A sermon on the moral responsibility of physicians : addressed to the medical students of Philadelphia on Sunday evening, Feb. 6th, 1848 / by Joel Parker.

  • Parker, Joel, 1799-1873.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A sermon on the moral responsibility of physicians : addressed to the medical students of Philadelphia on Sunday evening, Feb. 6th, 1848 / by Joel Parker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    SERMON. Physician heal thyself —Luke iv, 23. This brief aphoristic saying is one of a number of instances in which our Savior compares the functions of the spiritual teacher to those of the professor of the healing art. The reasons for such a comparison are obvious and striking. There is a peculiar analogy between them. Both aim at bene- fitting the persons of men. Neither the Clergyman nor the Physician, have anything to do directly with the estates, the social position, or the political relations of their fellow citizens. In their professional capacity they propose to exert no direct in- fluence, except upon the persons of those to whom they stand in the relations respectively of Pastor and Physician. They both aim also, primarily, at correeting deranged action in the human system. Their chief business is cure. True, both have something to do with the preservation of health.' But there would be no call for such a profession as that of medicine if men were never sick. There would be no need of the clerical office, if our moral nature were not diseased. The primary object, then, of these two professions, is to heal human maladies. They might be advantageously united in one as in Luke the beloved Physician. But division of labor is indispensable to a high de- gree of culture and the advancement of every art and profession. Physiology and the healing of bodily diseases are the study and labor of the physician. Psycology, and the cure of souls are the things which chiefly demand the attention of the clergy-