Page 92 - Neglected Arabia Vol 2

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NEGLECTED AKA El A 7

center of influence and service. This then is the building which repre­
sents our church in the eyes of the people of Basrah. This is as it should
be, for the years since the war have seen many buildings erected which
are symbolic and representative in the eyes of the people. The Imperial
Bank occupies one of the most imposing structures in the city. The
Masons have their temple and all the British business firms have their
own homes in keeping with their dignity and background. So from this
building there radiates the influence of the Reformed Church throughout
all of southern Mesopotamia. The building is known as—but I forget
I am looking into the future. I was going to say, this building is known
as the Tercentenary Building. Will the Reformed Church in 1928 make
our dream come true?
Looking still into the future we see the ever increasing service of our
church to the needs of this people. Here is the child-wdfurc center fin­
ing uit incalculable work of mercy to the hundreds of little children of
the city, the undernourished and unwisely nourished babies, the victims
uf the many preventable diseases of the Orient. Here, too, is the field of
labor of the community nurse supplementing with her personal touch and
sympathy the work of the Government hospital and dispensaries and
compensating in some small measure for the removal of the Lansing
Memorial Hospital from Basrah.
All of these are material things, symbols merely, but symbols of a
service shot through and undergirded with prayer and faith. How is
Basrah to know of the joy and gratitude of this Tercentenary? Only
through these added tools, these material symbols, backed up by deeper
consecration, larger devotion and greater faith. Shall the Tercentenary
merely mark our own pride in a worthy past, or shall it be the fuller,
truer joy of sharing, sharing with even these at the far end of the earth?

Itoalional building ho to the right ot the date tree Scaring the sign-boar ti! d E * 1