bish heap of life. Christianity was first to regard everyone as equal. A few years ago, at the Berlin Congress on World Evangelism, I had the privilege of listening, through an interpreter, to two of the Auca Indians. They had become Christians and for the first time came out into the modern world. They told us what life used to be like in their civilization before Christ's message was received. For one thing they had many wives. They quarreled continually. Happi ness and contentment followed their new way of life. Previously they used to hate and kill those who came into their territory. That is why they killed those five young men who sought to reach them in Ecuador with the Christian mes sage. Instead they now pray for their enemies. They go up and down the river in boats seeking to share the Christian message with others. They also explained that previ ously, when their parents became too old or too weak to work, by custom, they would bury them alive to be rid of the hindrance. Now things were different for, in Christ, all things had become new. They testified that they had learned to love, honor and care for their elderly parents. The Gospel has also transformed life for women. Aristotle, in the golden age of great culture and learning, wrote, "Society would be completely disorganized if women were on an equal plain with their masters." Socrates, and other great philosophers of that era, inquired, "Men, who do you talk to less than your wife?" Plato, in his book out lining his plan for the ideal state, recommended that women be held
had begun to deteriorate, the in stitution of marriage and family started to break up. Many women had a new husband every year. Children were often unwanted, es pecially if they were girls. Archaeologists have uncovered an interesting letter written by a man who had gone off to busi ness across the Mediterranean Sea to Egypt. He sent a papyrus letter to his wife, "My dear, if by chance, while I am gone you should bear a child, if it is a boy, let it live. If it is a girl, throw it out." Today, from the perspective of modern society, the Christian civilization takes a different view of life and wonders how people could be so callous. The difference came as a result of the One who said "Let the chil dren come unto me. Do not hinder them because of such is the king dom of Heaven." The Gospel of Christ has also changed life for the weak and sick. There was a time when there were no hospitals. Dr. A. Randall Short points out that the first blind asy lum in history was founded by a Christian monk. The first free dis pensary was started by a Christian merchant. The first hospital, of which we have any record, was founded by a Christian woman. As William Barcley puts it, "Christian ity was the first religion to be in terested in the broken things of life." Today, all over the world, Christian doctors and nurses are carrying on this ministry of com passion in the name of Christ who makes broken men whole. The Gospel of Christ is also work ing to transform life for the aged. In the ancient world the elderly per son was regarded as worth nothing else than to be discarded on the rub
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