Is it possible for the physician to be the instrument of God, without being "Christian"?

Yes, I think it is. He can mechanically perform his duties without feeling—and feeling is the key to Christian expression. The physician has the greatest opportunity to demonstrate his Christianity in the areas which need kindness, sympathy, understanding and compassion. Compassion is, perhaps, the most important because compassion is sympathy with the desire to help.

The areas? Well, there are the people who, because of poverty and ignorance, need to be taught the rudiments of healthful living! They need to be guided to the places where health facilities are free or low cost. These could be some Puerto Ricans with a language barrier or ill-schooled, money-pinched Negroes from the South or anybody who fits this need. The doctor will, in some cases as determined, treat without charge and receive in good feeling more than a fee would bring.

There are the unmarried mothers, often with family and the world arrayed against them, who need understanding.

There are delinquents, orphans of broken homes.

There are people with cancer, the killer who walks into your life with quiet foot steps. After the diagnosis of cancer is made, the physician has need of all his tact and ingenuity—and Christianity. If the patient does not know the nature of his illness, how best to tell him? Should he tell him right away? Or should he wait? Which choice will give him the least hurt? How to give him hope, when there is no hope?

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