in his ministry to the sick that people felt especially a
certain grace in his faith. He carried about with him "the medicine of a
merry heart," and patients wanted to see him. He was a door through
which a person passed to a deeper consciousness of the mystery and
greatness of life and the infinities which brood over it. Therefore, his
ministry to the sick commended itself to an unusual degree. One of the
leading surgeons of Cincinnati, Dr. J. Louis Ransohoff, declared it his
firm conviction that Frank Nelson gave a patient a double chance. Few
ministers are welcomed by the medical profession in as intimate a role
as this pastor took upon himself. Well known in Cincinnati is the story
of his entering a Roman Catholic Hospital to be greeted by the Mother
Superior with a hearty "Good-morning, Father Nelson," and the Jewish
surgeon, "Good-morning, Rabbi Nelson," while the parishioner-patient
said, "Good-morning, Mr. Nelson." His presence calmed panic-stricken
patients, and if he had sought to carry further along this line, there
are those who felt that he could easily have established a clinic or
healing class. Of no end are those who maintained that they could not
have undergone an operation without his standing beside them. Because he
cared he often came out haggard and worn. Such incidents are revealing
examples of the acceptance on the part of a large portion of the entire
city of the ministry of one who was utterly sincere, utterly genuine.
Those who follow the same calling must with pride point to him as
superbly a man of God.

Frank Nelson was held in the highest respect by the medical profession
because physicians generally felt, in the words of Dr. Ransohoff, that
"his life had a spiritual significance; there was no cant, only
humility." Sometimes he walked to the operating room beside a fearful
patient, and one man later said, "Something came through him to me. The
fear was gone." He often went with parishioners to a doctor's office,
and sent hundreds of others giving them an infinite amount of time and
thought. Because of Frank Nelson the name "Christ Church" was an open
sesame for all the little-known workers and assistants on the staff of
the church. For these countless favors he frequently expressed publicly
his gratitude saying, "We very often have need of the help of lawyers,
doctors and nurses. And we never appeal in vain. Without thought of any
return the doctors and lawyers of the city, the hospitals, an