As my wife Chris and I were traveling recently on Interstate 95 through Baltimore late one evening, we observed a new, seven-story illuminated cross mounted on St. Agnes Hospital, prominent against the city skyline. A short while later, as we drove the Washington, DC beltway, a second cross affixed to the roof of Holy Cross Hospital caught our attention. It was a vivid reminder that our Christian forebears were pioneers in starting hospitals to minister to people’s physical and spiritual needs.
William Augustus Muhlenberg (1796-1877) became rector of the Church of the Holy Communion in New York City, a congregation of rich and poor alike. As William visited poor members of his parish, he was troubled by their unsanitary living conditions and lack of medical care. On St. Luke’s Day in 1846, he proposed that half of the offering be set aside to provide medical care for the poor. (Luke was not only the originator of one of the four New Testament gospels but a physician in Jesus’ day.) When the cholera outbreak ravaged the city, two members of William’s church died in the plague, including a poor thirteen-year-old boy, Fred, a member of the church’s choir. When William visited him, Fred’s last gesture was to embrace William and shower him with affection. The visit affected William deeply and fueled his passion for opening a church hospital for poor people without regard to religious belief. His dream became a reality when St. Luke’s Hospital (now Mount Sinai Morningside) in New York City began operation in 1854. William announced at its grand opening, “Let us open wide its doors to the sick and needy in the name of the Lord.” William lived in modest accommodations at the hospital and served as its chief administrator until his death in 1877. An order of Anglican sisters, started by William’s sister Mary, served as nurses. During his repeated pleas for a church hospital, William persistently prayed:
William Muhlenberg
O Lord, I set about this work, praying for thy guidance and direction from the beginning…Ought there not to be a House of Refuge for our suffering brethren? Hast thou not put it into my heart to stir up the people to the work? Shall I fail in my duty if I do not perform what I trust thou has called me to do—unworthy as I am of myself, to undertake the least service for thee, Lord have mercy. O give me thy Holy Spirit. O purify me, dear Lord, in attempting this labor of love…O my blessed Jesus, who did pass so much of thy time in healing the sick, giving of thy spirit! Be with me in showing thy disciples the offices of love they owe to their poor and suffering brethren. I would begin and carry on the work wholly in thy name. Purge me from all vanity and self-consequence; strengthen me; give me necessary health. Guide me. I consecrate myself to thee anew in this service which I pray thee to thee to accept at my hands. O Jesus, make it thine own—thine own work from beginning to end!
Anne Ayres, The Life and Work of William Augustus Muhlenberg, 1889. Chapter 13.
Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.