The Water of Life and Other Sermons | Page 7

suffer! They preach to the poor that they are, through Christianity, the
equals of the rich in their means and opportunities of cure. I say

through Christianity. Whether the founders so intended or not (and
those who founded most of them, St. George's among the rest, did so
intend), these hospitals bear direct witness for Christ. They do this, and
would do it, even if--which God forbid--the name of Christ were never
mentioned within their walls. That may seem a paradox; but it is none.
For it is a historic fact, that hospitals are a creation of Christian times,
and of Christian men. The heathen knew them not. In that great city of
ancient Rome, as far as I have ever been able to discover, there was not
a single hospital,--not even, I fear, a single charitable institution.
Fearful thought--a city of a million and a half inhabitants, the centre of
human civilization: and not a hospital there! The Roman Dives paid his
physician; the Roman Lazarus literally lay at his gate full of sores, till
he died the death of the street dogs which licked those sores, and was
carried forth to be thrust under ground awhile, till the same dogs came
to quarrel over his bones. The misery and helplessness of the lower
classes in the great cities of the Roman empire, till the Church of Christ
arose, literally with healing in its wings, cannot, I believe, be
exaggerated.
Eastern piety, meanwhile, especially among the Hindoos, had founded
hospitals, in the old meaning of that word--namely, almshouses for the
infirm and aged: but I believe there is no record of hospitals, like our
modern ones, for the cure of disease, till Christianity spread over the
Western world.
And why? Because then first men began to feel the mighty truth
contained in the text. If Christ were a healer, His servants must be
healers likewise. If Christ regarded physical evil as a direct evil, so
must they. If Christ fought against it with all His power, so must they,
with such power as He revealed to them. And so arose exclusively in
the Christian mind, a feeling not only of the nobleness of the healing art,
but of the religious duty of exercising that art on every human being
who needed it; and hospitals are to be counted, as a historic fact, among
the many triumphs of the Gospel.
If there be any one--especially a working man--in this church this day
who is inclined to undervalue the Bible and Christianity, let him know

that, but for the Bible and Christianity, he has not the slightest reason to
believe that there would have been at this moment a hospital in London
to receive him and his in the hour of sickness or disabling accident, and
to lavish on him there, unpaid as the light and air of God outside, every
resource of science, care, generosity, and tenderness, simply because he
is a human being. Yes; truly catholic are these hospitals,--catholic as
the bounty of our heavenly Father,--without respect of persons, giving
to all liberally and upbraiding not, like Him in whom all live, and move,
and have their being; witnesses better than all our sermons for the
universal bounty and tolerance of that heavenly Father who causes the
sun to shine on the evil and the good, and his rain to fall upon the just
and on the unjust, and is perfect in this, that He is good to the
unthankful and the evil.
And, therefore, the preacher can urge his countrymen, let their opinions,
creed, tastes, be what they may, to support hospitals with especial
freedom, earnestness, and confidence. Heaven forbid that I should
undervalue any charitable institution whatever. May God's blessing be
on them all. But this I have a right to say,--that whatever objections,
suspicions, prejudices there may be concerning any other form of
charity, concerning hospitals there can be none. Every farthing
bestowed on them must go toward the direct doing of good. There is no
fear in them of waste, of misapplication of funds, of private jobbery, of
ulterior and unavowed objects. Palpable and unmistakeable good is all
they do and all they can do. And he who gives to a hospital has the
comfort of knowing that he is bestowing a direct blessing on the bodies
of his fellow-men; and it may be on their souls likewise.
For I have said that these hospitals witness silently for God and for
Christ; and I must believe that that silent witness is not lost on the
minds of thousands who enter them. It sinks in,--all the more readily
because it is not thrust upon them,--and softens and breaks up their
hearts to receive the precious seed of the word of God. Many a man,
too ready from bitter