118 THE GOSPEL AND THE PLOW 



ure of going to the little country store to do their shop- 

 ping ; living a whole week on bread made without raising 

 of any kind, just meal and water mixed together, in 

 order that their eight cents might go to the spreading 

 of Christ's gospel. To these lepers Christ seems so real, 

 His treatment so practical, that there is an intimacy in 

 the way they speak of Him that shows a depth of faith 

 seldom found. 



Fifteen years ago in the American Mission Famine 

 Orphanage at Lalitpur was a girl of seventeen, Frances 

 by name, sweet, attractive, a general favorite, engaged 

 to be married, one of the most capable girls in the in- 

 stitution. There came on her hands, round the joints of 

 her fingers, some sores that refused to heal in spite of the 

 application of every remedy the lady missionaries pos- 

 sessed. An English physician was called in who said the 

 girl was suffering from leprosy and should be removed 

 at once from the orphanage. The lady superintendent 

 wrote to me to ask if the girl could be admitted to the 

 Naini Leper Asylum. I wrote back asking her to send 

 the girl. A few days later while I was seated at break- 

 fast, the arrival of callers was announced. It proved to 

 be Frances and her brother, who had just been graduated 

 from the Methodist Episcopal Theological Seminary at 

 Bareilly. I told them to drive on over to the Asylum 

 and I would catch up with them on my bicycle. After 

 finishing my breakfast I rode over and caught up with 

 them just before reaching the Asylum. We walked in 

 together. It was not into the new asylum with its fine 

 buildings and well laid out and flourishing gardens, but 

 into that old unspeakable place. Leprosy so often makes 

 me think of strong drink. It is bad enough when it gets 

 control of a man, but infinitely worse when it gets con- 



