The Bengal Leper's Cry for Deliverance Answered by William Ambrose Spicer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Oct 2, 1913

The Bengal Leper's Cry for Deliverance Answered

By William Ambrose Spicer

IN recounting in these columns from time to time stories of providential interpositions and deliverances, we have not dealt with narratives of divine healing. It is because these experiences are so numerous. The Lord is continually giving special physical blessings in answer to prayer for the sick. One hears on every side the testimonies to God's healing power. But the account of the healing of our one-time leper brother in India is so out of the ordinary, that we give it as one of those special deliverances that bear witness to the intervening hand of the living God. The story is told in the man's own words as set down by Brother L. G. Mookerjee, of Calcutta, who interviewed the brother at our request a year or two ago.

Now eighty years old, Brother Sadhan Chandra Sircar is strong in the faith of the “blessed hope,” and delights to witness for the Lord and to his truth in dark Bengal. At twenty he was stricken with the deadly leprosy, which proceeded to a stage that would long ago have ended his life had not God intervened miraculously. He says:—

As a youth I was well instructed in the Hindu sacred writings, the shastras, and so, though I had this dreadful disease, I was much reputed in the villages as a holy man. By the age of forty, the disease had developed to the state where toes and fingers had dropped off, joint by joint. I still carry this sign of the malady; namely, hands and feet without fingers and toes.

At this time my heart was always after God. The hunger of soul grew daily. Just then a missionary visited our village. It was a time of famine, and he was going from place to place by boat, distributing rice and salt. One of the neighbors drew my attention to him as he was passing along the canal by my thatched house. I called to the missionary, and he talked with me from the boat, discussing religion. He asked me if I could read, and as I replied, “Yes,” he left me a copy of Matthew's Gospel.

In this I read of the spotless life of Jesus. Our own scriptures had taught us the evil lives of Krishna and others of our gods, who lived in sin; and I had concluded that these were sinners the same as I. But here was one who did no sin. After a struggle, I determined to be a follower of Christ. I read the experience of the leper, in Matt. 8: 1-3, and believed on Jesus as my only physician. At this time, in 1875, I was baptized by this missionary.

After baptism the missionary and myself went to the Lord in prayer, asking God to heal my leprosy, anointing my body with oil at the same time. It was about six months that we continually kept this matter before the Lord; then the good Lord answered our prayers, and I was healed, to my own astonishment and to the wonderment of all the villages. People flocked from far and near to see me, and this gave opportunity to witness to the true Saviour and Healer.

Many became Christians through my humble efforts, and in process of time I was made pastor of the village church. A chapel was built on my own grounds, next to my dwelling-place.

In 1906, Brother L. G. Mookerjee sent several workers with Bengali tracts through the villages. One came to my hands, “Jesus Christ a Sabbath-Keeper: What That Means to Us.” It had a picture of Jesus walking the way of the ten commandments, leaving footprints for us to follow. The thought struck me. “The same Jesus who healed me of the leprosy kept the seventh-day Sabbath, and I ought to follow his footsteps.” This made me resolve that by his grace, I would keep the Sabbath that Jesus kept as my example. Since then I have rejoiced in the blessed truth. I have had a great deal of persecution and many losses to suffer, but am still waiting joyfully for my Master's return, and hope to remain firm unto the end.

It is not a story of Bible times, or of Judea or Galilee. It is easy to believe in wonders wrought in olden time and in Bible lands by the hand of God. This is one of those incidents of our own time that help us to understand that God is the living God still, calling his children to him over many a strange path, and showing his power to save. It was characteristic of the living faith that laid hold of this blessing of physical healing from so hopeless a malady that the brother should have thus resolutely laid hold also of the Sabbath truth, following in this obedience the footprints left by Jesus as our example. W. A. S.