The conditions of the life were onerous,
the existing traffic in spirituous liquors and in all other
demoralizing influences had to be fought step by step, prejudice and
evil habit had to be overcome and to be replaced by better knowledge
and better desire, there was room for both fighting and teaching, and
the medical mission won its way. "When you set out to commend your
gospel to men who don't want it, there's only one way to go about
it,--to do something for them that they'll be sure to understand. The
message of love that was 'made flesh and dwelt amongst men' must be
reincarnate in our lives if it is to be received to-day." Thus came
about the outfitting of the Albert hospital-ship to carry the message
and the help, by cruising among the fleets on the fishing-grounds,
and the organization of the Deep Sea Mission; when this work was done,
"when the fight had gone out of it," Dr. Grenfell looked for another
field, for yet another need, and found it on that barren and
inhospitable coast the Labrador, whose only harvest field is the sea.
Six hundred miles of almost barren rock with outlying uncharted
ledges,--worn smooth by ice, else still more vessels would have found
wreckage there; a scant, constant population of hardy fishermen and
their families, pious and God-fearing, most of them, but largely at
the mercy of the local traders, who took their pay in fish for the
bare necessities of living, with a large account always on the
trader's side; with such medical aid and ministration as came only
occasionally, by the infrequent mail boat, and not at all in the long
winter months when the coast was firm beset with ice,--to such a place
came Dr.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25