Religion Of The Cross

Paul Brand, a medical doctor, has co-authored a best-selling book described as “an adventure of mind and spirit.”1 In it, Dr. Brand states that for some time his family had applied considerable pressure on him to enter medical school. And for some time, he resisted all such efforts. “I don’t want to be a doctor, I don’t like medical work,” he told his mother. Among other objections, he was repulsed by the sight of blood. Then, five years later, as part of a course in hygiene he was taking, he was assigned to a London Hospital to learn such things as how to apply surgical dressings. During one evening of this assignment his whole view of medicine — and blood — permanently shifted. In the doctor’s own words …

That night, hospital orderlies wheeled a beautiful young accident victim into my ward. Loss of blood had given her skin an unearthly paleness. Oxygen starvation had shut down her brain into a state of unconsciousness. A…