the doctor who persistently follows this plan will find the knowledge of the people and their customs increasing, useful words and phrases will be added to his vocabulary, and he will be gathering new and pertinent illustrations that will give point and power to his preaching.

II. Follow-up work for those patients living at a distance, but in a locality where there are missionaries, will be done most satisfactorily in most cases by letter writing. When the patient is leaving, tell him about the Gospel hall in his city, or near his home; urge him to go to it and give him a letter of introduction to the missionary. In addition, be sure to write another letter to the missionary promptly and send it to him by post. In this letter give any helpful information about the patient and any facts which will help to stir up the missionary's interest in the case. This letter may be followed up by a letter of enquiry a few months later, at which time a letter may be written to the patient also.

III. Follow-up work for patients from distant places where there are no missionaries. For this class of patients,

To add to the pleasure,

visitation easily takes first place. thoroughness and effectiveness of this method a book of itineraries should be kept. Look in any of our home magazines and see the scores of attractive advertisements of carefully prepared itineraries for vacation trips to all parts of the world. What time and thought, what map hunting, what reading have been invested in the preparation of these itineraries! Shall we work with less earnestness, enthusiasm, and care in the preparation of itineraries that will make possible the more thorough delivery of the great message entrusted to us? A few pages of this book of itineraries should be assigned to each main road leading out of the city, and these pages divided up into five or ten li sections, covering say one hundred li in each direction, with each section headed by the name of the town, village, or market at that point.

By the use of the excellent provincial maps now to be had, and an occasional visit to the chair and coolie hongs near the city gates, a most accurate book may be compiled. In the proper section of this book the names of patients who manifest some interest and with whom we wish to keep in touch, may be entered. Before long the book will contain a list of names of grateful patients living along each main road, and the

doctor will be ready for his follow-up journeys. As he travels slowly from his centre to some objective point fifty or a hundred li distant he will be able to have a series of visits and personal talks with his old patients scattered along the way, and they will be glad to help him arrange for a number of clinics and Gospel meetings to be held in various centres on his return journey. If any doctor thinks that he is too busy for such journeys let him look at the splendid report of Dr. Cole, of Ningpo. Dr. Cole, with a record of 11,851 outpatients, 636 in-patients, and 193 operations under anesthetic for 1908, made nine visits to a city ten miles distant, and during these visits treated over eight hunderd patients, besides holding Gospel meetings.

In some cases it may be best to turn over the list of patients on certain roads to missionaries of other societies who are travelling frequently on those roads and ask them to look up the patients and minister to their spiritual needs, asking them also to report any facts of unusual interest in connection with the patients, and especially the conversion of any of them. It is in connection with this branch of follow-up work that the card index system of hospital records shows some of its great advantages over the old book records. Each patient has a case card, and these cards are arranged in numerical order; the corresponding name cards being arranged in dictionary order. In the book of itineraries the name and number of the patient are entered, then in preparing for a journey it is only the work of a few minutes to pick out the case cards of all the patients living along the road over which the doctor is planning his journey. These cards can be placed in a canvas case prepared for the purpose and taken along on the trip. Any interesting conversations or experiences with the patients can be recorded on these cards, and a cross put by the patient's name in the book of itineraries as an indication that the man has been visited and that some matter of interest has been recorded. A different sign should be used for each succeeding journey, as a square, a triangle, a dagger, etc., etc., so that at a glance the doctor can tell just how many patients have been seen on each journey and how many times the patients have been seen on the successive journeys, while for fuller information regarding any patient or any visit he can refer instantly to the case cards.

Another valuable method for this class of patients has been referred to briefly under class II, namely, letter writing.

The Chinese greatly appreciate letters, and one or two letters a year to picked men are sure to be welcomed heartily and to yield fruit to His glory. Rev. D. M. Stearns, a busy pastor in Germantown, Philadelphia, in addition to his church work, literary work, and 359 Bible classes in several cities involving 22,000 miles of travel, wrote four thousand letters in 1908. At the same time a demonstration of what a busy man can do and a proof of the value placed on letter writing by an experienced and successful worker for Christ.

Some years ago a young man who had never heard a word of the Gospel came to the writer for surgical help. Before leaving for his home he gave his heart to Christ. He has paid one return visit to the hospital, and a correspondence has been kept up all these years. He is to-day an evangelist in a

neighboring province.

The last to be mentioned and the most comprehensive method of follow-up work is prayer. What an example Paul has left us of deep personal interest in, and earnest continuing prayer for, those with whom the Holy Spirit had brought him in contact. Again the writer would suggest a little book, a prayer book. On each page enter the name of one patient, also his case number and date of arrival at the hospital. Reserve the balance of the page for future notes. If the names are entered prayerfully and thoughtfully, only those being put down for whom God has given a special burden of prayer, and then, if the prayers are continued with faith and expectation, the little book will become an increasingly joyous record of the victory of faith and of men and women brought into the fellowship of God and of His Son, Jesus Christ.

The doctor who sees a hundred patients daily cannot hope, in the majority of the cases, to follow up his dispensary and ward work by personal contact. But it is a great comfort and joy to know that he can follow up the seed sown in each heart by prayer, and he must be ever grateful that Mark recorded that precious parable of our Master's: "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed upon the earth, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, he knoweth not how." God has made us His "fellow-workers," it is for us to sow the seed and water it too, but it is "God that giveth the increase," and this increase He surely will give in response to faithful service and believing prayer.

I

The Qualifications of the Medical Missionary

BY W. A. TATCHELL, M. R. C. S., L. R. C. P.

T is interesting to note that when foreign medical work was begun in China, it was not strictly in a missionary sense. In 1820 Dr. Livingstone, of the East India Company, was impressed with the great suffering among the natives, and, with the aid of Robert Morrison as translator, and later of Gutzlaff, opened a dispensary. This purely philanthropic work he carried on for a number of years. The first to attempt the work involved in the dual office of healing and preaching was the Rev. Peter Parker, M.D., who was soon followed by William Lockhart and others, whose names we delight to honour. In 1890 there were about two hundred physicians in the China mission field, and the census of 1908 shows a grand total of eight hundred Protestant medical missionaries at work in the empire. There can be no doubt that this marked increase is due largely to the Student Volunteer Movement, whose representatives are to be found in almost every country in the world.

In reviewing the present condition of medical work and workers in China, we will consider what ought, in our opinion, to be the qualifications of the medical missionary if this work is to be continued in a manner worthy of those who in the past have given their lives in making straight the crooked place and in making smoother the rough roads along which we to-day travel. Above and beyond all, to contemplate what

manner of men and women we must be if we are to follow the high calling of healing the sick in this land and saying to them: The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

THE MAN.

The foremost qualification for anyone who undertakes this vocation, is that he or she should be a sincere and earnest follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Such a statement might at first appear superfluous. As we have perused the brief biographical sketches of medical missionaries, too often have we been impressed by the reading of concise sentences such as, "He returned home after a year or two," or else, "He left the mission and became engaged in private practice." Exactly, that is what one would expect when we consider the motives

which too often actuated the home boards in the discharge of their sacred duties. Their ideal of a medical missionary appears to have been that he or she should act as pioneers in the opening of difficult doors, breaking down superstition, or else to act as auxiliaries to the evangelistic work. instances they certainly secured the type of candidates which they sought. But like many other things in life, it has taken many years for the development of the true ideal as to the character of the medical missionary.

In many

The true medical missionary is first and foremost a "missionary." He is not "engaged," but thrust forth by that same impelling power which "thrust forth," our Lord and Master into the wilderness after His baptism at the commencement of His public ministry. He is as truly "called" of God as was Paul to preach to the gentiles. Being certain that he is divinely "called," and that it is no mere passing emotion, he goes forth at his Lord's command, "counting not the cost," to "spend and be spent" in the only sphere possible wherein he could possibly be at peace with God. 'True, most of his work will be what is termed secular and routine, but that should be the greater reason why he ought to be furnished unto every good work and be familiar with all the strength and stimuli which alone can be obtained from a life hid with Christ in God.

THE WORK.

(1). It is Spiritual.-In a recent issue of The Lancet there appeared an interesting article on medical missions. It painted in language of varying hue the attractions which foreign countries-especially China-offered to the young medico who was in search of professional experience. It stated that many missionary societies were ever anxious to enlist the services of such young men and women. It was pointed out that those recently qualified might do worse than spend a few years in a foreign land under the auspices of a mission board before settling down in private practice in the home land. Whoever may have been the writer, he was evidently playing a travesty upon the supreme object of medical missions. His views somewhat coincide with what Li Hung-chang once wrote: "Confucianism is good enough for the souls of the Chinese, but Christians know more about their bodies." "I hope," he continued, "you will send out a great many more medical missionaries."