The intelligencer., 1890-04-26
THE DIVINE HEALER.
DR.. Talmage on Christ as the Great
Physician.
The saviour's Cures Always the Most Won
derful-A Physician Whose Treatment
Was Without Money or Price-FinaI
Gathering OF the Saved.

"@s "uhout money or Prtce-Final
Gathering of the Saved.
In a late sermon at BROOKLYN Rev. T.
Dewitt Talmage discoursed on the pro-
iession OF healing His text was Mat
thew IL, B: 'The blind receive their
sight, and the lame walk, the lepers
are cleansed, and the deaf hear" He
said:
Doctor" l said to distinguished
surgeon. do you not get worn out with
constantly seeing so many wounds and
broken bones and distortions of the
human bodyP" 20, no." he answered,
all that Is overcome by my Joy in cur
ing them" A sublimer or more merci-
full art never came down from Heaven
than the art of surgery Catastrophe
and disease entered the earth so early
tnat one OF the first wants OF the world
was doctor. Our crippled and ago
nized human race called for surgeon
and family physician for many years be-
fore they came. The first surgeons who
answered this call were ministers of re-
hgion, namely, the Egyptian priests.
And what grand thing IL all clergymen
were also doctors, all D. DIS were NJ
DIS, for there are so many cases where
body and soul need treatment at the
same time consolation and medicine,
theology and therapeutics. As the
nrst surgeons Of the world were also
ministers OF religion, may these two
professions always be in full sympathyl
But under what disadvantages the
early surgeons worked, from the fact
that the dissection of the human body
was forbidden, first by the pagans and
then by the early Christiansi Apes be-
Ing the brutes most like the human race,
were dissected, but no human body
might be unfolded for physiological and
anatomical exploration, and the surgeon
had to guess what was inside the temple
by looking at the outside of it II they
failed In any surgical operation they
were prosecuted and driven out of the
city, as was Archagathus, because OF his
bold but unsuccessful attempt to save a
patient
But the world from the very beginning
kept calling for surgeons, and their irst
skill Is spoken of In Genesis whore
they employed their art for the incision
OF sacred rite, God making surgery
the predecessor Of baptism; and we see
1t again In H. Kings, where Azahiah, the
monarch, stepped on some cracked lat
tice-work In the palace, and II broke
and he fell from the upper TO the lower
hoor, and he was so hurt that he sent to
the village Of Ekron for aid; and Escu-
lapius who wrought such wonders of
surgery that he was deifed, and temples
were built for his worship at Pergamos
What mighty progress in the battling
OF disease since the crippled and sick
OF ancient cities we're laid along the
streets, that people who had ever been
hurt or disordered In the same way
might suggest what had better be done
for the patients; and the priests OF olden
time, who were constantly suffering
from colds received in walking barefoot
over the temple pavements, had to pre-
scribe for themselves, and fractures
were considered so far beyond all human
cure that instead of calling in the sur
geons the people only invoked the gods!
But Notwithstanding all the surgical
and medical skill of the world, with
what tenacity the old diseases hang on
to the human race, and most of them
are thousands of years old, and in our
Bibles we read of them; the carbuncles
Of Job and HezelSiah; the palpitation of
the heart spoken OF in Deuteronomy;
the sunstroke OF child carried from
the fields Of Shunem, crying: "My
headi my headr King Asa's disease Of
the feet, which was nothing but gout;
detection Of teeth, which called for
dental surgery, the skill of which, quite
equal to any thing modern, is still seen
in the filed molars of the unrolled
Egyptian mummies; the ophthalmia
caused by the juice of the newly ripe
fig, leaving the people blind at the road
side; epilepsy, as in the case Of the
young man often falling into the fire,
and oft into the water; hypochondria, as
Of Nebuchadnezzar, who imagined him
self an OK and going out to the fields to
pasture.
The world has never seen but one
surgeon who could straighten the crook
ed limb, cure the blind eye, or recon-
struct the drum Of a soundless ear, or
reduce a dropsy, without any pain at
the time, or any pain after, and that
surgeon was Jesus Christ, the nigh tiest,
grandest, gentlest and most sympathet-
ic surgeon the world ever saw or ever
will see, and He deserves the confidence
and love and worship and hosanna Of all
the earth and hallelujahs of all Heaven.
''The blind receive their sight, and the
lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and
the deaf hear"
notice this surgeon had a fondness
for chronic cases. Many surgeon, when
he has had a patient brought to him, has
said: ''Why was not this attended to
I've years ago? You bring him to me
after all power Of recuperation is gone.
You have waited until there Is COM
plete contraction OF the muscles and
false ligatures are formed and ossifca-
ton has taken place. 1t ought to have
been attended to long ago" But Christ
the Surgeon seemed to prefer inveterate
cases. One was a hemorrhsge of twelve
years and He stopped II. Another was ,
. curvature Of eighteen years and He
straightened It Another was cripple of
thirty-eight years and he walked out
well. The eighteen-year patient was
woman bent almost double. II you could
call convention Of all the surgeons of |
all the centuries, their combined skill |
could not cure that body 80 drawn out |
Of shape. Perhaps they might stop 1t |
from getting any worse, perhaps they |
might contrive braces by which she |
might be made more comfortable, but |
II is, humanity speaking, incurable. Yet
this divine Surgeon put both His hands |
on hers and from that doubled up post
are she began to rise. and the en-
purpled face began to take on Q
healthier hue, and the muscles began
10 relax from their rigldity. and the
spinal column began to adjust itself,
and the cords OF the neck began TO be
more supple, and the eyes, that could
see only the ground before, now looked
into the face OF Christ with gratitude,
and up toward Heaven in transport
Straight After eighteen weary and
exhaustive years, straight The poise,
the gracefulness, the beauty of healthy
womanhood reinstated.
The thirty-eight years case was
man who lay on q mattress near the
mineral baths at Jerusalem. There
were five apartments whore lame peo-
pie were brought, so that they could get
the advantage of these mineral baths
The stone basin of the bath is still Wis
iblo, although the waters have disap- |
peared, probably through some convul' |
sion of nature, the bath, 100 feet long, |
40 feet wide and eight feet deep. Ah,
poor man; IL you have been lame and
helpless thirty-eight years that mineral
bath can not restore you. Why, thirty |
eight years is more than the average OF
human lifei Nothing but the grave |