The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-06-07
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: ssThe Healing Touch"

TEXT: Who touched Me!"-Mark ", 81.
A great crowd Of excited people elbowtng
each other this way and that and Christ In
the midst Of the commotion. They were on
The way to see Him restore to complete health
q dying person. Some thought he could
effect the cure others that He could not. At
amy rate. it would be an interesting expert
ment. A very sick woman OF twelve years
Mvalidism is in the crowd. Some say her
name was Martha ;others say was Veronica.
do not know what her name was. but this
is certain, she had tried all styles OF
cure. Every shelf of her humble home had
medicines on it. She had employed many OF
the doctors of that time, when medical
science was more rude and rough and 1gno-
rant than we can imagine In this time when
the word physician or surgeon stands Tor
potent and educated skill. Professor Light
foot gives a list of what he supposes may
have been the remedies she has applied.
suppose she had been blistered from head to
foot and had tried the compress and mad
used all STYLES OF astringent herbs, and she
had been mauled and hacked and cut and
lscerated until life to her was plague. Be
side that the Bible indicates her doctors bills
had run up frightfully, and she had paid
money for medicines and for surgical attend
ance and for hygienic apparatus until her
purse was as exhausted as her body.
What, Door woman, are you doing In that
iostlinc crowd? Better 60 home and to bed and
nurse YOUR disorders. No! Wan and wasted
and faint, she stands there, her face distorted
with suffering, and ever and anon biting her
iip with some acute pain and sobbing until
her tears fell from the hollow eye upon the
tsdaS dress. only able to stand because the
crowd is so close to her, pushing her this
way and that. Stand back Why do you
crowd that DOOR body? Have you no consid-
Grafton for dying woman? But just at that
Hme the crowd parts, and this invalid comes
almost up to Christ. But she is behind him,
and His human eye does not take her In.
She has heard so much about His kindness TO
Che sick. and she does feel 80 wretched; she
thinks ii she can only Just touch Him once 1t
will do her good. She will not touch Him
on the esacred head, for that might be ir-
reverent. She will not touch Him on the
hand. for that might seem too familiar.
+ She saws "I will, think, touch Him on
Bis coat. not on the top Of It, or on the bot
tom of the main fabric, but on the border,
the blue border, the long threads OF the
trinse OF that blue border there can Do no
have heard so much about Him. Besides that,
can stand this no longer. Twelve years OF
suffering have worn me out. This Is my last
hone" And she presses through tho crowd
Etifl farther and reaches for Christ, but can
not quite touch Him. She pushes still farther
through the crowd and kneels and puts ner
finger to the edge Of the blue fringe OF the
border. She just touches 1t. Quick as an
electric flash there thrilled back into her
shattered nerves, and shrunken veins, and
exhausted arteries, and painting lungs, and
withered muscles, health, beautiful health,
rubicund health, God given and complete
health. The - years march OF pain ana
pang and suffering over suspension or1dge OF
nerve and through tunnel OF bone instantly
halted. =,
Christ recognizes somehow that magnetic
and healthful influence through the medium
of the blue fringe of His garment had shot
out. he turns and looks upon that excited
crowd and startles them with the interroga-
tory of nv text. 'sWho touched Me?" The
insolent crowd in substance replied: Chow
do we know? You get In crowd Like this
and you must expect to be jostled. You ask
us O question you know We cannot answer.
But the roseate and reiuvenated woman came
up. and knelt in front Of Christ, and told OF
the touch. and told Of the restoration, and
Jesus said Daughter, thy faith had made
thee whole. Go In peace" SO Mark gives
Us dramatization of the gospel. Oh, what
a doctor Christ isl In every one OF our house
holds may He be the family physician.
Notice that there Is no addition Of help to
others without subtraction OF power from
ourselves The context says that as soon as
this woman was healed Jesus felt that virtue
Or strength had gone out OF Him. NO ad-
dition of help to others without subtraction
OF strength from ourselves. Did you never
get tired for others? Have you never risked
your health for others2 Have you never
nreached a sermon, or delivered an e1-
hortstion, or offered burning prayer, and
then felt afts-ward that strength had gone
out of you2 Then you have never initiated
Christ?
Are YOU curious to know how that garment
OF Christ would have wrought such cure
for this suppnant invalid? I suppose that
Christ was surcharged with vitality. You
know that diseases may be conveyed from
city to city by garments as In case OF cpl
demic. and so I suppose that garments may
be surcharged with health. I suppose that
Christ had such physical magnetism that 1t
permeateG all His robe down to the last
thread on the border Of the blue fringe. But
in addition to that there was divine thrill,
there was miraculous potency, there was an
ornipotaat therapeutics, without which this
12 years invalid would not have been in
stantly restored.
Now. II omnipotence cannot help others
without depletion, how can we ever expect
to bless the world without self sacrifice. A
man who gives to some Christian object until
he feels ~, q man who in his occupation or
profession overworks that he may educate
his children, q man who on Sunday night
goes home, all his nervous energy wrung out
BY active service in church, or Sabbath
school, or city eyangelization, has initiated
Christ and :.e strength has gone out OF him.
A mother who rolls herself OF sleep In behalf
of q sick rradle, wife who bears up cheer
fully under domestic misfortune that she may
encourage her husband In the combat against
disaster, a woman who by hard saving and
earnest prayer and good counsel wisely given
and many years devoted to rearing her family
for God and usefulness and heaven, and has
nothing to show for 1t but premature gray
hairs and profuSion OF deep wrinkles, ID
Hike Christ, and strength has gone out Of her.
That strength or virtue may have gone out
through garment she has made for the
home, that strength may have gone out
through the sock you knit for the barefoot
destitute, that strength may go out through
the mGntle hung up in some closet after you
are dead. So crippled child sat every
morning on her fathers front step 30 that
when the kind Christian teacher passed by to
school she might take hold Of her dress and
let the dress slide through her pale fingers.
She said II helped her pain so much and
made her so happy all the day. Aye, have
We not in all our dwellings garments OF the
departed touch of which thrills US through
and through, the life OF those who are gone
thrilling TIM oush the life OF those who stay?
But mark you, the principle evolve from
this subject. No addition Of heslteh to others
unless there be q subtraction OF strength
from ourselves. He felt that strength had
gone out ofHim.
Notice also in thi subject Christs sensi-
tive to human touch. We talk about God on
a vast scale 30 much We hardly appreciate
His accessibility-God in magnitude rather
than God in ninuti@, God in the infinite
rather than God in the infnitesimal-but
here in my text we have God arrested BY q