that some one did not come to him
for help for a loved one suffering from disease, but without means to
secure proper medical aid. Sick and poor--that is a condition which
sums up the height of human physical suffering--the body racked with
pain, burning with fever, yet day and night battling on in misery,
without medical aid, without nursing, without any of the comforts that
relieve pain. Nor is the sick one the only sufferer. Those who love
him endure the keenest mental anguish as they stand by helpless,
unable to raise a finger for his relief because they are poor. Through
the deep waters of both these experiences Dr. Conwell had himself
passed. He knew the anguish of heart of seeing loved ones suffer, of
being unable to secure for them the nourishing food, the care needed
to make them well. He knew the wretchedness of being sick and poor and
of not knowing which way to turn for help, while quivering flesh and
nerves called in torture for relief. His heart went out in burning
sympathy to all such cases that came to his knowledge, and generously
he helped. But they were far too many for one man, big-hearted and
open-handed as he might be. More and more the need of a hospital in
that part of the city was impressed upon him. Accidents among his
membership were numerous, yet the nearest hospital was blocks and
blocks away, a distance which meant precious minutes when with every
moment life was ebbing.

He laid the matter before his church people. Down through the
centuries came ringing in their ears that command, "Heal the sick."
They knew it was Christ's work--"Unto Him were brought all sick people
that were taken with divers diseases and he healed them."

So they decided to rent two rooms where the sick could be cared for,
and later built a hospital for the poor, where without money and
without price, the best medical aid, the tenderest nursing were at the
command of those in need.

"The Hospital was founded," says Dr. Conwell, "and this property
purchased in the hope that it would do Christ's work. Not simply to
heal for the sake of professional experience, not simply to cure
disease and repair broken bones, but to so do those charitable acts as
to enforce the truth Jesus taught, that God 'would not that any should
perish, but that all should come unto Him and live.' Soul and body,
both need the healing balm of Christianity. The Hospital modestly
and touchingly furnishes it to all classes, creeds, and ages whose
s