Testimony Treasures, Volume 2 - Ellen G. White

patients to Christ, the Chief Physician. If he has the Saviour abiding in his
own heart, his thoughts will ever be directed to the Healer of soul and body.
He will lead the minds of sufferers to Him who can restore, who when on
earth restored the sick to health and healed the soul as well as the body,
saying: "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." Mark 2:5.
Never should familiarity with suffering cause the physician to become
careless or unsympathetic. In cases of dangerous illness the afflicted one
feels that he is at the mercy of the physician. He looks to that physician as
his only earthly hope, and the physician should ever point the trembling soul
to One who is greater than himself, even the Son of God, who gave His life
to save him from death, who pities the sufferer, and who by His divine power
will give skill and wisdom to all who ask Him.
When the patient knows not how his case will turn, is the time for the
physician to impress the mind. He should not do this with a desire to
distinguish himself, but that he may point the soul to Christ as a personal
Saviour. If the life is spared, there is a soul for that physician to watch for.
The patient feels that the physician is the very life of his life. And to what
purpose should this great confidence be employed? Always to win a soul to
Christ and magnify the power of God.
When the crisis has passed and success is apparent, be the patient a
believer or an unbeliever, let a few moments be spent with him in prayer.
Give expression to your thankfulness for the life that has been spared. The
physician who follows such a course carries his patient to the One upon
whom he is dependent for life. Words of gratitude may flow from the patient
to the physician, for through God he has bound this life up with his own; but
let the praise and thanksgiving be given to God as to One who is present
though invisible.
On the sickbed Christ is often accepted and confessed; and this will be
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