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I Don’t Be Afraid - Reach Out and Touch a Leper! F rom a distance we could see the lepers anxiously waiting for us at the pier. Their cry of ‘Welcome, welcome!’ sounded like thunder. Dur ing our visit we were deeply touched when a bitter enemy of the Gospel begged us to forgive him. He asked for a Bible and said he, too, wanted to follow Christ. (There are more lepers in Greece than in any other European country.) “ Later we entered a very dark basement — just a hole hewn into the rock — and met a man who was skin and bones. His fingers and toes were eaten away by leprosy; he had no ears or nose. Yet he could greet us with a smile! On his lap was an open Bible from which he read Psalm 88:6, ‘Thou has laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.’ Still smiling he said, ‘Although this is my plight, I have the light of Christ’s Gospel to assure me that my Heav enly Father is able to help and com fort me.’ (We want to give Bibles to 700 more lepers, at a cost of $2 each. Wouldn’t you like to supply one or more?) “We sorted and distributed the large bundles of clothing we had brought. Nine little boys and girls — orphans of lepers who had died here — ran up to us, jumping for joy. They wanted to thank us for the clothing and a few toys we had brought them. (It is bitter cold in Greece now. We have tons of. do nated clothing, but lack the funds for shipping. For $6 we can send an individual 22-lb. package, or for $50 a large 400-lb. crate. And $5 will provide a warm blanket for a shiver ing body.) “ As the launch left this island of pain, we were gladdened by the ready response to the Gospel, the hun ger for God’s Word, and the gratitude for the physical comforts we were able to bring.” These missionaries, whose letter we have just shared with you, have touched the untouchables — not phys ically, but with the compassion of Christ. You, too, can reach out to these lepers without fear — to help them in their great need. Write to the American Mission to Greeks, Inc!, 156 - 5th Ave., New York 10, N. Y., Rev. Spiros Zodhiates, General Sec retary. (In Canada, 90 Duplex Ave., I Toronto 12, Ontario.)
H e Is R isen ! « n Sunday, April 18th, Easter will be observed in all Christendom. In countless sunrise services held on that morning and in countless churches in which services w ill be held, there w ill be men who endeav or to eliminate the fact of the resurrection and speak of it merely from a figurative point of view. It w ill be said, in effect, that Jesus Christ did not actually rise from the dead, but instead His influence m erely lives on. And, somehow, it is argued, because the spring comes around every year and because flowers and trees take on life and begin to shoot forth buds and blossoms and fruit, so do human beings have life forevermore. It is readily admitted that the springtime of each year is a most beau tiful time,- but thank God, our hope o f immortality is not based upon the budding of the trees and the blossoms that appear on the trees and flowers, nor is it based on the fact that the rains bring forth grass which grows up green and beautiful in the spring of the year. But our hope of immortality is based upon a much surer fact than this. Job says, “ I know that m y redeemer liveth . . . and because he lives, I too shall live.” Our hope of eternal life is not based upon a vague, indefinable, indefinite something that bum s within thé breast of each individual, but our hope of immortality is based upon a well-proven fact that took place in history over nineteen hundred years ago, when there emerged from the tomb of Joseph o f Arimathea, the self-same Jesus who was buried in that tomb and who came forth in His resurrection glory, victorious over death, victorious over the grave, victorious over S,atan and everything evil. In Arizona, there may be seen a large area known as the Petrified Forest. Geologists have told us what took place. Once upon a time that land consisted of a great forest. Something happened, and the trees were in some w ay knocked down and the land became submerged so that those fallen trees lay on the bottom o f a portion of the ocean, for countless centuries of time. Then something else took place— the water disappeared and today that section is quite dry and barren. But something happened while those logs were lying at the bottom of that great body of water. The chemical action of the water slowly rotted away the wood. The action took place so slowly that the change would have been quite imperceptible had anyone been present to observe. But while the wood slowly rotted away, the tiny pores of, the wood were filled with The sediment at the bottom o f that body of water, and as the sediment filled the pores of the trees it gradually hardened so that as one looks at the stumps of the trees it is possible to see the very rings which formerly made up the wooden giants. The bark changed, the trunk of the trees changed, and when the water disappeared those m ighty monarchs of the prehistoric forest were left in the condition which we speak of today as being p etri fied. The form of the trees was the same, but their natures were com pletely different. The change was not on the outside, but in the very innermost being of the tree. The change that took place was a change from that wh ich rotted and wasted away into a condition wh ich will endure as long as time endures. It was a change from that which was completely inferior to that which was vastly superior. The very fibres, the very nature of the trees changed. Just so will a change take place in the life o f each Christian. It is a change from that body which decays and which wastes away and which is often racked with pain, sorrow and misery in this life, into that which is infinitely superior, which will endure as long as eternity shall endure. A change w ill take place in which we will not be subject to the laws of time nor space, but in which we w ill become subject to those infinitely higher and more far-reaching laws that pertain to our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. END.
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