The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1890-05-02
DIVINE HEALING,
Dr.. Talmage's Familiar Talk
About Christ as q
Surgeon.
How He Made the Blind See.
the Lame Walk. and
the Dead Arise.

the Lame Walk. and
the Dead Arise.
BR6oKLSN SpEcIAL.-Dr. Talmage discours.
ed on the profession.oi healing. His text was
Matthew 11:5. 1.-The blind receive their sight.
and the lnme walI. the lepers ore cleansed, and
the deaf hcnr" lie said:
Doctor" said to n distinguished sur.
geon, ''do you not get worn out with con.
staLtly seeing SO mnny wounds and broken
bones and distortions of the human body"
ooh, no" he answered, "all and is overcome
by my joy in curing them" A sublimer or
moro beautiful art never came down from
heaven than the art Of surgery Catasrophs
and disease entered the carth so early that
one Of the frat wants Of the world was a doc
tor. Our crippled and aRonized human race
called for surgeon and family physician or
many years before they came The first sur.
geons who anwered this call were ministers
Of religion, namely, the Egyptian priests.
And what grand thing If all
clergymen were also doctors, i j. DIS
were N. DIS, for there are so many cases
where body md soul need treatment ut
the same time, consolation and medicine.
theology and therapeutics. Az the first sur.
geons Of the world we're also ministers of re.
ligion, may these two professionals always
be in full sympathy! But under what disad.
vantages the early surgeons worked, from
the fact that the dissection Of the human
body was forbidden. first l,y the pagans and
then by the early Christians! Apes, being
the brutes most like the human race, we're
dissected, but no human body nigh he un-
folded for physiologicu cul md anatomical ex.
plorations, and the surgeons had to guess
what was inside the templely looking at the
outside Tit. fthey failed in any surgical
operation they were prosecuted nnd driven
out of the city, as was Archnsnthus because
of his bold but unsuccessful attempt to save
u patient.
kept calling for surgeons, aud their first
skill is spoken of in Genesis, where they EN-.
ployetl their art for the incisions ofa sncred
rite. God making surgery the predecessor OF
baptism; and We see it again in III. Kings,
whero Ahaziah, the monarch, stepped on
some cracked lattice. work in the palace, and
1t broke, and he fell from the upper to the
lower floor, and lie was 30 hurt Tint he
to the village of Ekron for aid; aud Escula.
Plus, who wrought such wonders OF surgery
that he was deihed, and temples were built
for his worship ut Pergamos; and Epdaurus
md Podelrius introduced for the relief Of
the world phlebotomy: and Dnmocedes cured
the dislocatel ankle of King Darius and the
cancer Of his queen; and lIippocrntes put
successful hand on fractures, and introduced
amputntion; and Praxngoras removed OBJ
structions; and Herophilus hogan dissection;
and Erasistratus removed tumors nn,i Ccs.
lus, the Roman surgeon, removed cataract
from the eye. and used the Spanish fly; and
Heliodorus arrested discnse of the throat;
and Alexander. Of Trnlles, treated the eye;
and Rhaz1. cauterizGti for the prevention of
hydrophobia; and l'ercivnl Pott came to
combat disease Of tho spine: and in our
own century We have had u Koux aud Lar
rny in France, an Ashley Cooper and an
Abernethy in great Britain, and Il Valentine
Mott and Willard Parker and Samuel d.
Gross in America, and q galaxy of living
surgeons rs brilliant as their predecessors.
ease since the crippled and sirk Of ancient
cities were laid along the streets, TINT peo-
pie who Ind never leen hurt or disorde,l in
the samc why might suggest wlnt had
better be done for the patients: and the
priests OF ollen time, who were constantly
suffering from colds received iu walking bare.
foot over tine temple pavemcntR, had to pre-
scribe for themselves, ind fractures were con-
aidere,l 80 far beyond oil human cure that
instead OF calling in the surgeons the people
only invoked the godsi
But not twithstandng oil the surgical a,ll
medical skill Of the world, with what tenac.
ity the old diseases hang OH to tho human
race. and most of them are thousands Of
years old, and in our Bibles we read of them;
the carbuncles of Job and Hezekiah; the pnl-
pitntiOn of the heart spoken Of in Deuteron-
omy; the sun-stroke Of a child carried from
the fields Of Sllunenem, crying. ''My head! my
hcnd' King Asa's disease Of the feet, which
was nothing but gont; detection Of teeth,
TINT called Tor dental surgery, the skill ot
which, quite equal to anything modern. is
still seen in the filed moiarn 0i the unr"lle,i
Egyptinn mummies; the ophthalna caused
by the Juice ot the newly ripe fix. leaving the
people blind nt the roadside; epilepsy, as in
the case Of the young ninn often fnlng into
the fire, and oft into tho water; hyperion
dria, ns Of Nebuchadnezzar. who imagined
himself an OK. and going out to the fields to
pusturc the withered hand, which in Billie
times, az now, came from the destruction Of
this mun artery. or from paralysis Of he
Chief nerve; lie wounds Of the man whom the
thieves left for dead ON the r0n,i TO Jericho,
and whom the good Samaritan nursel, pour
ing in oil and wine-winc To cleanse the
would, and oil to soothe it. Thank God for
what surgery hos done for the alienation
and cure Of human suffering. But the
world wnnted a surgery without pain. Doe.
tors PARE and Hickman nnd Simpson
md Warner aud Jackson, with their amnz-
ing genius came on, and with their nnas-
thctic benumbed the patient with narcotics
and ethers as the nncients did with has.
heesh and mandrake, and quoted him for IL
WHILE but at the return Of consciousness dis.
tress returned. Tho world has never seen
but one surgeon WHO could straighten the
crooked limb, cure the blind eye, or recon-
struct the drum of n soun1less eur, or reduce
dropsy, without amy pain nt the time. or
pnin utter, and that surgeon was Jesus
Christ, the mightiest. grandest, gcntleat,
and most sympathetic. surgeoa E'; @ the IT,
deserves % s'ta the % Confidence s't and love s and
worship and hosnnnns of all the
earth. and hallelujuhs of oil henyen. "The
blind receive their sight, and the lame walk;
the Iepers ore ccnnscd. and the deaf hear."
l notice this Surgeon had II tondness for
chronic cases. Mnnya surgeon, when he
has had pntient brought to him has snil;
"Why was not this attended to FIVE years
ago? You bring him to me inter NIL power.
of racupcration is gone. You have waited
until there il II complete contraction Of the
muscles, and false liguturcs are formed, and
oysifcation has taken place. 1t ought to
have been attended to long ago." But
Christ the Surgeon seemed to prefer inveter-
ate cases. One WINS Il hemorrhage of 12
years. and He stopped it. Another wns a
curvature Of IL yenrs and Hestraightenedi
Another was cripple of3S years, and he
walked out well. The 1s-year patient was
woman bent almost double. Ifyou could
coll convention of all the surgeons of all
the centuries, their combined skill could not
cure thnt body 70 drawn out Of shape.
In speaking Of Christ rs IL surgeon. must
consider Him us un Oculist, or eye doctor,
and an aurist. or enr doctor. Was there
ever such another oculist? That He wns par
ticularly sorry for the blind folks, l takefrom
the fact that the most OF His works was with
the diseased optic nerves. have not time to
count up the number of blind people men.
toned who got His cure. Two blind men in
one house. also one who was born blind; 40
that it was not removal Of Il visual obstruc.
tion, creation OF the cornea, and ciliary mus.
Gle, and crystalline lens, md retina. und op-
tic nerve, and tear gland: also the blind mah
of Bctlsaida. cured by the snliva which the
Surgeon took from the tip Of His own tongue
and put upon the eyelds: also two
blind men who sat by the wayside
In our civilized lands We hava blind
ness enough. tho ratio fearfully increasing.
according to the statement of Boston and
New York and Philadelphia orulists, because
Of the reading of morning and evening news.
papers on the jolting cnrs by the nultitudes
who live out Of the city and come into busi-
ness. But in the lands where the Divine Sur.
geon operated. the cusps OF blindness were