OUR young friends will be interested to hear a little about the poor lepers in India. There a leper is cut off completely from his kindred and his religion, for the Hindus believe that a leper is accursed in this life, and can hope for no better existence. The hope and joy that the gospel of God brings to these poor outcasts, teaching them of peace here and of glory hereafter, can therefore be in some way understood.
Leprosy is so much dreaded that, no sooner does anyone develop it, than, be it husband or wife, the sufferer is at once driven from the home, to wander an outcast on the face of the earth until death ends a terrible existence.
The disease usually affects the limbs first, and, as it increases, fingers and toes drop off and the flesh comes away, till the poor leper becomes too helpless to do anything whatever for himself. “What do you do when you can no longer feed yourselves?" enquired a Christian visitor of a leper woman. “We turn into our huts, and lie there and die," was the pathetic answer.
It is computed that in British India there are about half million of these poor people.
There is a mission to lepers in India, the main object of which is to alleviate their sufferings, and, above all, to lead them to God, and Christ, and the Savior. This society works by utilizing existing missionary agencies, endeavoring to get the missionaries to look after the sufferers, and providing for them regular medical attendance, and persons who will dress their wounds and show them kindness. This society also assists in the erection of homes for these poor homeless outcasts.
The society also takes especial interest in the care of the children of leper mothers, for, if the children remain with their parents, they are almost certain to take the disease.
In this there has been a remarkable success. In the homes, so far, one child only has fallen a victim to the awful malady.
The poor sufferer is a boy of fourteen, who showed the first symptoms of the disease, as many do, in not being able to feel heat in his hands. He fell against a stove, and not being sensitive to the burning, was taken to the doctor, and when he stood before him, the poor lad put his hands behind his back. Upon the doctor pronouncing that he had the terrible disease, the boy's distress was most affecting to witness.
In the homes very many of the lepers are Christians, and most eager are they to care for their fellow sufferers.
On one occasion six lepers from Ambala wandered down to Taru Tarau, where there is a large government asylum. The native doctor refused them admission, and also forbad them to buy food at the asylum store unless they renounced Christianity. For more than a week, without shelter and with scarcely any food, these poor creatures sat by the wayside. At last the doctor, fearing his conduct might reach the ears of the English civil surgeon, admitted them. Then the six told the inmates, of the joy the gospel had brought to them, and thus some of the heathen lepers heard and believed also. Sometime after, when Mr. Guildford, of the C.M.S., reached the place, he found five of the inmates were truly earnest Christians, and were desirous of being baptized. By and by twenty-two came boldly out from their heathenism for Christ—thus did God bless the labor of love of the six Christian lepers of Ambala.
In the recent famine the lepers in one of the homes, learning that several new cases had been refused admission on account of the scarcity of food and funds, had a fast day, on which they partook merely of one very small meal, thus saving money to assist their fellow sufferers.
The mission to the poor lepers in India commenced in 1874, but the secretary, Mr. Bailey, had his interest aroused on their behalf in 1869, when, together with Dr. Morrison, he visited the leper asylum at Ambala. The lepers had assembled for Christian worship, and the way in which they drank in the truths of the Christian faith astonished him. In 1874 this particular mission was started by Mr. Bailey when on a visit to Ireland.
You, dear young friends, cannot bind up the wounds of these afflicted people, but you can do something to help them. For ₤ 4 a year a leper child can be kept in one of the homes, and for ₤ 6 a man or a woman. One thousand pennies make four pounds three shillings and fourpence. We feel sure a thousand of our young friends will be only too pleased to send us a penny each, and we will forward the amount to India to support a leper child for one yea?: Towards the close of the year we will print a letter from India about the lepers, and, we think we may say, some messages from the Christian lepers to our young readers who have out of love to the suffering denied themselves of some little pleasure for their sakes.
Will you read in the gospels of all that Jesus said to the lepers, and what He did for them? Oh! how kind was He to them! He saved them from their leprosy—He made them clean. And thus does He save and cleanse from sin all who come to Him.