earth is

soft and open, and watered by the tears of penitence. Then is it that the smitten patient clings with childlike confidence to the physician; and hanging life upon his looks and lips, implores his aid. Then is it that he, sad and sorrowful, his best skill baffled, and himself bereft of all hope of cure, yet rejoices in being able to say-"One thing more I can do; it is the sure prescription-believe and live!" Then is it that in the deep furrow of affliction, the good seed may be by his hand hopefully laid. Nourished by the dews of the Holy Spirit, and warmed by the rays of God's love, it takes deep root, springs up, and bears fruit to the praise and glory of His name.

And still duty and responsibility rest not here. Are the hearts of the distant heathen less impressible than our own? Are their souls less precious in the sight of God? Are there not among them the same opportunities, with a still more urgent need? And, when these are improved, may we not expect, with God's favour, the same blessed and glorious results? Think of the many millions fast chasing each other to the grave. And of these, what a fearful multitude perish eternally! Yes; however hard the thought for the natural heart of man, there is no salvation out of Jesus Christ. But "how shall they call on Him on whom they have not believed? and how can they believe on Him of whom they have not

heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher ?" We cannot question the sovereignty of God. We submit in silent and reverential awe. Man's wisdom is but folly; far too limited, and far too weak, to comprehend the plans of the Almighty"the secret things which belong unto the Lord our God." But, while we bless Him that we ourselves dwell in gospel light and liberty, surely it becomes us well to consider whether we are not called upon, as instruments in His hands, to seek to lessen, even by one unit, the ghastly number of those whom day by day the grave closes over, doomed to the second death. Spiritually, they are dying and dead. Morally, their very virtues are vice. Intellectually, they are uncultivated, feeble, and depraved. Socially, they are but little removed above the beasts that perish. Their bodies are peculiarly the prey of sickness; and their flesh, as if not racked enough by disease, is maimed and torn in their socalled religious rites. Loss of sight is proverbially common; "the blind crowd their streets." Fever, dysentery, small-pox, and other acute disorders, count their victims not by hundreds but by thousands.2 Deaths of mothers in child-bed are beyond all European precedent; averaging as high as four

1 Rom. x. 14.

2 Presbyterian Review, No. XII., pp. 363, 364.

or five in twenty. Children are in hundreds immolated to idols; the rest are drugged and narcotized; and tetanus, fever, and marasmus, sweep them away. If remedial aid is sought, it comes in a more than questionable shape. "The Brahmin priest chokes often the sick Hindoo with handfuls of the mud of the Ganges; some are burned, and others are buried alive, who, with care and skill in the treatment, might have speedily recovered. At times the enfeebled, the aged, and the dying, are brought to the banks of the sacred river, and there exposed to the burning sun; the mouth and nostrils are filled with mire; or the wretched sufferers are held up in the river, and water is poured down their throats until they expire; or they are left naked to be tormented by clouds of insects, which soon cover them. No entreaties of the wretched invalid are regarded by his murderous relations. Should he survive after being left for dead, he is beaten down with a hatchet or other weapon." The American Indian, with a kinder hand, decoys the aged and the sick into fastnesses and wilds; deserts them there, on very purpose to die, unaided and unseen; and heaps of whitening bones, bleached in the winds of Heaven, remain sad memorials

Claims of Missionary Enterprise, by Dr. Macgowan, p. 17.

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