TORRANCE OF TIBERIAS
An Appreciation
By Rev. G.A. Frank Knight, D.D.
Convener of the Jewish Mission Committee of
the United Free Church of Scotland
The
brief notice that appeared in "The Glasgow Herald" on Tuesday announcing
the death
of Dr. David W. Torrance of Tiberias must have brought a keen shock
of sorrow to the hearts of
thousands in this country. But even more throughout the East,
where he was universally known
and beloved, multitudes of all races and languages and faiths in Palestine,
Syria, Arabia, and even
further afield, must have experienced a keen pang of regret when the
news spread through the
bazaars that the great doctor, whose name was a household word, had
passed away. It is a great
thing to have so laid out one's life that, when death comes, one is
sincerely mourned, and
thousands feel that they are the poorer, and that earth is emptier,
because of the loss sustained.
"Torrance of Tiberias" was such a one. He was one of the "big"
missionaries, whose careers
influence multitudes, and who bring honour to the Gospel. He
has done a magnificent piece of
work for the Kingdom of God. He gave his life for Palestine,
and Galilee today is a place
enormously changed for the better through the self-sacrificing labours
of this hero who passed to
his rest last Sunday.
David Watt Torrance was born
in Airdrie in 1862, his paternal grandfather being the Rev.
Robert Torrance, the first minister of the Auld Licht congregation
in that town. His mother's
father was a friend of Sir Walter Scott. His own father was a
surgeon of eminence in Airdrie.
When the boy was sixteen his father died, and his mother removed with
her family to Glasgow.
Here in 1883 David graduated in medicine, and thus Glasgow University
has the honour of having
trained the medical apostle of Galilee. In 1884 he was sent out
to Palestine by the then Free
Church of Scotland, along with the Rev. Dr. Wells, of Pollokshields,
and Dr. Laidlaw, of the
Glasgow Medical Mission, on a mission of inquiry. The state of
matters in the cities, towns, and
villages of Galilee, from a medical point of view, was so appalling
that, after overcoming the
temptation to accept various lucrative offers of professional service
in this country, Torrance
decided to give his life to alleviate the awful conditions of suffering
he had seen with his own eyes
in the land where Christ had laboured as a medical missionary.
The difficulties, he had to contend
with were tremendous. His ignorance of the languages
of the country was a trifle compared with the unsettle condition of
the country; the rapacity,
venality, and malevolence of the Turkish officials; the antagonism
of the Talmudic Jews; the
bitterness of the Moslem Arabs; the fathomless superstition and bigotry
of the peasantry; the
insanitary state of every town and house; the dire poverty of the people;
the general backwardness
of the civilization; the tropical climate of Tiberias, where the temperature
rises to 117 degrees in
the shade. But Torrance had made a great discovery that patience
and justice, fair dealing, and
the exercise of the Christian love could work miracles, and with steady
perseverance and
invincible faith he overcame all difficulties. Gradually he saw
his dreams of social betterment
taking shape. With a noble ardour he rectified the terrible insanitary
conditions which surrounded
him on all hands; he helped to eradicate malarial fever and dysentery;
he performed marvelous
cures on patients who flocked to him from all neighbouring lands; he
broke down hostility, and he
established a reputation as a great Christian hakim. Arabs
from Central Arabia, over 30 days
journey distant, would arrive on camels, having heard in the midst
of the sandy deserts of the
wonderful skill of the Scottish doctor. Fellahen would show the
most childlike faith in his ability
to do anything. "Cut out my stomach, clean it , and put it in
again" asked one sufferer from
dyspepsia. So widespread was his celebrity that there was scarcely
a tribe on the east of Jordan
but revered his name, and in that "no man's land" where the lives of
travelers hang by a thread
Torrance could travel freely, even as a king among men.
One of his ambitions was realised
in the erection of the noble hospital overlooking the
lake, which is his monument. It is impossible to say how many
tens of thousands of patients have
been treated here, and have gone away cured to their distant homes
to tell of the Christian
kindness they have received. But can anyone estimate the strain
of this incessant work of 39 years
in a tropical climate? Torrance was a great traveler, and
he was never happier than when he was
acting as an itinerant medical missionary in the villages of Galilee.
Frequently in his own case
the experiences of his Divine Master would be repeated--"He went preaching
the Gospel of the
Kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease
among the people, and his
fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought unto him all sick
people, and" --- as far as
human skill and modern medical and surgical science could go --"he
healed them." I have sailed
with him on the Lake of Galilee in his mission boat The Clyde, and
I have heard from his lips tales
of his adventures among the wild tribes of the east of Jordan, and
how medical skill opened a
door and brought a welcome. But is was even more wonderful to
stand in his dispensary and see
him at work as, with skillful hands, he passed from one patient to
another, and always with good
cheer brought hope and brightness to the daily crowds of miserable
sick people.
He was a great lover of righteousness,
and could not take wrongdoing with indifference.
His manly life and character and outspoken words and deeds did much
to create a new ideal of
moral rectitude in a land where social equity was unknown, and much
of the advance of Galilee in
Western ideals of civilization is due to him. He was a great
human, a masterful personality, one
who did not suffer fools gladly; but the Oriental admires a man who
is not afraid, and Torrance was
singularly daring and courageous. Above all, he was a missionary
of Christ. He loved the Jewish
race and gave his life to serve them. "Strange," he said, "we
take our Sacred Books from the
Jews, we worship according to their system, we got our Saviour from
them, our theology is
largely based on the work of a Jew, yet Christendom turns on them,
imprisons them in ghettos,
and then condemns them for being what they are!". Among those
who have laboured to befriend
the Jews, to upraise their moral level, to heal their ancient woes,
and to bring them the uplift of
the Christian Gospel none have toiled more faithfully than the famous
Scot, "Torrance of
Tiberias." |