China the. Home of a Million) Lepers? Helpless Victims of a Ghastly, Horroi Work of the China 1 Mission to Lepers Wu, mA, Bp, There is positively no other word in.the whole English language that brings. with it the suggestion lof sch utter misery and. desi tion as does the word "lepras [We read the biblical description lof the terror of the disease with strange feelings and painful imagi-"The leper in whom. the his clothes shall be rent, shall Put a covering upon his upper lip, Jand shall ery, Unclean, unclean! [But when we see the leper face to fece- and know his indescribable sufferings, both physical And mental fand his utter despair and hopeless Mess, our conscience cannot but be There are about two million lepers in the world. According the estimate of some people we here in China something. ike tone million lepers scattered all lover the country. If this estimate correct, then we have one lope: out of very 400 people in China, What a terrible thing! I. hope, however, this figure is much exaggerated for no exact survey of that kind can be possibly made in (China. "But this is a fact that the number of lepers in this country is enormous, especially. in the South In my recent trip to Kuangtung and Fukien, I, had seen thousandy them in different. stages of the Jdreadtul disease. 'They were certainly the most pathetic people that T had ever seen in my life. Brow ess, fingerless, toeless, hopeless andi almost lifeless, they were the living dead, among human beings. If not for' the humane work and gospel message of the mission ies, many of them would have been ravished long. ago.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.