India, the land of temples, of festivals, and of holy rivers, once boasted itself the fairest and richest part of the vast empire over which the British flag waved. Nevertheless it is still a land with customs that seem so strange and cruel to those who know the Lord Jesus.
Like most Hindu girls, Mariam was betrothed to her husband when she was but a small child. She would have been married at the age of twelve, but just before she reached that age, her future husband died. She was held by his heathen parents to be the cause of his death, and so was cast out.
Homeless and friendless, poor Mariam was found by a Christian lady who not only cared for the child’s starving body, but lovingly and simply she told her the story of Jesus and His love. The little girl’s sad heart was moved and melted by the love of Jesus. Poor child, she had never known what it was to be truly loved, either by her parents or her future husband, but often she was cruelly beaten and kicked, as the marks on her body clearly told.
“Tell me more of Jesus, Miss,” she would say, as she clung to the arm of her friend. “It makes me glad to hear.” Who could refuse such a request? Day after day, as the sweet old story was told, it reached her heart, and won it, before her mind could grasp but little of the truth of the way of salvation. It was indeed a joyful day when Mariam did confess the Lord as her own Saviour.
ML 10/03/1965