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pray better if we have an offering first?” They then took an offering before they prayed, and out of their allow ance of a few cents a week they gave $41.01 for their fellow sufferers ih America. A few days later, Liri An, one of the patients, came to the super intendent and expressed regret that he had been absent when the offer ing was given. “But you have no money which you can spare,” said the doctor. “Oh, yes,” replied Lin An. “Don’t you remember asking me to make a little wooden cart with which to wheel one of the patients who has lost both feet and cannot walk? You have been giving me four cents a day for doing this, and I have been saving it, and now I have five dollars to give.’.V Thus it was' that the gift of the man who was disappointed that lie had missed the collection was one of the first received for the building of the church at the leprosarium in our own coqntry.' When the church was completed and a beautiful- memorial service waS planned, the patients ask ed that a voluntary offering be a part of that service. At that time, out of gratitude for what other Christians had done for them, they gave twenty-' five times the gift of Lin An and asked that, this $125 be sent back across the seas to others still more unfortunate than- they. That is the way God does with our true “Krismus Gif’s.” He doubles them, triples them, and multiplies them many times when they are given with ■ the life first and. the heart prepared. On this His coming birthday, may our thoughts'and our love center first in Him. May we, as it were, bake for Him His birthday cake and light for Him His candles shining brightly enough in their small corners to light en a spiritually blacked-out world. “To Bethlehem they came. . . The wise men with their wealth, The shepherds with their lowly adora tion, But both bowed low in honest rever ence Before the Babe. So may I, What’er my rank or power on earth, Owner of wealth or none of it, Bow at His feet in love and know That He accepts the homage of mv heart.”
the neediest of them all, so a gener ous Christmas offering was sent to these so-sick ones. The patients unani mously agreed that every penny of this- fund should go to those in the war-torn areas whom they felt needed it worse than they! Thirty-five dollars was sent as a Christmas gift to a group of leprous patients in Korea. It was enough to buy a goodly amount of sweets for each one, a luxury none of them could ever afford to buy themselves. When asked at a Sunday night wor ship service how they wished this extra money to be spent, a murmur went over the congregation. One of the elders arose and ex plained that since-they were so for tunate as to have a home to live in and friends to care ior them, they wished this gift used for those “with out the camp” more unfortunate than they. -Let us ponder this in our hearts, for a moment. Who, indeed, is more to be pitied than a victim of leprosy? Can not a totally blind man,'or a very sick man, or an exceedingly poor man, or a half-starved war sufferer say, “There is one on earth more unfor tunate than I—he who has leprosy’*? Would any one of these change places with him? And yet those with leprosy within the fold can truthfully say that there are those more unfor tunate than they. It is those with leprosy “without the camp"! From five to ten million of them there are, as yet untouched by the gospel of Christ and unreached by His follow ers. If we, too, should give our gifts to them as these understanding‘ones did, many “without the camp”*would soon come “within the fold.” When a Protestant C o m m u n i t y Church was being built at the United States leprosarium in Carville, La., for those ill with leprosy in our own coun try, requests for prayer for this work were sent to other similar colonies around the world. The letter was read by the superintendent of one of these colonies and a vote was taken to join other groups in this prayer fellowship for funds for the work. One of the elders then arose and said, “Do you not think that we can
colony is first swept, then garnished. Each patient, out of his slender al lowance of nineteen cents a week, buys, bright colored paper out of which he makes lanterns and flags and wreaths and garlands of artificial flowers to decorate his own home and his part of the 'village. A week be fore Christmas, there, are miles of streets all bedecked with lanterns and flags, and hundreds of visitors drive about the grounds to see the cheerful sight. From outward appearances, no one could possibly imagine that every body in this village was Sick and had once been an outcast. The secret of- their joy lies in the lovely White chapel that stands in the center of the village, around which thè whole lifé of the community cen ters. The secret lies in the representa tion of the crude manger of the holy Babe, and in the hearts of the angels and shepherds and wise men who commemorate in pageantry, for four consecutive nights during Christmas week, the coming to earth of the Lord Jésus. The secret shines . upon the lighted faces of those in the candle--' light procession who- gather at the church in the dark of Christmas Eve (those who are not maimed and crippled) and who march with flicker ing torches through the dark streets singing “ Glory to God in ,the highest, and on earth reace, good will to men.” Christmas Day dawns for them with singing, always singing. They sing their way to the church again, and there they give—and such giving! First having prepared their hearts for the Lord, and having prepared their humble homes and made their village worthy of His visitation, they are now prepared to offer their gifts be fore the altar. There is so often a littleness in big things, and a greatness in little things that only the spiritual eye can discern. Let us ask God to anoint our eyes with spiritual eye salve that we may discern the bigness of these small gifts which the least have brought to Him as their birthday of ferings. Giving with Gratitude A world war \yas waging, in spite of the tragic need by war sufferers, Christian friends in America realized that those with leprosy were always
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