The missionary societies ought not to take upon themselves the supply of every need.  We think the Christian Church is misled when it allows the medical need of a country to be presented as a distinct need which it is the duty of missionaries to meet, and when it allows the ignorance of a country to be presented as a distinct need which it is the duty of missionaries to meet.  From such a presentation educational missions become detached, medical missions become detached, each designed to meet a distinct and separate need of the people.

[Footnote 1:  If any reader experiences a revulsion at this expression, he will know at once what we mean when we say that a distinction has been drawn between evangelistic, medical, and educational missions as though they were three co-equal and separate things.  They are not co-equal and they ought not to be separate.  Education does not necessarily reveal Christ, medical science does not necessarily reveal Christ, only as education and medicine assist the revelation of Christ are they proper subjects for Christian missionary enterprise, that is, only when they are clearly and unmistakably subordinate to an evangelistic purpose.  Of course we do not undervalue medical and educational efficiency:  efficiency should increase evangelistic power.]

One result of the sharp distinction which is drawn between medical and educational and evangelistic work is that in some countries there are distinct medical and educational associations which collect information about the state of medical and educational missions in the country, dealing with these missionary activities most prominently, if not wholly, from the point of view of medical and educational efficiency.  These associations issue questionnaires and publish reports often more full, detailed, and carefully compiled than any evangelistic reports.  Consequently it is peculiarly dangerous for a layman unacquainted with the working of these associations to trespass upon their preserves.  These departmental surveys should be treated separately by experts.  Nevertheless, since we are dealing with the work of the station in its area, and this work includes often medical and educational work, we cannot pass over it with no more than the general treatment which we have hitherto given.  We need to know what is the medical and what the educational work carried on at the station, when these are viewed, as they are viewed, separately, as distinct expressions of missionary zeal.

Dealing first with medical missions we suppose that the question might be put in this form, What are the medical missionary resources available in the district in relation to the need which it is proposed to meet?