Teachers Needed

The difficulty of obtaining physicians with a thorough scientific training and at the same time possessing the spiritual qualifications needed became more apparent as time went on. Today the Seventh-day Adventist denominational medical college may draw students from educational institutions where they have received a Christian training that tends to strengthen their desire to dedicate their lives to the work of the Lord. At that early time, however, the denominational system of Christian education was in its first stages of development.SHM 249.2

When, in 1876, Drs. J. H. Kellogg and Kate Lindsay, graduates from medical colleges where they had received the best training then available, joined the medical staff of the sanitarium, they brought to the institution not only an efficiency in therapeutic practice, but a zeal to make its work deeply spiritual. The same may be said of their associate, Dr. Phoebe Lamson, who had been there from the beginning.SHM 249.3

Steps were taken at once to give opportunity for other young men and women to obtain the necessary qualifications. As we have noted, the best they could do was to give them preliminary instruction in such subjects as anatomy, physiology, and chemistry, which were then accepted as a part of the medical course by well-recognized medical colleges. This instruction was frequently given by Dr. J. H. Kellogg, the energetic and tireless medical superintendent, at the close of a strenuous day of professional service, perhaps running into the late hours of the night. He unselfishly gave money and time in helping others to fit themselves for the medical profession. No less than twenty young men and young women were thus started during a decade after Dr. Kellogg’s own graduation.SHM 250.1