The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-04-25

CurSeOn tOOKIrom the ZIP of His own tongue
and put upon the <eyelids: also two
In our civilized lands we have blind
ness 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 news
papers on the jolting cars by the multitudes
who live out of the city and come into bust
ness. But in the landswhere the Divine Sur.
geon operated, the cases OF blindness were
multiplied beyond everything by the par.
teles OF sand floating IN the air, and the
night dews falling ON rthe eyelids OF those
who slept on the top of their houses; and in
some OF these lands it is estimated that 20
out OF a 100 people are Totally blind. Amid
all that crowd of visionless people. what
work for an oculist! And l do not believe
that more than one out of a hundred of that
surgeons cures are reported. He went up
and down among those people who were
feeling slowly their way by staff, or led by
the hand OF a man or rope OF a dog, and in
PRODUCING them to faces of their own house
hold; 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 thrown open, and the
restored went home crying, II see! see!
Thank God, see" That is the oculist we
all need.
Till He touches our eyes we are blind.
Yea, we are very blind. By nature We see
things.wrong it We see them at all. Our best
eternal interests are put before US and we
cannot see them. The glories of loving and
psrdohlng Christ are protected, and we do
not behold them. Or we have d defective
eight"which makes the things of this world
larger than the things of the future, time big
ger than eternity. Or we are eolor-blind and
cannot see the difference between the black
ness of darkness forever and the roseate
morning of everlasting day. But Christ the
Surgeon comes in, and though we sink back
afraid to have Him touch us, yet He puts
His finger on the closed eyelids OF the soul,
and mid might becomes mid-noon; and we un-
derstand- something of the JOY of the young
man of the Bible, who though he had never
before been ableto see his hand before his
face. now, by the touch of Christ, had two
headlights kindled under his brow, cried out
in language that COMPOUNDED the jeering crowd
who were derding the Christ that had effect
ed the cure, and wanted to make Him out
bad man, whether He be sinner or no,
know not; one thing | know, that whereas l
was blind, ROW 1.see.'
But this surgeon was Just as wonderful as
an aurst. 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
racket of our great cities, and the catarrhal
trouble that sweeps through the land, it is
remarkable that there are any good ears at
all. Most wonderful instrument is the hu-
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 mightiest of scientists have put their
skill to it's returning, and sometimes they
stop the progress of it's decadence. or remove
temporary distractions, but not more than
one really deaf ear out ola hundred thousand
is ever cured. 1t took a God to make the
makes me curious to see how Christ the sur
geon succeeds as an aurist.
We are told OF only two cases He operated
on as an ear surgeon. His friend Peter.
naturally high tempered, saw Christ insulted
by a man by the name of Malchus,
and Peter let hissword fly, aim
ing at the mans head, but the sword
our Surgeon touched the liberation and an
other ear bloomed in the place of the one
that had been slashed away. But it is not
the outside ear that hears That is only q
funnel for gathering sound and pouring it in
to the hidden and more elaborate ear. On
the beach of Lake Galilee our Surgeon found
mar deaf and dumb. The patient dwelt in
could not ear a note of music or q clap of
thunder. He could not call father or mother
or wife or children by name. What power
can awaken that dull tympanum or reach
that chain of small bones or revive that audi.
tory nerve or open the gate between the
brain and the outside world? The Surgeon
put His fingers to the deaf ears and agitated
them. and Kept ON agitating them until the
vibration gave vital energy to all the deaf
parts, and they responded, and when our
Surgeon withdrew His fingers from the ears,
the 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
pain ful silence had been built kings high
way of resonance and reclamation. But yet
he is dumb. No word has ever leaped over
his lip Speech was chained nnder his tongue.
Vocalization and accentuation we're to him
an impossbility. He could express neither
love nor indignation nor worship. Our
Surgeon, having unba:red his ear will now
melt the shackle OF his tongue. The Surgeon
will use the same IMMINENT 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 rigidity if the dumb tongue is relaxed,
and between the tongne and the teeth were
born a whole vocabulary, and words few in
to expressions. He not only heard but he
tGIkeu. One gate OF Ills DOuy swung Ill 10 leu
sound enter and the other gate swung out to
let sound depart. Why is 1t that other sur
geons use knives and forceps and probes and
spectroscopes, this Surgeon used only the
ointment of His own lips? To show
that all the curative power we ever feel
comes straight from Christ. And if He
touches MS not, we shall be deaf as q rock
and dumb as tomb. Oh thou greatest of
all aurists, compel us to hear and help US to
speak!
But what were the surgeons fees for all
these cures of eyes and ears and tongues and
whithered hands and crooked backs? The
skill and the paInlessness OF the operations
were worth hundreds and thousands of dol
lars Do not think that the cases He took
were all moneyless. Did He not treat the
nobeman's son? Did He not doctor the
rulers daughter? Did He not effect a cure
in the house of centurion of great wealth,
who had out o. his own pocket built syna-
gogue? They would have paid Him large
fees if He had demanded them, and there
were hundreds of wealthy people in Jerusa-
lem, end among the merchant castles along
Lake Tiberias, who would have given this
Surgeon houses and lands and all they had