The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1890-05-08

be free from this pain of thirty eight Jears?'
Christ the Surgeon could not stand that.
Bending over the man on the mattress, and
in voice tender with all sympathy. but
strong with all omnpotence, He says, "Rlse:
And the invalid instantly scrambles to his
knees and then puts out his right loot. tnen
his left foot, and then stood uprightaS though
he had never been Frustrated. While he
stands looking at the Doctor with Joy too
much to hold, the Doctor says: shoulder
this mattress. for you are not only we'll
enough to walk, but well enough to work,
and start out from these mineral baths. Take
up thy bed and walk" Oh, what surgeon
for chronic cases then, and for chronic cases
now,
This is not applicable so much to those VINO
are only a little hurt of sin and only for
short time, but to those prostratad of sin
twelve years. eighteen years, thirty-elght
years Here is Surgeon able to give i'm
mortal health. "Oh," you say. II am so
completely overthrown and trampled down
of sin that l cannot rise" Are you hatter
down than this patient at the mineral baths?
No Then rise. In the name of Jesus of
Nazareth, the Surgeon who offers YOU His
right hand of help. bid thee rise. No cases
of acute sin, but of chronic sin-those who
have not prayed for thirtyeight years, those
who have not been to church for thirty-eignt
years, those who have been gamblers, or
Jbertines, or thieves or outlaws, OF bias
rhemers, or infidelS, or atheists, or all these
together, for thirty-eight years. A Christ
for exigencies! A Christ for dead lift! A
Surgeon who never loses case!
In speaking of Christ as surgeon, | must
consider Him as an oculist, or eye doctor, and
all aurist, or ear doctor. Was there ever sucn
another oculist? That He was particularly
sorry for the blind folks, take from the fact
that the most of His works was with the dis
eased optic nerves. ] have not time to count
I'D the number of blind people mentioned
who got His cure Two blind men in one
house, also one who was born blind; so that
it was not removal of visual obstruction,
but the creation Of the cornea, and clllary
muscle, and crystalline lens, and retlna,
and optic nerve, aId tear gland: also the
blind man of Bethsaida, cured by the saliva
whica the Surgeon took from the tip OF Hls
own tongue and put upon the eyelids also
two blind men who sat by the waySide. In
our civilized lands we have blindness enough,
the ratio fearfully increasing, according to
the statement of Boston and New York and
Philadelphia oculists, because Of the reading
of morning and evening newspapers on the
joting cars by the multituies who live out of
the city and come in to business.
But in the lands where this Divine Surgeon
operated, the cases of blindness were multi.
pied beyond everything by the particles OF
saui floating in the air. and Che night dews
falling on the eyelids of those who slept on
the top of their houses: and in some of these
lands it is estimated that twenty out of a
hundred people are totally blind Amid all
tiat crowd Of visio2less people, what WORK
for an oculist And | do not believe that
more than one out of hundred of that Sur
g.on's cures were reported. He wentup and
down among those people wn0 were feeling
slowly their way hy staff or lei by the hand
of man OF rope of dog, and introducing them
to the faces of their own household, to the
sunrise and the sunset, and the evening star.
He just ran His hand over the expreSsionleSs
face, and the shutters of both windows were
swung open, and the restored went home,
crying II seei see! Thank God, seew
That is the oculist we all need. Till He
touches our eyes we are blind. Yea, we were
oorn blind. BY nature we see things wrong
if we see them at all. Our best eternal inter
ssts are put before us, and we cannot see
them The glories of loving and pardoning
Christ are projected, and we do not behold
them Or we have defective sight which
makes the things of this world larger than
the things o, the future, time bigger than
sterniSy. Or we are color blind ard cauno
see the difference between the blaclness o
darkness forever and the roseate morning o.
an everlasting day. But Christ the Surgeon
comes in, and though we shrink back, afraid
to have Him touch u.s. yet He puts
His fingers on the closed eyelids of the soul.
and midnight becomes mid-noon; and we
understand something of the Joy o. the young
man of the Bible, who though he had neve.'
before been able to see his hand before his
face, now, by the touch of Christ, had two
headlights kindlei under his brow, cried out
in language that confounded the jeerinr
crowd who were deriding the Christ thai
had effected the cure, and wanted to make
Him out bad man ''Whether He be sinner
or no, know not; one thing | know, that
whereas was blind, now see."
But this Surgeon was just as wonderful as
On aurist. Very few people have two good
ears Nine out of ten people are particular
to get on this or that side of you when they
sit or walk or ride with you, because they
have one disabled ear. Many have both ears
damaged, and what with the constant rack.
ct of our great cities, and the catarrhal
troubles that sweep through the land, 1t IS
remarkable that there are any good ears at
all. Most wonderful instrument is the hui
man ear. 1t is harp and drum and telegraph
and telephone and whispering gallery all IN
one So delicate and wondrous is its con-
struction that the most difficult OF all things
to reconstruct is the auditory apparatus
The miehtiest of scientists have put their
skill to its returning and sometimes they stop
the progress of its decadence, or remove
Temporary distractions, but not more than
one really deaf ear out of hundred thou
sand is ever cured. 1t took God to make
the ear, and it takes God to mendlt That
makes me curious to see how Cnrlst tne ouF-
geon succeeds as an aurist.
We are told of only two cases He operated
on as an ear surgeon. His friend Peter, nat
urally high tempered, saw Christ lnsulted oy
a men by the name of Malchus, and Peter
let his sword fiy, aiming at the mans head,
but the sword slipped and hewed off the out
side ear, and our Surgeon touched the lacera-
ton and another ear hioomed in the place OF
the one that had been slashed away. But 1t
is not the outside ear thnt hears That Is
only a funnel for gathering sound and pour
ing it into the hidden and more elaborate
ear. On the beach of Lake Galilee our Sur
econ found a man deaf and dumb. The pa
tient dwelt in perpetual silence, and was
speechless. He could not hear note OF mu
sic or clap of thunder. He could not call
father or mother or wife or children by name.
What power can waken that dull tynpanum
or reach that chain Of small bones or revive
that auditory nerve or open the gate between
the brain and the outside world? The Sur
geon put His fingers in the deaf ears and agl
tated them, and kept on agitating them unit
the vibration gave vital energy to all the
dead parts. and they responded, and wner
our Surgeon withdrew His fingers from the
ears, the two tunnels of sound were clear FOL
all sweet voices Of music and friendship. Fol
the first time in his life he heard the dash o.
the waves of Galilee. Through the desert o.
painful silence mad been built a kings high
way of resonance and acclamation. Butye
he was dumb. No word had ever leaped owe
his lip. Speech was chained under his tongue
Vocalization and accentuatlon were TO mn
an impossibility. He could express neithe
love nor indignation nor worship. Our Sun
uoo, having nnha rrad MS ear will now mel