The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1910, Page 54

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54 The Lutheran Pioneer.

. “T have nothing to spare,” is the meanest plea
of persons not willing to help in mission work.
‘Nothing to spare! <A far different sentiment will
be formed amid the scenes of the last day. Men
now persuade themselves that they have nothing to
spare till they can support a certain style of luxury,
and have provided for the establishment of chil-
dren. But in-the awful hour, when you and I and
all the nations shall be called from our graves to
stand before the judgment seat of Christ, what com-
parison will these objects bear to the salvation of a
single soul? Eternal Mercy! Let not the blood of
heathen millions be found in our skirts! In sight
of a dissolving universe, beholding the dead arise,
the world in flames, nations convulsed with terror,
I pronounce the conversion of a single soul of more
value than all the wealth of the earth. I solemnly
own that, were there but one heathen in the world,
and he in the remotest corner of Asia, if no greater
duty confined us at home, it would be worth the
pains for all the people in America to embark to-
gether to carry the Gospel to him. Place your soul
in his soul’s stead, or, rather, consent for a moment
to change condition with the savages on our bor-
ders. Were you posting on to the judgment of the
great day in the darkness and misery of heathenism,
and were they living in wealth in this very district
of the Church, how hard would it seem for your
neighbors to neglect your misery! When you should
open your eyes in the eternal world, and discover
the ruin in which they had suffered you to remain,
how would you reproach them that they did not
even sell their possessions, if no other means were
sufficient, to send the Gospel to you. My flesh
trembles at the prospect! But they shall no? re-
proach us. It shall be known in heaven that we
could pity our brethren. We will send them all the
relief in our power, and enjoy the blessing of mak-
ing them blessed and generations yet unborn.

The Story of a Hindu Leper Girl.

Frances is her name. She is a poor orphan, her
parents having died of starvation duritig the awful
famine of 1896—1897. She and her two orphan
brothers had to pass through many hardships, seek-

ing their bread among strangers, living on what- .

ever they could find, often forced by hunger to eat
that which many animals refuse to touch. _

At last Frances came to a Protestant Orphanage,
where she found a Christian home and was well

taken care of. She attended the mission school and
proved a very industrious and bright scholar, her
ambition being to serve the Lord at some future
day in some way in the mission. She not only ex-
celled in her lessons, but was very clever in fancy
needlework. Her Christian character endeared her
to al]. But she was never quite healthy. Each win-
ter she was afllicted with ulcerated sores on her hands
and feet. ‘These were treated, and with the warm
weather disappeared, so that the missionary did not
suspect any dangerous hidden disease. Whenever
an epidemic broke out in the village, Frances was
sure to contract the sickness. She has had malarial
fever, smaJl-pox, cholera, and plague. These diseases
‘broke down her constitution and gave the hidden
pestilence in her body chance to take firm root and
spread. ‘The sores on her body soon gave unmis-
takable signs as being of the greatest of pestilence
—leprosy. Yes, poor Frances was a leper, having
taken the dreadful disease very probably at the
time of her wandering about with others before she
came to the orphanage. It was a hard trial for the
poor girl, who had been so anxious to prepare her-
self at the mission school for some useful work.
When the missionary told her the nature of her
disease, and that she would have to go to the asylum
for lepers, she was very downhearted and near de-
spair. She said to the missionary: “God has saved
me from starvation, malaria, cholera, small-pox, and
plague, to strike me with the most loathsome of
diseases.” Her faith was sorely tried. She could
not understand God’s dealings with her. But later,
in the asylum, when God used her for a blessed
work, she understood it all, as may be seen from a
letter written by one who visited the leper asylum
where Frances dwelled.

He writes to a friend: I must tell you of one
girl whom we saw sitting with the women. She is
perhaps eighteen years of age; it is easily seen that
she has had the advantage of an education which
the others never have known. Frances Elizabeth
Way is her English name. She was a school-girl
at an orphanage, full of ambition. She was fitting
herself for some form of Christian service, when it
was discovered that the dread disease had already
fastened upon her and she must go to the leper
asylum.

Poor girl! Do you wonder her heart was bitter
as she realized that every cherished hope was
blighted? Disappointment, misery, suffering, loath-
someness— death. The leper asylum! What a

terrible place for a young girl to go to; what asur- -

fuom cere mere mere sneer!

ee To

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