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 YOUNG MOSLEM AND CHRISTIANITY 145

the cross which gripped him, and which ultimately resulted in his conversion. It was the story of a mother whose little girl's clothes caught fire and who, tearing the clothes from her own body, used them to heat out the flames. She saved the little one's life, but sustained deep and ugly wounds on her own hands which made them crooked and unsightly. When the child grew old enough to observe carefully her mother's scarred hands, she said to her mother one day, "Mother, I don't like your hands. They are so crooked and scarred and ugly. They are not like other people's hands." Then the mother explained how these scars had come. The little girl understood, and kissing her mother's hands she replied, "Now, mother, I understand, and I think yours are the most beautiful hands in the world, because they saved my life."

Abdullah says that this touching story unlocked for him the meaning of the crucifixion, and forever changed the course of his life. The assurance that Christ had through his own sacrifice upon the cross somehow saved the lives of even unbelievers like himself gave him courage, and sustained him through the fierce and bitter persecution which his relatives visited upon him when he became a Christian. They would hide his Bible, and even burned one copy after another. Finally they forced him to leave home, and he became a wanderer in distant parts of the country. But through it all he remained faithful to his Lord, and today he is one of the most devoted followers of Christ, and one of the most beloved evangelists and