Hermann Philip
Hermann Philip [1]
a medical missionary, was born of Jewish parentage at Brunswick in 1813. While a student of medicine he joined the Prussian army, which he left after some years' service in order to join a brother of his who was in Java in the Dutch service. Philip embarked at Rotterdam for Batavia, but owing to some accident which happened after the vessel had left the harbor, he came to England. At London, through his employers, he became acquainted with a Presbyterian minister, who spoke to him of Christ and made him think of the Saviour. Philip, with the recommendation from. this minister, went to Scotland. At Glasgow he became acquainted with Dr. Duncan, who encouraged him in his inquiries. On December 9, 1839, the Kirk session of St. Luke's Church at Edinburgh admitted him a member of the Church of Christ. Philip now went through a regular course of theological studies, and commenced his missionary labors in 1841, along with the Reverend D.
Edward, among the Jews in Moldavia. Being convinced of the great advantage to a missionary of a thorough knowledge of medicine, Philip, after nine years' missionary labor, returned to Edinburgh to complete his medical education. This done, in 1850 he was sent to Algiers, under the auspices of the Scottish Society for the Conversion of Israel, as medical missionary. From Algiers, in 1852, he was sent to Alexandria, in Egypt. In 1860 Philip, who, by this time, had the degree of D.D., in addition to that of M.D., was engaged by the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews, and was sent to labor at Jaffa, the seaport of Palestine, where he remained for six years. When the cholera raged at Jaffa in 1865, and the population was panic-struck, and the civil and military authorities had fled, Dr. Philip was the only practitioner at Jaffa, and acted not only as physician, but also as governor amid police. The J.Malta Times of September, 1865, states that "the calls and appeals which Dr. Philip had were constant, insomuch that, when passing through the streets, the crowds thronged upon him to kiss his hands and feet; and while Christians and Jews offered up masses and prayers for him, the Mohammedans forgot their prophet, and the sound was heard in the mosques, 'There is but one God, and the doctor!'" In 1866 Dr. Philip, at his own request, was removed to another field, and sent to Leghorn, where he remained until 1870, when the door was opened to him to preach the gospel to the Jews in Rome. He died February 3, 1882. (B.P.)
