Dr. Terrell was a man of intensity, of intense love. He had an intense love for his God, whom He knew personally. He loved God and he loved God’s Word, and he wanted others to share that love. He was a dedicated student of God’s Word.
Dr. Terrell was a man of intense love for his family. He loved his wife and his children, and they sit here today as evidence of that love. He reared his children in the fear of God, and they are all successful in their walk with Jesus and in their accomplishments.
Dr. Terrell was a man of intense love for his work. He loved teaching and he loved practicing medicine. He was intense in his peculiar approach to the limitations of medicine, as many here can attest to.
He was a man of intense love for his State [South Carolina], for his boat and the sea, for his palms and citrus. On our last trip together last year, we stopped to visit a man in Louisiana with a large selection of citrus. He examined every leaf and every genealogy of those citrus trees.
But Dr. Terrell was also a man intense in his disdain, not for people but for false ideas. He disdained false views of medicine particularly. He restrained himself, but woe to the opponent who failed to notice the rising redness appear above his collar to cover his whole face, until he exploded with the attack, setting that barb right in the center of the false argument.
Dr. Terrell had achieved a rare sense of peace about his work. He understood for years what I have only begun to understand: that medicine is no source of truth, that we are very limited in what we can do for a suffering person. He arrived at this conclusion because he was not content to limit his understanding of the good news of salvation to its initial acceptance but sought to bring every thought captive to Christ. He wanted to hear how God’s Word governed our life and work. He bemoaned preaching that failed to spur us to better works and understanding.
I had thought to read or sing to you Psalm 90, a Psalm we discussed much for its implications for medicine. But as that has already been read, I will read Ps 15.
LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle?
Who may dwell in Your holy hill?
He who walks uprightly,
And works righteousness,
And speaks the truth in his heart;
He who does not backbite with his tongue,
Nor does evil to his neighbor,
Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend;
In whose eyes a vile person is despised,
But he honors those who fear the LORD;
He who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
He who does not put out his money at usury,
Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved.
Dr. Terrell was an immovable man.
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