PREFACE This little volume has been written primarily to provide an outline of Radical iIussions, for the use of students and young people in Missionary Study Classes. There has also been kept in mind the far larger circle of Christian people whose interest in the work of Rlissionary Medicine has been limited by their scanty information on the subject. It is not such a book as would be read aloud, for instance, at a womens sewing meeting, but it is rather intended for study and individual perusal. Its aim is to present facts that ought to be pondered in the hearts of Christian men and women in the Church of Christ, and the subject makes a special claim upon the consideration of those who are members of the medical and nursing professions. There is no choice on medical missions, unless we ex- cept the Gospels. There is need of one. No one, for instance, has, as far as we are aware, worked out at all fully the psychological aspects of the subject. In the standard works on psychology, we have been able to discover but little dealing with the psychology of the religious emotions which were generated in the hearts of men and women through the touch of Christ. Artists and poets, with their intuitive perceptions, almost always tell of personal contact between the Saviour and those healed. Though not apparently bearing much on the actual claims that suffering makes on the medical profession, this would be the nearest approximation to a classic - be at least an interesting as well as a valuable scientific contribution to the subject. Somewhat more has appeared in the realm of Sociology and the wider influence upon public life that medical missions have had. Dr. James S. Denniss uilsurassed work on Christian missions and Social Progress gives an important section to the consideration of this topic. There is great need for some work which would Co-ordinate the fast accumulating material on Medical missions in periodical literature, and marshal its principles and practices into a harmonious whole. As a test-book, this is necessarily but a meager outline of the subject. The argument from Scripture we have taken for granted throughout. It is a topic which has received generous treatment at the hands of other writers, and therefore did not seem to demand the emphasis that has been laid on other less frequently noticed aspects. Our warmest thanks are due to Dr. James S. Dennis for his valuable assistance and suggestions as well as for permission to use the statistics given on page eighty-nine.