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discernment: it is not the granting of a thing that proves whether it is right or wrong. Our Lord asked that the cup might pass away, and it did not, though the asking was in perfect submission, and He had His answer in resurrection. Yet " for this cause came I unto this hour." A person losing his mind may be in discipline; for "Affliction does not spring out of the dust" in any way. Take Job: he had elephantiasis, or whatever you call it; and when he had a house, there were plenty of winds to blow it down, and plenty of people to sweep away his cattle; but it was a particular use of these by Satan, and all within God's limits.

The following further quotations are from the book "Adventures with the Bible in Brazil" by F.C.Glass and published by Pickering & Inglis.

Extract from Chapter XXVII The Leper

Camillo Roig was a prosperous rum seller in a seedy suburb of S. Paulo... but he was a leper! For many years he had sought deliverance, had travelled far and wide, and had spent large sums of money, all to no effect; and his scarred and bloated face grew worse and worse... "Will you accept one of these little books?" It was a very pleasant-faced, smiling young lady

who addressed him, with a very nice voice, too - at least, so Camillo thought; so he accepted the proffered Gospel with a good grace, and the lady passed on.

It was a pretty little book, with a picture on the cover - a Gospel prepared by the Scripture Gift Mission - and it happened to bear the name of his favourite saint, though whether this was John the Baptist or John the Evangelist he was not sure. So on this account, and because of the lady's smile, he kept the book.

A few days later, out of curiosity, he started reading the first chapter. At once an inexplicable sensation thrilled his mind, and though he could barely understand what he read he felt a deep conviction that it was the Word of God.

Camillo read the Gospel through, and it haunted him day and night. Do what he would, he could not drown the impression made. There was the address of a Gospel Hall stamped on the back cover of the book, and several times he resisted an impulse to go there. At last his state of mind was such that he threw all pride to the winds, and crossed to the other side of the city where the hall was situated. He heard the Gospel preached for the first time, drank it in thirstily, and a few weeks after was truly converted.

Camillo at once made short work of his little saints, but he did not see how he could abandon his livelihood. Soon after, a baptismal was announced, and he applied as a candidate, but found to his sorrow that he could not be accepted until he had abandoned his rum selling. This he endeavoured to do, but could not find a purchaser.

On the eve of the baptism, however, Camillo suddenly resolved to forsake all for Christ's sake. He did so at a great sacrifice; and the following day he was baptised with some fifteen others in the Tiete River.

The day after his baptism Camillo stood at the mirror prepared for his morning shave. He almost dropped the razor in amazement, and called out excitedly to his wife: "Look at my face! I’m healed! glory to God!" The ugly sores on his face were gone, and the bloated appearance had vanished! He stripped and found the same thing had taken place all over his body. He was healed - healed on the occasion of his baptism!

I knew Camillo before the event, with the tell-tale sores on his hands and face, and since that eventful day I have known and travelled with him for years; and I can affirm from intimate knowledge of the man that, explain it as you may, he has not a trace of the foul disease upon him up to the present day, ten years later.

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