Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-09-12


were cleansed" Naaman, the great
captain. was helpless In the hands Of
his human physicians. On account OF
his wealth and fame Nnaman-like
General Grant, afflicted with cancer
must have had the best doctors the
royal court of Damascus could sum-
mon; but when Naaman, obedient TO
the divine command through Elisha.
went and dipped seven times I'm the
river Jordan his flesh became like the
flesh of a little child. o my brother
and sister, you who are cursed with
leprous sin. will you not come TO the
divine fountain? viii you not battle
In Christ's blood? VIII you not today
by the Calvary cross seek supernatural
medicament?
Leprosy may take a very long time
in which to fatally develop, although
such is not always the way the dis
ease progresses. Sometimes the scourge
in n few months may change a beauti-
full body into hideous corpse, but the
quick result is the exception and not
the rule. At this first touch of lep-
rosy usually there may only be hard
ness, or rather a numbness, OF the
skin In SPOT about the size OF n ten
cent piece. The skin at that one place
merely turns as white as snow. Ii
you know nothing about the disease.
you may not worry about II. You
may. for long time, be Indifferent to
the numbness. Then. some day when
you are in physicians office seeking
advice for some other cause, you may
turn to the doctor and say: "By the
way, doctor. have a very peculiar
something the matter with my hand.
1t does not hurt me, but ii is numb in
one place" Then the physician with
grave face win look at your hand.
Then he will take a pin out OF the
lapel of his coat and prick that spot.
Then he will turn and say: You are q
leper, You are already doomed, al
though death may be many years
away"
The Fatal white Mark.
When going through one of the leper
hospitals of Calcutta, ! saw standing
in one of the wards a beautiful fiaxen
haired baby boy. He was only about
six or seven years of age. He WINS
one of the hvalthiest looking and pref
test children l ever saw. lie. was the
son of an English soldier. He was
such lovely boy, and while his great
big eyes were looking. at me he was
standing there with his thumb in his
mouth sucking it as some OF US per-
haps have sucked cur thumbs when
we were children. l turned and said
TO the lovely boy. "Why are you here?''
Got the disease" he answered.
'WbereT said as the great tears be-
gan to rain down my cheeks. The lad
raised one of his pretty bare legs.
Then, pointing TO the ball of his foot,
he said, There it is AS | looked I
could hardly keep back my sobs. ]
saw in the ball of his foot the fatal
white mark. IL was like beautiful
snowflake. The child was doomed.
He was leper
But though leprosy may come In a
seemingly harmless way. the disease
for four five, ten. even fifteen years
VIII keep on steadily spreading. 1t will
spread until the fingers fall off from the
hands and the toes from the feet twill
kep on spreading until the skin bioats
and cracks and the hair falls out. SO
leprous sin. coming In n seemingly
harmless way. Will keep on spreading
until 1t makes the face hideous, the
body deformed. 1t may keep on spread
Ing for years until ut last the fatal
leprous sin will destroy the body as
well as the soul.
II is related that young English
artist, desiring TO paint the figure of
Innocence" used as n model the face
of a lovely little child. The eyes. the
lips and the smile OF lis model were
themost beautiful heeversaw. All Eng
land came TO admire the picture. Many
years afterward. when the artist had
attained TO great fame. he decided to
paint companion picture to the one he
had painted In his youth. He wanted
to call the companion picture "Deprav-
ity. He wandered up and down the
London slums until at last he found a
hideous looking mortal, n man who
seemed TO be monster without soul.
After the artist had used this hideouL
model and finished his companion pic
ture he found, To his astonishment.
that the two models were the same.
The model of "Depravlty" was the
once beautiful child, who had become
depraved by the fatal disease OF lep-
rous sin, which had wrought the hor-
rible transformation In face and fig
ure, In body and soul. So. my broth
er. though this disease OF leprous sin
may take many years to develop, vet
IL VIII surely permeate the mind and
soul until both perish In horrible and
loathsome corruption.
Leprosy is an infectious disease. 1t
is infectious as the scarlet fever germ
Is infectious. 1t is spread throughout n
only by the leprous germ
or one physical body being brought IN
TO contact with another physical body
when the latter is in condition favor
able for the development OF that lep-
rous germ. Thus in the lazar house
i'm New Brunswick. Can
ada, In 1865. IL was found by inyesti-
CATION that every one OF the ninety
patients confined within that leprous
hospital had contracted the disease OF
leprosy within n radius OF seventy
miles from the point where the first
~"SS VI SoHauilH ieprOsy was QlScoV-
cred. Convinced OF its infectious char
acter, DR.. Emerson, who was for many
years in the employ OF the Hawaiian
government, gave as his testimony that
L is utterly useless to fight the leprous
disease In any other way than by iso-
ation.
The TcrrOrs of LeprOsy.
To isolate the lepers OF the Hawaiian
Islands. Molokai, the lepcr reservation
'or the islands of the Pacific, was es-
In the Holy Land the Jews
Ind gentiles alike drive their own lep-
'ous kith and kin from their sides into
ISOLATION. They exclude them from the
titles and the towns AS you travel
trough the east those lepers. some
With their arms and teeth gone, some
IN crutches, some sightless, some with
tracked and bleeding lips, come down
he mountain side and in hoarse, pip
ng voices beg for food and money. 1t
eems TO be very heartless method
hus to isolate the lepers, but the orr
nta Is say, Better that 81 few mon and