The Brookhaven leader., 1888-10-04

over your grave Win Vloiets ~ w
spring. or gIadiolus " 1t be autumn
Sir Charles Bell, the English surgeon,
on the battle.f field of Waterloo, while en-
gagged iu amputatiOus Of the wounded,
was go IMPRESSED with the wondrous con-
struotion Of the human hand that when the
Earl Of Bridgewater gave fory
thousand dollars for essays on
the wisdom and goodness OF God,
and eight books we're written, Or
Charles Bell wrote his entire booE on the
wisdom and goodness Of God as displayed
IN ths human hand. The twenty seven
bones Ia hand and wrist with carIlages'
and ligaments, and phalanges OF the
fingers all male just ready to knH, 10
sew, 20 build mp, to pull down, to weave
TO write, to plow, 20 pound to wheel, TO
battle. to give friendly salutation. Tho
tips Of its fingers are SO many telegraph
Offices by reason OK their sensitiveness OF
touch The bridges, the tunnels,
tine cities OF the whole earth are
fbe victories Of the hand Inc
handa are not dumb, but often
sneak as distinctly as the lips. with
1pr hands we invite, we repeL we INVOKE
we e7txsat, we wrlnZ them IN griet or
clap them IL Joy, or spread them abroad
IL benedicti0n. The malformatlon OF the
giants hand in -. text gIorineS tne
usual hand. Fashioned OF Goa more eA-
ar,;.itelv ami woudrously than aay hu-
man mechanism that Eas ever contrlVen'
CHARGE YOU f-e It for God and the Iit-
ir, of the world out Of its moral predlca-
ment, Employ it in the sublime WORK OF
Gospel haIili shaking. You can see tne
hand is lust made for that -Four hngers
lust set right to touch your nelghool
hand on one side and your thumb SET 50
as to cliuch it on the other side. by az
its bones, and joints, and muscles an
cartila-es, and ligaments the VOICE OF
nature Joins with the voice OF Goc ia
commanding you to shake hands. lho
custom is as old as the Bible, anyhow
jehu sal to Jehonadab:
"Is thine heart right as my heart 1s with
thine hearty If it be, give me thine
hand"
When hands join in Christian saluta-
! ton a gospel electricity thrills across me
palm from heart TO heart, and from tho
| shoulder Of one to the shoulder OF tile
! other Shake hands all around. "ltn
| the timli and for their encouragement"
| shak. hands. With the troubled and IN
warm hearted sympathy, shake hanos'
| With the young man Just entering ouN'
ness and discouraged at The small saies
| and large expenses, shake hands WIN
the child who is new from God GnQ star1eu
on an uuending journey for WRScn
needs to gather a great supply ol
strength, and who can hardly reach
UP TO you now, because you are so much
! taller. shake hands. Across cradles
and diving beds and graves, shake
| hands. With your enemies who hare
done ali to defame and hurt you, but
whom you can afford to forgive, shaKe
hands. At the door Of churches where
people come in, and at the door OF
churches where people go out snake
hands. Let pulpit shake hands with pew
and Sabbath day shake hands with weeE
day, and earth shake hands with de aven'
On the strange, the mighty, the unoenneo'
| the mysterious, the eternal power OF an
honest shaking. The difference De-
tween these times and the millennial
times is that now some shake hands, but
then all will shake hands, throne and
| footstool across seas and nation wltn
| nation, God and man, church mlntan'
| and church triumphant.
With that Divine triumph Of anat omy
| In your possession, where do you walk!
| In what path of righteousness or Wnat
| path of sin have you set 1t down! Where
| have you left the mark OF your footstepsF
| Amid the petrifcatiOns III the rocks nave
been found the mark Of the feet OF birds
and beasts Of thousands Of years ago.
|
| steps of your lifetime and those you
made fiftv years ago are rs plain as those
| IN ade in the last soft weather. all OF them
petrifed for the judgment day. On the
! foot! How divinely hOnored not only In
| its coustr1cto Il, but in the fact that Goa
represents Himself in the Bible as hay
ing feet. THE clouds on the dust
of His feet;" Darkness was un-
der His feet;" The earth is my
footstool." And representing cyclones,
and curoclydons, and whirlwinds, and
hurricanes as winged creatures, He de-
scribes Himself as putting His foot on
these monsters of the air and walking
from pinion 10 pinlon, saying: 'He walk
eth upon the wings OF the wind" Thou
hast put ali things under His feet" cries
the psalmist on, the foot! Give me the
autobiography of your foot from the time
you stepped out Of the cradle until to-day
and will tell your exact c$laracter now,
and what are your prospects Tor tpe worio
TO come. That there might be no Qouor
about the fact that both these pieces
o. Divine mechanism, hand and FOOT,
belong to Chrst's service, both hands OF
Christ aud both feet Of Christ were
spiked on the cross. Right through
the arch Of both His feet to the hol-
low of His foot went the iron OK torture,
and from the palm OF His hand to the back
of it. and there is not q muscle or nerve
or bone among the twenty-seyen bones
OF the hand and wrist, or among the
twenty-six bones OF the foot, but 1t be-
longs to Him now and forever. Charles
Reade, the great writer, lost the loint OF
his forefinger by feeding bear. Look
ut that your whole hand gets not into the
nav OF the old CcrDerus OF perdition.
Sir Thomas Trowbridge, at the battle OF
Inkerman lost his foot, and when the sol
diers would carry him away he said: NO,
| I do not move until the battle Is won"
| So if our foot be famed or lost let 1t be IN
| he service Of God, our home or our coun'
| try.
| That is the most bea utiful foot that goes
about paths OF greatest usefulness, ana
| that the most beautiful hand that does
| the most to help others. l was reading
OF three women who owere in rivalry about
the appearance of the hand. And the
| one Redeemed her hand with berries, ana
said the beautiful tinge made hers the
most beautiful And another put her
hand in the mountain brook, and said as
tina waters dripped of that her hand was
the most beautiful. And another plucked
flowers off the bank, and under the bloom
coutended that her hand was the most at
tractive Then poor old woman ap-
peared, and, ooking up In her decrepi-
tude. asked for aims. And woman VINO