Few people I bet have ever heard of Dr. Howard Atwood Kelly (1858-1943). I know that until I read his biography twenty years ago, I never heard of him either. Over the years I have read many biographies of Christian scientists but none as fascinating as that of Dr. Kelly. In today’s devotion I would like to share a little bit about this man who was not only a sincere and devout Christian but also perhaps one of the greatest doctors of the past 500 years.
Dr. Kelly was a brilliant doctor who trained in general surgery but found himself attracted to gynecology when it was merely an insignificant branch of obstetrics. He felt this field of medicine that dealt with women’s medical problems was perfect for him because at the time he began his practice there was a desperate need for skilled care in this area. By the time his medical career ended nearly fifty years from its beginning he had almost single handedly elevated the infant field of gynecology to a respected specialty. He made sterilization techniques standard practice, modified and invented many surgical techniques that became the standard worldwide, invented numerous new tools for his practice, and became a world-renowned teacher of students in the field.
Dr. Kelly became beloved by his patients not only because of his ability to alleviate so much suffering and pain but because of his kind and gentle bedside manners and the fact that he charged a fee for his services commensurate with each person’s ability to pay. And when a patient was too poor to pay, he performed his services for free; which meant that almost seventy-five percent of his patients received free medical treatment from Dr. Kelly! As a result of his worldwide fame he became very wealthy but also became a great philanthropist for many social and medical causes in Pennsylvania, where he maintained his practice.
But the thing that inspired me most about Dr. Kelly was how this brilliant doctor’s entire life was infused with his love of the Bible. He grew up in a Bible believing home and at age thirteen made a public profession of his faith in Christ. At the age of twenty-four he graduated from medical school and wrote in his diary on the evening of his commencement ceremony: “I dedicate myself – my time – my capabilities – my ambition – everything to Him. Blessed Lord, sanctify me to Thy uses. Give me no worldly success which may not lead me nearer to my Savior”1 He always prayed for guidance to restore the health of his patients before he picked up his scalpel. He was very generous in giving financially, especially, to missionary work locally and around the world. But mostly this humble man of God loved to share his faith in Christ and the Bible with co-workers, patients, friends and family, and even strangers. His love of the Bible motivated everything in his life. In addition, according to Mulfinger: “Dr. Kelly began and ended every day studying the Bible and praying for an hour. He went to bed early, usually by 9:00 p.m. He woke up early, before 4:00 a.m., and began operating by 6:00 a.m.”2
Dr. Kelly was always careful to give all the credit for his many accomplishments to his heavenly Father. In fact, everything he did in life was merely a byproduct of his desire to please Christ. And his love of the Bible can be seen in the following words that he wrote in a tract when he briefly, in his thirties, struggled with the question of the Bible’s authority: “Perhaps one of my strongest reasons for believing the Bible is that it reveals to me, as no other book in the world could do, that which appeals to me as a physician, a diagnosis of my spiritual condition. It shows me clearly what I am by nature – one lost in sin and alienated from the life that is in God. I find in it a consistent and wonderful revelation, from Genesis to Revelation, of the character of God, a God far removed from any of my natural imaginings.”3
Dr. Kelly wonderfully understood, as we all need to, that any and all our gifts and talents come from the Lord. But he went the final mile and made sure that he was careful to give all the glory to his Savior for these gifts and skills.
1 George Mulfinger & Julia Mulfinger Orozco, Christian Men of Science. (Greenville, SC: Ambassador Emerald International, 2001), p. 217.
2 Ibid. p. 229.
3 Ibid. p. 225.