“The English Missionaries had been anxious for some time to build a leper hospital, but could not spare the energy for it from their other work. And for a long time the Catholics seemed entirely indifferent to the needs of lepers. But finally, there arrived in the latter mission a very earnest and sympathetic priest, whose attention was early attracted to the collection of miserable hovels outside the city, where the community of suffering had drawn together a larger group of outcast lepers. The priest determined that something must be done for them.... “But it appears that the intrusion of the French into the matter angered General Luk so much that he took measures immediately to dispose of the question in another way. Soldiers were sent out to dig a deep trench near by the leper village, and early on a Saturday morning soon after a large body of troops completely surrounded the lepers’ wretched huts. Shouts brought them out of the door of their hovels, and immediately the soldiers opened fire, shooting relentlessly until the whole community--men, women and children--were dead or helplessly wounded. Then the whole mass, many still living, were dropped into the trench, kerosene poured over them and the pile set alight. The victims at this one point numbered fifty-three. Of course there was immense excitement in the city, and to defend himself the governor general issued a proclamation urging that all lepers should be put out of the way, and advising that those who did not voluntarily kill themselves should be killed by their friends and relatives. How many more died in this way is not known. “Many crimes have been committed in the name of civilization, as of liberty, but perhaps never one quite so monstrous as this in the name of ‘hygiene.’ Certainly the incident illustrates how keenly China needs not civilization simply, but civilization based upon Christian religion.”[50] [Sidenote: “The child in the midst.”] “The child in the midst,” playful, trustful, loving, helpless, exalted by our Saviour into a type to be admired and copied if one would enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! The Master placed him in the very midst of His disciples, where he might find shelter, protection, and love. But today we find the little ones, thousands, millions of them, in the midst of suffering, neglect, vice, crime, torture, despair, danger to body and soul. And ever and anon the Master’s voice echoes in our ears, “Whosoever shall receive _one_ such little one in My name, receiveth Me.” QUOTATIONS FEAST DAY, ARABIA