MY dear Boys and Girls of FAITHFUL WORDS,―I am sure you would like to hear about Rusulla. He came into one of our asylums, a young Muhamadan. He was very ill, and leprosy had so stamped itself upon his face that I took him for an old man, and said to our native pastor, ‘I suppose Rusulla is about sixty?’ He smiled and said, ‘Oh, no, mem sahib; he is not twenty!’ He had a particularly gentle, patient look, and everyone became attached to him.
“Not long after he came into the asylum, his heart opened to the love of the Lord Jesus, and he said he would like to be baptized as a Christian. Before that could take place, however, he became very ill, and it was seen that he could not be many days left with us.
Mr. Bailey went to him, and, seeing how very ill he was, felt it would be a great comfort to us if Rusulla would leave a testimony as to his faith; so he said to him, ‘Tell me, Brother Rusulla, have you any trust in Muhammad?’
The dying lad replied, ‘Whether I live or die, my trust is in my Lord Jesus.’ I have often thought what a downy pillow that was on which to rest a dying head― ‘My Lord, Jesus.’ Very soon he went to be, as we confidently believe, with his Lord Jesus.
“Another time in that same asylum we had a man called Raggu. He belonged to the Rajput or soldier caste. The Rajputs are nearly as high up as the Brahmins, and so, of course, think a great deal of themselves, and are thought a great deal of by others. They are allowed to wear the sacred (or Brahminical) cord, which, with a great deal of ceremony, is attached to the man during his boyhood by a
Brahmin. It is worn over one shoulder and under the other arm, and is never taken off when once it has been put on. If by accident it should be broken or lost a great deal of ceremony has to be gone through, and a good deal of money paid to the Brahmins, to secure another.
“Raggu was much older than Rusulla, but, thank God, the Spirit can enter the heart at any age; and Raggu also became a believer in the Lord Jesus, and he, too, asked baptism. I remember so well the day he was baptized―how we went down with other friends in the bright sunshine and stood in the enclosure of the leper asylum, on the spot where the baptism was to take place, for it was to be in the open air.
“Presently we heard poor Raggu groaning. He was suffering terribly from rheumatism that day, and it was a painful effort to him to get dressed and crawl out; but he did not draw back, and soon we saw our poor friend dressed in a suit of clean white cotton, crawling out on hands and knees to where his friends were assembled. Then the service was proceeded with. At one part of it the pastor took hold of the sacred cord―which, of course, is a strong mark of Hinduism―and said, ‘What shall I do with this?’ To which Raggu replied,
“‘Oh, cut it; it has never done me any good.’ Whereupon, to the horror of the heathen bystanders, the cord was cut and removed from his neck. According to heathen ideas this was dreadful, but it was a small thing in comparison to what followed. Have you ever heard of the Hindus’ sacred lock of hair, the ‘choti’ ―a lock of hair on the top of the head, which Hindu men never shave, because they believe that by that lock of hair they will be lifted up to heaven when they die? Raggu was again asked, ‘And what about your choti?’ ‘Cut it―oh, cut it off;’ he said; ‘what use is it?’ And as the scissors were applied and the lock severed (and with it, from a Hindu point of view, all hope for eternity), a shudder passed through the surrounding group. I could not describe to you the solemnity of the moment.
“When Raggu was asked why he was becoming a Christian, he said, ‘Because I want shanti.’ There is no word in English to describe the touching word ‘shanti’; but it means peace and rest of soul. We trust that dear Raggu did indeed find ‘shanti’ in the Lord Jesus, and he is one of those whom we hope to meet in the sweet by-and-by when we all gather in the Father’s Home above.
“In closing my letter I wish to thank you all most heartily for your kindness to our poor lepers, and to ask you who are Christians, and who know the value of prayer, to implore God continually that He may give ‘shanti’ to all the poor sad lepers who come to our asylums.
“Believe me
“Your sincere friend,
“ALICE BAILEY.”
[The Editor specially thanks the many kind friends, old and young, in the States and Canada, who have contributed to our Leper Fund. He has not been able to reply individually to all of his kind correspondents, but wishes to them all “shanti” in all its sweetness!]