The intelligencer., 1890-04-26

X
failed and all the prescriptions have
proved valueless. and have got worse
and worse, and / can neither move hand
or foot or head. o, If l could only be
free from this pain Of thirty-eight
yearsP' Christ the Surgeon could not
stand that Bending over the man on
the mattress, and with a voice tender
with all sympathy, but strong with all
omnipotence, He says, "Risel" And the
invalid instantly scrambled to his knees
and then puts out his right foot, and
then his left foot and then stood up.
right as though he had never been pros.
trated. While he stands looking at the
Doctor with joy too much to hold the
Doctor says: shoulder this mattress
for you are not only well enough to
walk, but we'll enough to work, and
start out from these mineral baths. Take
up thy bed and walk" o what a Surgeon
for chronic cases then and for chronic
cases nowl
This is not applicable 30 much to those
who are only little hurt of sin, and
only for short time, but to those pros
trated of sin twelve years, eighteen
years, thirty-eight years. Here is a
Surgeon able to give immortal health.
CO." you say, 81 am SO completely over
thrown and trampled down of sin that /
can not RISE" Are you fatter 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, l bid thee rise
Not cases Of acute sin, but of chronic
sin-those who have not prayed for
thirty-eight years, those who have not
been to church for thirty-eight years,
those who have been gamblers, or liber-
tines, or thieves, or outlaws, or BIAS
phemers, or infldels, or atheists, or all
these together, for thirty-eight years
dead lift! A Surgeon who never loses q
easel
In speaking Of Christ as a surgeon, 1
must consider Him an oculist, or eve
doctor, and an aurist or ear doctor
Was there ever such another oculist?
That He was particularly sorry for the
blind folks, / take from the fact that
the most OF His work was with the dis
eased optic nerves. / have not time to
count up the number of blind people
mentioned who got His cure. Two blind
men in one house, also one was born
blind; SO that 1t was not removal of a
visual obstruction, but the creation Of
the cornea, and ciliary muscle, and crys-
talline lense, and retina, and optic
nerve, and tear gland; also the blind
man OF Bethsaida, cured by the saliva
which the Surgeon took from the tip of
His own tongue and put upon the eye-
lids; also two blind men who sat by the
wayside. In our civilized lands we have
blindness enough, the ratio fearfully in
creasing, according to the statement of
Boston and New York and Philadel-
phia occulists, because of the read
ing OF morning and evening newspa-
pers on the jolting cars by the multi
tudes 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 multiplied beyond every
thing by the PARTICLES Of sand floating
IN the air and the night dews falling on
the eyelids Of those who slept on the
tops of their houses, and in some of
these lands it is estimated that twenty
out of hundred people are totally
blind. Amid all that crowd of vision
less people what work for an occulist!
And do not believe that more than one
out of hundred Of that surgeons cures
were reported. He went up and down
among those people who were feeling
slowly their way by staff or led by the
hand of man or rope Of dog, and intro
ducing them to the faces of their own
and 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: 81 see! l see! Thank God, 1
seel' That is the occulist we all need.
Till He touches our eyes we are blind.
Our best eternal interests are put be-
fore US and we can not see them. The
glories Of loving and pardoning Christ
are projected and we do not behold
them. Or we have a defective sight
which makes the things Of the future,
time bigger than eternity. Or we are
color blind and can not see the differ
once between the blackness of darkness
forever and the roseate morning of an
day. But Christ the Sur
geon comes in, and though we shrink
back afraid to have Him touch us, yet
He puts His fingers on the closed eye
lids of the soul and midnight becomes
mid noon.
We are told of only two cases He op-
Grated on as an ear surgeon. His friend
Peter, naturally high tempered, saw
Christ insulted by man by the name
" Malchus and Peter let his sword nv.
aiming at the mans head, but the sword
slipped and hewed off the outside ear,
and our Surgeon touched the laceration
and another ear bloomed in the place Of
the one that had been slashed away.
But 1t 10 not the outside ear that hears.
That Is only funnel for gathering
sound and pouring it into the hidden
and more elaborate ear. On the beach
of Lake Galilee our Surgeon found
man deaf and dumb. The patient dwelt
In perpetual silence and was speechless.
He could not hear O note Of music or
clap of thunder. He could not call
father or mother or wife or children
by name. What power can waken
that dull tympanum or reach that chain
of small bones or revive that audito-
ry nerve or open the gate between to
brain and the outside world? The Sur
geon put His fingers in the deaf ears and
agitated them, and kept on agitating
them until the vibration gave vital en-
ergy to all the dead parts, and they re-
sponded, and when our Surgeon with
drew His fingers from the ears, the two
tunnels of sound were clear for all sweet
voices of music and friendship. For the
first time In his life he heard the dash
of the waves of Galilee. Through the
desert of painful silence had been built
. kings highway OF resonance and ac-
clamation. But yet he was dumb. No
word had ever lesped over his lip.
Speech was chained under his tongue.
Vocalization and accentuation were to
him an impossibility. He could express
neither love nor indignation nor wor-
ship. Our Surgeon, having unbarred
his ear, will now melt the shackle OF his
tongue. The Surgeon will use the same
liniment or salve that He used on two
occasions for the cure of blind people,
namely, the moisture Of His own mouth.
The application is made. And 10, the
rigidlty of the dumb tongue Is relaxed,
and between the tongue and teeth were
born whole vocabulary, and words flew
into expression. He not only heard but
he talked. One gate Of his body swung in
to let sound enter, and the other gate
swung out to let sound depart Why Is
1t that while other surgeons used knives
and forceps and probes and spectre
scopes, this Surgeon used only the oint-
ment Of His own lips2 To show that all