122 THE GOSPEL AND THE PLOW 



trained and educated. The older of the girls, my wife is 

 training as Bible women and nurses; the older of the 

 boys are being taught modern farming, and all these little 

 children handicapped by such parentage are getting their 

 chance in life. As I look over all that God has wrought 

 in this institution, I thank Him for having allowed me 

 to work among these poor, sorely afflicted people whom 

 Jesus bade His disciples to cleanse. 



In February, 1920, there was a conference of leper 

 asylum superintendents held in Calcutta. At this Sir 

 Leonard Rogers, a great authority on tropical disease, 

 read a paper on the progress made by medical science 

 in the treating of this awful disease. It looks as though, 

 in some cases, definite cures had been effected. About 

 forty-two cases in our Asylum are receiving his treat- 

 ment with very great benefit. There is reason for high 

 hopes that this disease can be stamped out with the help 

 of segregation and the medical treatment now being fol- 

 lowed. I am frequently asked how it is that my wife 

 and I are able to go among these people as much as we 

 do without contracting it. There is undoubtedly danger. 

 We take every known precaution. We do not believe it 

 right to tempt God by carelessness. We do recognize 

 that if He has given us this work to do it is better for 

 us to do it, even at the risk of contracting the disease, 

 than it is in dodging His will. Fortunately the bacillus 

 of leprosy does not live very long out of its host. Lep- 

 rosy is nothing like as contagious as small-pox or measles. 

 If it were, pretty nearly everybody in India would have 

 it. The government officials of India from the Viceroy 

 and Lady Chelmsford down, British and Indian, are one 

 and all helping the Mission to Lepers by giving sites for 

 asylums, contributions toward new buildings, grants-in- 



