Page 75 - Neglected Arabia Vol 1 (2)

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XEGLECTEl) AKA HI A 5

ii makes one sick at heart to try to combat the belief in fatalism
when it leads to inertia. A mother brings her baby to the hospital
totally blind. “Why,” we lament, “didn't you bring the child while
lliC ulcers were small? We might have saved the sight then, but $ *
now it is too late.” “What could l dor” she replies. “It was written
against me that i should not do so.”
U sometimes happens that the missionary doctor is conscious of
distinct advantage to herself derived from the Arab's belief in fatalism.
;\ patient dies suddenly and unexpectedly. In America the outcome
might be, however unjustly, a lawsuit against the doctor. In Arabia
nut so; the relatives of the deceased may hate the doctor who, they
believe, was used as the means of bringing about the calamity, but they
klieve that whatever mistake they think she made was decreed against «
her, ami so she was powerless to prevent it.
Medical mission work has been called the “entering wedge,” and
especially in work for Mohammedans is its value evident. In many
i fanatical town missions have secured their first entrance through
medical work. In a smaller way this is true of innumerable homes.
The Christian missionary is hated; the door is locked tight against her.
Then sickness comes. In despair the doctor is called. She is found
tu be a normal human being, not a monster as formerly supposed.
The children cling to her skirts; the patient finds relief; friendship
b won. Then, one day, the evangelistic worker comes to call with the
ilucior and, behold! a new house is open for the preaching of the
liospel.
liach morning in the Mission Hospital a dispensary gospel-service
%
i, held. There gather daily from fifty to a hundred women and for •M
I,(teen or twenty minutes those Moslem women sic quietly listening to
the “story” which the missionary reads from her Testament and . 1
explains, and then, wonderingly, as the speaker prays for God’s
blessing on them all. Very diliferent is this prayer from the ceremonial
worship to which they are accustomed. The Arab women love the
-jlury telling.” Few of them can read for themselves and they enjoy
j Bible story as our children do. Sometimes the truth “goes home.”
sometimes we see eyes filled with tears. Now and again we see
evidences that God’s spirit is speaking to their hearts. Hundreds of
ikfepcl portions are sold each year to patients to whom they are offered
A a nominal sum after each service. So the seed is sown. Where
ebe can such an opportunity he found as that which is enjoyed by the
Oiri.slian woman doctor among these suffering sisters?