The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1883-11-03
TALMAGE's SERMON.


lCONtINUED FROM THE FIRST PAGH.l
garment, but trembling of the forearm
and an uncertain movement of the hand,
and quiVering of the which did not al
low her to touch the garment at Just
the point toward which she aimed it.
1t was extreme and agOnizing nervous
ness thas touched the sensitive Christ.
When that nervous woman pressed
through the crowd she made the way for
all the victims of nervous depression.
Such persons get but little sympathy. IL
man have an arm broken or woman
have an eye put out or in a railroad col
llssion. people are pulled out with a
thigh broken, everybody pities but it ex-
cites no special compassion when you
say OF anyone: "He is suffering from
nervous depression" If you cannot
sleep despise not bromide or pOtassims.
Ii you have nervous parOXysm do not
despise mOrphia. If you are weakened
with long disorder do not despise qui-
nine as tonic. But in my text | find
not only the pathOlOg of your trouble
but the therapeutics. Touch Christ.
and and fOrebOding. Touch Him not
only on the hem of His garment, but
you have divine permission to touch
Him on the shoulder, where he carries
our burdens and on the head,
where He remembers all our woes
and on the heart, which is the center
of His love and compassion and sym
pathy.
Paul, always saying the grandest
things in the best way, says: I'VE have
not high priest which may not be tOu-
ehed by the feeling of our inhTmities,
but who was in all points tempted like
as we are" Christ was nervous him
self. All those nights which he spent
out OF doors and in malarial regions,
which kill American and European
travellers If at certain seasons they come
there, his hunger, his feet wet under
the wash of the sea, aagellatiOn and in
suit and wilderness tramp, must have
5hattele ed his nervous System-a state
ment proved by the fact that in his cru
cidxiOn he died sooner than most per
sous who were cruciaed. Others lin
gered on the cross twenty-fOur or forty
eight hours; he expired in six. He was
exhausted before he assembled the bloody
tree. A wOrnOut Christ in full and
OverdOwing sympathy with all who are
worn Outl A lady desirOus of Christian
work obtained some religious tracts for
distribution. She saw policeman drag
glng an Intoxicated and criminal WOm-
an to the station house. After the un-
fortunate was discharged from the Jail
the tract distributor met her and threw
her arms around her and kissed her.
The unfortunate cried out: "0h, what
did you do that forP" The reply was:
81 don't know; but L think Jesus sent
me to do it," The woman said: Don't
kiss me any more, it will break my
heart. Why, nobody has kissed me since
my mother died." That sisterly kiss
brought the wanderer to Christ, and
started her on the road to heaven. The
world wants sympathy, is dying for SYM
pathy; whole hearted, Christian sympa-
thy. There Is OmnipOtence in such a
touch. Oh, am so glad when we touch
Christ, Christ touches US! A man with
knuckles and chains and limbs falling
apart with the living death called lep-
rosy, approached Christ. A hundred
doctors could not have healed him. Most
skilled surgery would have been baked
before the loathsOme patient. Christ
did not ampGtate, did not cut, did not
blister. He touched him and he was
well. The mOther-in-law of Peter, the
apostle, was in raging fever, whether of
brain or typhoid l know not. The di-
vine physician gave no febTifuge, he
prescribed no drops, he did not diet her;
he touched her and she was we'll. Two
men came stumbling into house, feel
ing their way with a staff, for
they were sightless. He did not
lift their eyelids to see whether it was
cataract or Ophthalmy. He did not tell
them to stay in dark room. He touch
ed them and they saw everything.
A man, the drum of whose ear refused
to vibrate, and who had a suffering
tongue, was brought up. Christ touched
his ear and he heard, touched his tongue
and he articulated, Christ met fu-
neral train, widowed mother follow
ing her only son. He touched the hearse
and the Obsequies ended in TeSurrec-
tiOn. Oh, my soul, / am so glad that
when we touch Christ, Christ touches
us. When we, out of any kind Of grief
or VeXatiOn, put on him the hand of
prayer, 1t arouses all his human remin-
iscence. Are we temptedp He was
tempted. Are we prosecuted? He was
prosecuted. Are we sick? He was sick.
Saint YOO of Kermartin found on his
doorstep one morning poor man who
had spent the night there in the cold.
The next night Saint YOO compelled the
beggar to sleep in his bed while Saint
YOO slept on the doorstep, that he might
fully understand the feeling of the des-
titute. All, that is the way Christ ap-
preciates all our pain. He slept on the
doorstep of our unhOspitable world that
would not let him in, and now he has
infinite pity and cOmmiseratiOn for all
the suffering of all ages. One voice ut
tered among mountain passes may have
twenty or thirty or forty echoes They
come from all sides, and are weird and
EybuLulCs Anu 6foIy bOuuu VI prayer,
and every cry of distress, and every as
criptiOD of praise, calls out divine re-
spOnse and has divine reverbeTatiOn, and
all the heavens are galleries of Sympa-
thetic echo, and the thrones of minis
tering angels echo, and the hearts of
God the father, God the son, and God the
holy ghost echo and re-echO. preach
Christ so near you can touch him;
touch him and get pardon for all your
sin; touch him and get manumission
for all your bondage. You know how
two men may take hold of two ends of
an electric chain, one end in one hand
and the other in the other hand, and
that hundred persons taking hold of
that chain will feel the electric power.
| SO Christ stands, in one wounded hand
holding one end of the chain of electric
| love, and with the other wounded hand
he lays hold of the other end of the
chain. and all beings earthly and an
gelic may lay hold of it, and round and
round in everlasting and sublime cir
cult, may rush the thrill of terrestrial,
| celestial, sanity, cherubic, seraphic
and divine sympathy.