Page 288 - Neglected Arabia Vol 2

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NliCUiCriilJ A KAMA 5
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it paved the way tor mure profound passages and we tried never to stop \
l,rfore we had reached the Crucifixion or the parable of the Good Shep­
herd. Some of the listeners carried away copies of the Gospel of Matthew
or the Gospel of John so that they could learn more of Christ who said
Mich wonderful things.
And it came to pass in those days that Dr. Dame caught the vision of
a Women’s Hospital tor Bahrain, and being unusually endowed with what ;i
the irreverent American terms the ability to “bring back the bacon,” con­ i
trary to the pessimistic prognostications of his friends, he succeeded in
objectifying the heavenly vision. But he was on furlough in America
when the hospital was finished, so the one individual who should have
been there, had no share in its dedication. We were stirred that morning I
as men rarely are. We told the listeners that just as a traveler will search
in the desert for his lost brother and call and call and call, so that this
llii.spiud is the call of Christ to the women of Arabia. In it lie is saying,
"Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and 1 will give you
rest," that if there is any woman top dirty and tuo ill and loo repulsive for
any other house in Bahrain, this tis her home. We told them that as the
doctor and the nurses serve those in need, it is the gentleness and the
kindness and the love of Christ, that the hands and the feet and the voice
of these ministering angels show.
A crowd of women listened; daughters of joy whose souls sit in sack­
cloth and ashes, wives whose husbands beat and mistreat and desert them, 41
mothers who should still be playing with dolls; daughters of the King,
all.of them, who tear heavy burdens and grievous to be borne. It seemed
as if the face of Christ became to some tiny degree visible as they listened.
And in the Bottina last year we set up the magic lantern and showed
the jxiople the prophets of old, and Christ on the cross. Night after night,
.scores and hundreds came and listened and saw. On this trip, Mr. Van '
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I’cursem tried to know nothing except Jesus Christ and I lim crucified, >
“lie was not crucified,” says the Koran. "The account is a mistake.” I hit $ 1
those people saw the crucifixion as the picture stood, out against the dark !
night and they went away much impressed. How much did they under­
stand, those men who had never had the most elementary introduction to
die Gospel before? Only God knows, but probably even the simplest could £
gather that here was a sacrifice for our sins, a road to forgiveness that
was different from anything they had heard before.
!
So in the morning we sow our seed and in the evening we withhold not «
our hand, and who knoweth which shall prosper, whether this or that, or
whether they both shall be alike good.

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