The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1888-09-28

and bought up half of heaven and let II
out at ruinous rent, or loaned the
money to celestial citizens at 2 per
cent. a month and got corner on harps
and trumpets! They lived in this world
fifty or sixty years In the presence OF ap-
palling suffering and want and made no
effort for their relief. The charities Of
such people are for the most part in
''paulo-post future" tense and they are
going to do them. The probability is
that II such one in his last will by q
donation to benevolent societiU tries to
atone for his lifetime closefistedness, the
heirs at law will try to break the will by
proving that the old man was senile or
crazy, and the expense of the litigation
will about leave in the lawyers hands
what was meant for the American Bible
society. Oh, ye overweighted successful
business men, whether this sermon reach
your ear or your eye, let me say that
If you are Frustrated with ankle
ties about keeping or investing
these tremendous fortunes, can tell
you how you can do more to get your
health back and your spirits rails than
by drinking gallons of bad tastii water
at Saratoga, Homburg or Carlisle give
to god and humanity and the Bible 10 per
cent of all your income, and it will make
q new man Of you, and from restless walk
ing Of the floor at night you shall have
eight hours sleep without the help of
bromide of potassium, and from no appe-
tito vo,, will ba ~JIx, ~, oblo RI x,,o;t vo,1r
regular meals, and your wan cheek will
fill up, and when you die the blessings
of those who but for you would have per-
ished will bloom all over your grave with
violets, if it be spring, or gladiolus, if it
be autumn.
Perhaps some Of you will take this ad-
vice, but the most of you will not. And
you will try to cure your swollen hand
by getting on it more fingers, and your
rheumatic foot by getting on it more
toes, and there will be q sigh of relief
when you are gone out of the world;
and when over your remains the minis
ter recites the words, BLESSED are the
dead who die in the Lord" persons who
have keen appreciation of the ludicrous
will hardly be able to keep their faces
straight. But whether in that direction
my words do good or not, am anxious
that all who have only ordinary equip
ment be thankful for what they have
and rightly employ it. / think you
all have, figuratively as well as
literally, fingers enough. Do not
long for hindering superfuities. Stand
ing in the presence of this fallen giant of
my text and in this post-mortem exami-
nation of him, let us learn how much
better off we are with just the usual
hand, the usual foot. You have thanked
God for thousand things, but warrant
you never thanked him for tl0A two
implements of work and locomotion, that
no one but the infinite and omnipotent
God could have ever planned or made,
the hand and the foot. Only that SOL
der or that mechanic who, in battle or
through machinery, has lost them, knows
anything about their value, and only the
Christian scientist can have any apprecia-
ton of what divine masterpieces they are.
Sir Charles Bell, the English surgeon, on
the battle field of Waterloo while en-
gagged in amputations Of thu, Yolpded
was so impressed with the wondrd on
structiQn ST the human kls ssirut5E lien
the Earl of Bridgewater gave $40, 05Sfor
essays on the wisdom and goodness of
God, and eight books were written, Sir
Charles Bell wrote his entire book on the
wisdom and goodness of God as displayed
in the human hand. The twenty-seven
bones in hand and wrist with cartilages
and igaments and phalanges of the
fingers all made just ready to knit,
10 sew, to build up, to pull down,
10 weave, to write, to pillow, to
pound, to wheel, to battle, to
give friendly salutation. The tips of its
fingers are so many telegraph offices by
reason of their sensitiveness of touch.
The bridges, the tunnels, the cities of the
whole earth are the victories of the hand.
The hands are not dumb, but often speak
IS distinctly as the lips. With our hands
we invite, we repel, we invoke, we en-
;reat, we wiring them in grief or clap
hem in joy, or spread them abroad in
The malformation of the
giants hand in the text glorifes the usual
hand. Fashioned of God more exquis- |
tely and wondrously than any human
mechanism that was ever contrived, |
charge you use it for God and the lifting of
he world out of its moral predicament.
Employ it in the sublime work of Gospel
You can see the hand is
Just made for that. Four fingers just
vet right to touch your neighbours hand
IN one side and your thumb set SO as to
,lench it on the other side. By all its
ZONES, and joints, and muscles, and carti-
ages, and ligaments, the voice of nature
Joins with the voice of God commanding
you to shake hands. The custom is as
I'D as the Bible, anyhow. Jehu said to
Jehonadab: ''Is thine heart right as my
leart is with thine hearta If it be, give
ne thine hand" When hands join in
Christian salutation Gospel electricity
thrills across the palm from heart to
leart, and from the shoulder of
me to the shoulder of the other. Shake
lands all around. With the timid
md for their encouragement, shake
lands. With the troubled and in warm
hearted sympathy, shake hands. With
he young man just entering business
md discouraged at the small sales and
he large expenses, shake hands. With
he child who is new from God and
tarted on unending journey for which
Ne needs to gather great supply Of
trength, and who can hardly reach up