NO doubt it is the custom of ministers and God-fearing people in visiting Infirmaries and Hospitals to pray for the doctors, nurses and staff of these noble and useful institutions. It should never be forgotten that the setting up of these is due to the Christian faith. In time of War doctors and nurses are exposed to many dangers and in public and private prayers they should be remembered at a throne of grace as well as those who are nobly risking their lives for us on the sea and on the land and in the air. No one who has ever been under the care of nurses in our hospitals can ever forget their devotion to duty and their kindness to patients under their care. What a blessing converted doctors and nurses can be. Alas! that there are so few doctors who fear the Lord but we should be thankful that there are among doctors and nurses those who fear His name and are not ashamed of His Cross. These thoughts were suggested to us in reading a contribution to the Nursing Mirror an extract from which had been handed to us by a friend. The article describes the Christian atmosphere in the King George V. Hospital in Malta, which like so many other places of healing is now in ruins. This is what the writer says:—
“The publication in our Nursing Mirror of a speech entitled “The Nurses’ Testimony to a Living Faith,” by Sir William Dobbie, G.C.M.B., K.C.B., D.S.O., late Governor of Malta, G.C., especially the reference to the King George V. Hospital, has inspired me to add my testimony to the work of that noble institution. It may not be generally known that this hospital, now completely razed to the ground, which was administered by the Seamen’s Christian Friend Society Hospital Trust in London, was staffed by a band of Christian doctors and nurses, whose sole object was to be witnesses to the power and reality of a Living Faith in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, Whose they were, and very humbly sought to serve. The patients were mainly British residents of the island, as well as officers and men of the Merchant Navy; although people of other nationalities were frequently brought for treatment and care. For many years the nursing sisters conducted short prayers daily in each ward. These were carried on sometimes under great difficulties, right through the bombardment of the island until the building was destroyed in the early part of this year. It is worthy of record that not a single patient, or member of the staff was injured. In addition to ward prayers, the message of a Saviour’s love was simply told every “Sunday” morning in a spacious female ward, either by a member of the nursing staff, or one of the doctors. Once a month the Medical Superintendent (Lt.-Col. W. R. Battye, D.S.O., M.S., F.R.C.S.) gave a lantern talk to the male patients, where often six, seven or eight different countries were represented at the same time by their brave merchant seamen. Furthermore, both the medical and nursing staffs were deeply conscious of the fact that unity in the things which matter most brings strength, and that co-operation in the small details of daily routine brings harmony and happiness. In order that these qualities might be cultivated and maintained, a weekly prayer-meeting and Bible class was instituted. Here, in the power house of prayer, difficulties were met and overcome, problems solved, and faith laid hold of the Almighty Power of God for strength and courage, to be lived out in the wards, among the sick and suffering, during the long hours of a busy day, in a very trying climate. The seed thus sown has, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, been the means of untold blessing to many a needy soul. A cruel and relentless enemy has made this hospital in common with others, the object of his fury, but He who dwells in temples not made with hands will live on in the hearts and lives of those who in days gone by, have been healed in spirit as well as in body, within its noble precincts. And will He not again raise up from the ruins of its scarred and battered walls, a testimony even more worthy of Him who has proved Himself to the courageous inhabitants of the “George Cross Island?”