Going Right to the Spot.
An epidemic of diphtheria broke out in a' kindergarten in Germany. The old way would have been to shut up the school and watch all the children for symptoms of the dread disease. The new and better way was this:
A bit of mucus was taken from the throat of each child and examined. Several throats showed diphtheria germs. These children were then tested by the introduction under the skin of a fluid which set up a little local disturbance if the child really had diphtheria, but did not do so if the child was free from the disease. The children whose reaction showed that they really had diphtheria then received the regular serum treatment, and got along finely because they had been taken so early.
A week later the tests were all repeated on all the children, so as to make no mistake. Eight children in all were found to have diphtheria, and they were promptly cured. Thus the school was continued as usual, and there was no epidemic.
That is the way to get at disease of all kinds, including that worst of all diseases—sin. Do not rely upon wholesale methods. Go right to the person affected or possibly affected. Study him. Treat him. Work with him. Isolate him, if necessary. Bend all your energies upon curing him. You will usually succeed.
Wholesale remedies are easy to apply. It is easy to close the schools when any disease appears. It is easy to wait till the children come down with the disease. But then the hard part comes. Then the disease spreads rapidly, and you soon have on your hands a disaster of considerable magnitude. By wise, strict, individual treatment you could have kept the trouble down to one or to very few.
Hand-to-hand methods are harder at first, but they are much easier in the end.