Sathemma was a young woman in India who lived happily in her little village with her husband. She had a little daughter who was the joy of her heart. But this happy state did not last long, for Sathemma began to show symptoms of leprosy in her feet. Her husband did not want to turn her out of the home, but his parents forced him to do so, for they feared this terrible disease. So Sathemma had to go away with a broken heart. She walked and walked for many days until she came to a temple where she prayed to the idols and bathed in the holy waters of the river, but she did not get any help. Gradually she became too weak to walk, so she started to crawl along on her hands and feet. By this time her clothes were only rags.
One day somebody told her to go to a certain place where there was a missionary hospital where people like her were cared for. This gave her new strength and hope. When at last she entered the gate of the hospital, the missionary nurse, seeing the terrible state she was in, thought that she had only come to die. With loving hands she was taken in, bathed, all her many wounds bound up, and then she was laid in a clean bed with good food set before her. Sathemma thought she was dreaming. She also saw the happy faces of the other women patients who were already Christians. Their singing touched her heart deeply. She listened with great interest while the Word of God was read and explained to her. She never had heard anything like it. Soon she believed God’s love to her, and as a sinner she accepted the Lord Jesus as her Saviour.
Her condition was not hopeless. In a short time she was so much better that she could go home for a visit. Her family had thought she was dead and now she came to tell them of the Saviour who had “come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:1010For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10). Sathemma was completely healed and became an earnest disciple of the Lord Jesus. She delighted to tell of God’s way of salvation, and many women and children heard it from her lips, for she herself had come out of death into life.
Dear reader, whether you realize it or not you have a far worse disease than leprosy, if you are still unsaved. You have the awful disease of sin which has filled this poor world with so much sorrow and trouble. There is no man on earth who can cure this disease or take away your sins, but God can. At great cost to Himself, He has provided a remedy, and now He is able and willing to save you. His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, went to Calvary’s cross and there He bore all the punishment due to our sins when He died in our stead. If you, as a sinner, will receive Him as your Saviour, you will be saved, and cleansed from your sins in His most precious blood. Why not come to Him today? Remember, delay is dangerous.
ML 04/19/1953