told us that he had
met few missionary doctors who could answer the question: "On the basis
of what facts ought the question of the establishment of a hospital to
be decided?" Few could tell him whether in sending doctors the
missionary societies ought to consider the duty of caring for the
health of their missionaries first or last. Few could tell him whether
the care of the health of the children in schools and institutions was
the first duty, or the last, or any duty at all, of the medical
missionary. Yet obviously, those two points if they were once admitted
would influence largely the location of doctors and hospitals. Again, we
hear it argued that missionary societies ought to establish medical
schools, hospitals, and institutions of the finest possible type in
order to show how the thing really ought to be done, to demonstrate the
very best example of western medical work, and to train natives to a
western efficiency. That would not only influence the location of
doctors and hospitals, it would also affect the character of the
buildings and would demand a special type of medical missionary. Or
again, we hear it argued that medical missions are the point of the
missionary sword; but if it is the point of the sword then it ought to
be in front of the blade. That, too, would direct the location of the
doctors and hospitals. It would also affect the character of the
building unless the missionary sword is to become an immovable object,
which having once cleft a rock remains fast in the breach until a
God-sent hero, like King Arthur, appears to pull it out and set it to
work again. We cannot state all the different aims. They are not simple
and formulated; they are complex and confused. Very often the
establishment of a medical mission turns upon no more thorough
examination of the facts of the situation than the conviction of a
capable missionary that there is need for medical work in his district,
and that he must supply it if he can, and that he must persevere in
appeals till he can supply it. When a man asks: "On the basis of what
facts ought this or that to be done in the mission field?" he has got a
long way into the complexity of the problem, and the need for survey, if
a society is to act with wisdom, is already apparent to him. But most
men in the past have acted simply, without much argument: they said,
"Here is a need; I can supply it," and the societies were the feeders of
such men. Naturally. So one hospi