A MISSIONARY'S HEALING OF LEPROSY.
By Kate Bushnell, M.D.
THE Pittsburg Christian Advocate says: “Friends of Miss Mary Reed, the heroic missionary, who, a number of years ago, contracted leprosy in the prosecution of her work and then resolved to devote herself to missionary labor among this unfortunate class, will be interested in this extract from a business letter to this office from her father, who resides at Beckett, Ohio. It will be remembered by our readers that several years ago Miss Reed experienced a remarkable relief, if not full and permanent cure, from the disease in answer to prayer. “Mary has been granted a furlough for eighteen months for a rest. Not that she is ill, only tired and needs rest. She is on her way to Palestine to be gone a year, having sailed from Bombay, February 15. We are hoping she will come home before her return to India. It is wonderful how her health has improved. There has not been any outward mark of the dread disease on her for eight years. She says she never had better health in her life. She has been visiting Miss Harvey and Mrs. Dr. Scott, missionaries down on the plains. They made no difference with her from other guests; she is not isolated from any one. An assistant was procured to take her place at the asylum during her absence. How good the Lord is to her and to us!” Now the skeptical will begin to say that nothing ever ailed Mary Reed! Mrs. Andrew and I saw her in India in the autumn of 1900 at Mussoorie and at Debra Dun. Then she was looking in perfect health. We also, at Mussoorie, saw good Dr. Condon, civil surgeon at that station. He had been her physician, and prayed much with her for her healing. He described to us in detail, as one physician to another, the exact degree of progress her disease had made before the Lord began to heal her. He absolutely ascribed without reserve all her improvement to the Lord’s healing power. He was not a man to be deceived as to the nature of such a disease, after his long life as a physician in India. In fact, the disease had made such inroads, according to his description of it to us, that any intelligent physician who had ever seen leprosy could scarcely have mistaken the nature of the trouble for anything else.—Kate Bushnell, M.D.