00.01 Introduction
Introductory Words
One of the pleasantest episodes in my recent visit to India was the privilege of enjoying the hospitality of Miss Thoburn at Lucknow. One of her guests was Miss Mary Reed, with whom I had more than one delightful talk. This is my plea for writing a few introductory words to this record of her life and work.
She told me her wonderful story ; how she first discovered that she was afflicted with the painful and loathsome disease of leprosy ; tore herself away from those who loved her, without trusting herself to say good-bye ; and finally consecrated her life to the relief of the lepers of India. From the first day until now she has borne her heavy cross in a spirit of consecration which makes the story of her life one of the most inspiring in missionary biography.
Next to sitting with her, and hearing the account of God’s dealings with her from her own lips, is the opportunity of reading her story as told by the compiler of these pages, who has brought a sympathetic spirit and a full knowledge of the facts to aid him in the delineation of this noble life. Not only does she never utter a murmuring word at her lot of suffering and isolation, or her environment of sin, disease, and death, but she joyfully acquiesces in what she accepts as God’s will. She has already labored for eight years among her fellow-sufferers with evident tokens of the Divine approval. Necessarily debarred in a great measure from the privileges of intercourse with fellow-workers, she has, in her lonely retreat amid the Himalayan snows, been cast the more utterly upon God and has proved that " They who trust Him wholly Find Him wholly true."
She has had the privilege of seeing the Institution under her care extend. Her afflicted flock has also increased in number ; but, above all, she has had the rare joy of seeing many lepers welcomed into the fellowship of the Christian Church. In a strength which is distinctly God-given, she labors on in faith and hope, receiving a present reward in the knowledge that in the deepest sense it is still true that the ’’Lepers are cleansed."
I cannot refrain from expressing my sincere admiration for Miss Reed’s devoted spirit and Christlike work, and I commend this little volume to all those who are interested in foreign missions, and trust that it may be the means of eliciting sympathy and support for the work of The Mission to Lepers in India and the East of which Society Miss Reed is an honored and valued worker. F. B. Meyer.