The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-09-14

Christ, who cured the physical lepers by word When the ten lepers came to the Saviour pleading for help, Christ turned and said: "Go show yourselves unto the priests. And 1t came to pass as they went they were cleansed." Naa- man, the great captain, was helpless in the hands of his human physicians. On account of his wealth and fame Naaman like General Grant, afflicted with can cer-must have had the best doctors the royal court of Damascus could summon; but when Naaman, obedient to the divine command through Elisha went and dip ped seven times in 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? Will you not bathe in Christ's blood? Will 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 the way the disease progresses. Sometimes the scourge in a few months may change a beautiful body into hide ous corpse, but the quick result is the exception and not the rule. At this first touch of leprosy usually there may only be hardness, or rather a numbness, of the skin in a spot about the size of ten cent piece The skin at that one place merely turns as white as snow. If you know nothing about the disease, you may not worry about 1t. You may, for a long time be indifferent to the numbness Then, some day when you are In a phy- sicians office seeking advice for some other cause, you may turn to the doctor and say: By the way, doctor, 1 have a very peculiar something the matter with my hand It does not hurt me, but 1t Is numb in one place" Then the physician with a grave face will look at your hand Then he will take pin out of the lapel of his coat and prick that spot Then he will turn and say: You are a leperi You are already doomed, although death may be many years away"
 The Fatal White Mark.
 When going through the leper hospitals of Calcutta, I saw standing in one of the wards beautiful faxen-haired baby boy. He was only about six or seven years of age, He was one of the health lest looking and prettiest children I ever saw He was the son of an English sol dier He was such a 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 perhaps have sucked our thumbs when we were children. I turned and said to the lovely boy, "Why are you hereT' "Got the disease" he answered "Where?" said I 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 hard ly keep back my sobs. I saw in the ball of his foot the fatal white mark It was like a beautiful snowflake. The child was doomed. He was 0 leperl
 But, though leprosy may come in a seemingly harmless way, the disease for four. five, ten, even fifteen years will keep on steadily spreading. It will spread until the fingers fall off from the hands and the toes from the feet. It will keep on spreading until the skin blats and cracks and the hair falls out So ieprous sin coming in a seemingly harmless way. will keep on spreading until it makes the face hideous the body deformed. It may keep on spreading for years until at last the fatal leprous sin will destroy the body as well as the soul.
 It Is related that young English art ist, desiring to paint the figure of '.Inno- cence," used as a model the face of A lovely little child. The eyes, the lips and the smile of his model were the most beautiful he ever saw. All England came to admire the picture Many wears afterward, when the artist had attained to great fame, he decided to paint a companion picture to the one he had painted in his youth He wanted to call the companion picture 'Depravity." He wandered up and down the London slums until at last he found a hdeous looking mortal. man who seemed to be a mon- ster without a soul After the artist had used this hideous model and finished his