of seeing loved ones suffer, of being unable to secure for them the nourishing food, the care needed to make them well.  He knew the wretchedness of being sick and poor and of not knowing which way to turn for help, while quivering flesh and nerves called in torture for relief.  His heart went out in burning sympathy to all such cases that came to his knowledge, and generously he helped.  But they were far too many for one man, big-hearted and open-handed as he might be.  More and more the need of a hospital in that part of the city was impressed upon him.  Accidents among his membership were numerous, yet the nearest hospital was blocks and blocks away, a distance which meant precious minutes when with every moment life was ebbing.

He laid the matter before his church people.  Down through the centuries came ringing in their ears that command, “Heal the sick.”  They knew it was Christ’s work—­“Unto Him were brought all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and he healed them.”

So they decided to rent two rooms where the sick could be cared for, and later built a hospital for the poor, where without money and without price, the best medical aid, the tenderest nursing were at the command of those in need.

“The Hospital was founded,” says Dr. Conwell, “and this property purchased in the hope that it would do Christ’s work.  Not simply to heal for the sake of professional experience, not simply to cure disease and repair broken bones, but to so do those charitable acts as to enforce the truth Jesus taught, that God ’would not that any should perish, but that all should come unto Him and live.’  Soul and body, both need the healing balm of Christianity.  The Hospital modestly and touchingly furnishes it to all classes, creeds, and ages whose sufferings cause them to cry out, ‘Have mercy on me!’”

So far as buildings were concerned, it began in a small way, though its spirit of kindness and Christian charity was large.  After one year in rented rooms, a house was purchased on North Broad Street, near Ontario Street, and fitted up as a hospital with wards, operating room and dispensary.  It was situated just where a network of railroads focuses and near a number of large factories and machine shops, where accidents were occurring constantly.  Almost immediately its wards were filled.  The name “Samaritan Hospital” was given as typical of its work and spirit, its projectors and supporters laying down their money and agreeing to pay whatever might be needed, as well as giving of their personal care and attention to the sufferer.  But though Dr. Conwell’s heart is big, his head is practical.  He does not believe in indiscriminate charity.