An Address Delivered in Union Church ata Special Hospital Service on Sunday, May 27, By Dr. James L, Maxwell For as much as ye did it My brethren, ye did it write Me—Matt. XXV, 5 nto ove of the least f theee The service for this evening has Yen arranged to give us an opportunity "of remembering the physical needs of those among whom we dwell in this great city. Phe first point that I want to insist pon is that the hospital is eseentinlly a Christian institution. Christ's pity for all who were waftering is so well-known that we hardly need to dwell on it. The very Large amount.of space given in the synoptic gospels to. the description of our Lord's works of healing, and the important position that they hold in St. John's gospel, all emphasize this, but there are we passages in. the gospels on which I should like particularly dwell, as proving this from Christ's own lips.
The first of these is the place given to the physical needs of man in. that prayer which we constantly repeat and which is associated +0 closely with His own name. T. herrd a sermon—and a very fine termon it was—some months ago on the Lord's Prayer, in which the reacher pasted almost without Hee over the petition in regard to physical needs, to dwell solely on the later petitions dealing with man's spiritual requirements, rather spoiled the sermon to. me. This is not Christ's order. "Give na this day our daily brand" comes before the ps foul; and that Christ deliberately 4nd purposely chose the order of His sentences there can be no doubt At all. The Apostle Paul, too, in that most sublime of all his writ-ngs; in his epistle to the Corinthing, bases one of his arguments the same thought; first the natural and then the spiritual, Spiritual Attributes In this complex nature of ours which makes up man, the physical side not only can not be disregarded ation its well-being largely depends the ability to appreciate and put in Sts supreme and proper position the spiritual "attributes. Christ knew very well what He was doing when the first petition of His prayer vesting to man referred to his bodily needs, which surely includes health well as mere food. The attempt to reveal Christ to those who are in Sgmorance of Him, and to. denionstrate the wonderful story of God's Jove which He came to bring, while at the same time neglecting the physical side of man, is a travesty <of the Gospel _as we have it in the written records of Christ's life, is Jargely doomed to failure, and youribly accounts not a litre for comparative failure in certain directions of recent years. For, in the early days, the Church qu recognized both its duty and privilege and this is why the hospital is essentially a Christ institution in its origin, A second point on which T want to dwell to-night is that, while we sony justly draw this. implication from the prayer which" Christ taught us, He actually went much further than this in His recorded teaching. You remember the story ¢f John the Baptist in prison, utter perplexed about the future and, 1 suppose, the failure of Christ to ive up to the Jewish tradition of 'What the Messiah should have been. Hie sends messengers to Christ to inquire whether after all Messiah or not and seek Mis proofs of His. mi remember, too, the remarkable way which' Christ dealt with there disciples of John. He gave them a eat in, if we may so call it, His wwutspatient department. He then sayrarently pays no. attention them, but goes on with His regular ork and what was thie? "Healing izing sight to the blind, reveal he sick, cleansing the lope ne
8 gospel as neither the people nor gospel of the love of God, such John's disciples had ever dreamed of. Then, finally, when, as we may oppose, the. crowds of sick were beginning to diminish, He terns John's disciples'and says to them: "You ask for signs and proofs of my ministry. Here are the proofs by which I am satisfied to be the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the Gospel is preached."
Hospitals and Christianity So through all the centuries since, the Church has given of ite substance and of its most devoted members to this Christlike work of healing the sick, til hospitals ha Tecome conterminous not only with Christianity but the wider spread of the Christian ethic where the direct relation with Church has ceared to exist. Again tals. are primarily stitution. The finest example that T know of the relation of the Church to the sick in earlier cemnries. is. that expressed in. the charge to those employed in St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, ju the ancient times. Tt was the Denutiful custom of the brethren and the sisters to see in the patient the direct representative of Chri and to call him "Master" or "Lord, no matter who he might be. The patients were sick persons found in the streets of the City, and all wounded or injured who chose to apply for relief. When the patient was brought in, the first thought of these good people was for the comfort of his soul. One of the directions th at having confessed his sing to the priest, he shall be communicated religious and, afterwards. be carried to his, bed' and be treated there as our Lord, according to the resources of the house; each day before the repast of the brethren, he shall be riven food with charity.
If we go back to our Lord's demonstration of His claims and purposes in the answer that He returned to the disciples of John the Baptist, we find that His' message closes with a very striking sentence '—to the poor the Gospel is preached, For a moment let us pauve to think what that gospel was and how it was preached (0 these crowds. The Gospel is pre-eminently the ood news of the love of God. Thix was not merely the message that He brought, but it was an entirely new one which could only possibly: express itself through the inearnatio And the fife of Christ on earth. Tt fs here that the Christian religion differs from every other veligion—that it tells of an incarnation express purpose was to reveal God to men—a revelation ly one sent Ju the express image of the Father Himself, who by His life on earth showed to us what the love of God is. This had been dimly figured in the pages of the Old Testament, but it was not till Christ Himself came that it was in any way fully revealed. What form did'that revelation take? In the good: providence of God, it took very largely. the form of the personal healing: touch to the blind, the deaf. the dumb, the leper, and the paralytic, and it was in and through this work that the good news of a full. salvation for body and soul alike was preached to the -poor.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.