The Leper Missionary

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 3, 1881

The Leper Missionary

The vilest of all diseases is the leprosy. It is horrible and hopeless. In many respects it resembles sin. It fastens on the system without warning. It is incurable by human means. It spreads to every part of the body till the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. In some parts of the world lepers are shut up in an inclosure, and when once its gate is turned on them they never return to mother, wife, or child. Mr. Moffatt found such places in South Africa. On inquiry he learned that a missionary had turned his back on all pleasurable life and voluntarily and in health had entered that relentless gate to offer the gospel to the poor lepers. He became an outcast for them, for he never could return. No human sacrifice ever was known that so much resembled that of Jesus for sinners. This disease prevails in most hot countries. There is a mission for lepers in India, which last year received from all the world nearly five thousand dollars. They supported one hundred and forty lepers, among whom frequent conversions occurred.—Golden Censer.