^ When vaccination was introduced in Aberdeen, there existed a strong popular prejudice against it and a corresponding reluct- ance on t'de part of parents to allow their children to undergo that oper54tion. It " went over " the medical men of Aberdeen to disabuse -people's minds of the fear that it "would do more harm than good." This having come to Dr. Kidd's knowledge, he was detern),gaed that it should not go over him. He accordingly took
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up the subject with characteristic energy, and at once set himself to acquire as much knowledge and information regarding it as he could from the local medical men and other available sources. In this way he soon mastered the theory of vaccination, but would not rest content until he had mastered the practice also ; and having found a willing coadjutor in the person of a medical friend, he was soon able to perform the operation himself. Thus equipped, he frequently from the pulpit enforced on parents the duty of having their children vaccinated, and of giving them the benefit of that invaluable discovery. On one of these occasions he said, "If you mothers have any scruple about taking your children to a doctor, bring them to me, at my house, any week-day morning, between nine and ten o'clock, and I'll vaccinate them for you myself. You don't seem afraid to entrust the souls of your children to my care, and surely you won't have any fear to entrust me with their bodies." This appeal had a wonderful effect, and many mothers came to his house with their children at the daily appointed time. The result came to be that the prejudice against vaccination gradually subsided, and Dr. Kidd was soon able to discontinue his own amateur labours in favour of the medical men of the city, who, ere long, had as much work of that kind on their hands as they were well able to over- take. His personal ascendancy once more asserted itself, though even he had a stiff fight before he overcame the stubbornness and fears of the people. They had such faith in the man that they at last submitted, when their own judgment was unconvinced, and their own inclination was decidedly hostile.^
I.
The Motive Force.
" I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God."
It was not a little step that St. Paul was urging these Eoman Christians to take : " I beseech you to present your bodies a living Bacrifice." This act of consecration must have a motive adequate to produce it. The life of consecration must have a dynamic equal to sustaining it. Where is the motive power of the Chris- tian life to be found ?
1. It was in the " mercies of God " that the Apostle found hia motive power. That plural does not mean that he is extending 1 J. Stark, Dr. Kidd of Aberdeen, 173. !
ROMANS xii. I 207
his view over the whole wide field of the Divine heneficence, but rather that he is contemplating the one all-inclusive mercy about which the former part of his letter has been so eloquent — viz. the gift of Christ — and contemplating it in the manifoldness of the blessings which flow from it. The mercies of God which move a man to yield himself as a sacrifice are not the diffused beneficences of His providence, but the concentrated love that lies in the person and woris of His Son.
2. The emotionless moralist will tell you to do right for right's sake, because goodness is beautiful in itself and brings its own reward. And the stern moralist will advise you to pursue the clean and righteous course because the other way ends in a harvest of shame and sorrow. And, of coiu'se, both these voices are heard in the Bible; they are both used by the Christian preacher. But they are low down in the Christian scale ; they have little force in the Christian conscience. There is no ring of persuasiveness in them, because there is no emotion and no fire. We never feel the kindling and the inspiration until we get to the very furnace, the power-producing furnace of the Christian life, and that is the soul-enthralling, love-creating mercies of God in Christ.
" The Well is deep." Thy saying is most true :
Salvation's well is deep. Only Christ's hand can reach the waters blue. And even He must stoop to draw it up. Ere He can fill thy cup.
3. It is impossible to be too careful in observing the connexion between consecration and mercy, for in the very vague theology of the present day there is a great deal which certainly has the appearance of teaching that the blessed peace of a union with Christ is ':o be the result of entire consecration. But we are here taught, not that we are to reach mercy as the result of the completf/ness of our consecration, but that, having realized mercy, we should yield ourselves in consecration to God. That union with f .e Lord Jesus must be given through the personal appropria- tion oa' the mercy of God in Him.
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One ship turns east, and another west With the selfsame winds that blow;
'Tis the set of the sails, and not the gales, Which tells us the way to go.