Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-06-02

His accessibiIttv-CIo in magnitude rather
than God in minutiR, God In the infinite
rather than God in the Inf1nltesLmaI- but
here in my tex. we have God arrested by
suffering touch When in the sham trial of
Christ they struck Him on the cheek We can
realize how that cheek tngled with PAIN
When under the scOurglng the roo STUCK
the shoulders and back OF Christ, we can re-
alize how He must have wrltneo under the
lace-ations But here there Is SICK and
nerveless finger that just touches the long
threads of the blue fringe OF bis coat, and he
looks around and says, VINO touched Ne!
We talk about sensitive people, cut Christ
was the impersonatiOn OF all sensLlVeneSs
The slightest ~sroke Of the smallest hngeE OF
4ruman disability m0kes ali the nerves Of lis
head and heart and hand and feet vibrate. II
is not q stoiid Christ not phleGmatic Christ,
not prcoccuppied Christ, not hard Christ,
not an iron cased Christ but exquistelv
sensitive Christ that my text unveils. All the
things that touch US touch Him, If by the
hand Of prayer we make the connecting line
between Him and ourselves complete. Mark
you, this invalid of the text might have walked
through that crowd ell day and cried about
her suffering. and no relief would have come
II she had not touched Him. When IN your
prayer you lay your hand on Christ you touch
all the sympathies of an ardent and glowing
and responsive nature.
You know that in teleGraphy there are two
currents of electricity. SO when you put out
your hand of prayer TO CHRIS there are two
currents-a current Of sorrow rolling up from
your heart TO Christ and a current of COM
miseration rolling from the heart of Christ to
you. Two currents. oh, way do you so un-
helped? Why do you go wondering about
this and wondering about that? Why do you
not touch Hin?
Are you sick? do not think you are any
worse off than this invalid of the text. Have
you had a long struggle? l do not think it
has been more than II years. Is your case
hopeless? Sc was this Of which nv text is
the diagnosis and prognosis. "Oh,' you say.
''there are so many things between me and
God" There was whole mob between this
invalid and Christ. She pressed through, and
I guess you can press through.
Is your trouble a home trouble? Christ
shows Himself especially sympathetic with
questions of domesticity, as when at the we'd
ding in Cana He aIleviated a housekeeper's
predicament. as when tears rushed forth at
the broken dome of Mary and Martha and
LAZARUS Men are sometimes ashamed to
weep. There are men who if the tears start
will conceal them. They think it is unmanly
to cry. They do not seem to understand it is
manliness and evidence of a great heart. I
am afraid Of man who does not know how
to cry. The Christ of the text was not
ashamed to cry over human misfortune. Look
at that deep lake Of tears opened by the two
words of the evangelist: "JeSus wept!' Be-
hold Christ on the only day of His early
triumph marching on Jerusalem, the glitter
ing domes obliterated by the binding rain of
tears in His eyes and on His cheeks, for when
He beheld the city He wept over it. man
Of the many trials, o woman Of the heart
break, why do you not touch Him?
"Oh," says some one, "ChriSt doesn't care
for me. Christ is looking the other way.
Christ has the vast affairs Of His kingdom to
look after. He has the armies Of sin to over
throw, and there are so many worse cases OF
trouble than mine He doesn't care about me.
Tn the other
His back was turned to this invalid Of the
text. He was on His way to effect cure
which was famous and popular and wide re-
sounding. But the context says, He turned
Him about" If He was facing TO the north
He turned to the south if He was facing to
the 9ast, He turned to the west. What
turned Him about? The Bible says He has no
shadow of turning He rides Oh His chariot
through the eternities. He marches on,
crushing scepters as though they were the
cracking alders brooks bank, and toss
ing thrones on either side Of Him without
looking which way the fail. From everlast-
ing to everlasting. 'He turned Him about"
He, whom all the allied armies of hell can
not stop minute or divert an inch, by the
wan, sick, nerveless finger Of human suffer
ing turned clear about
Oh. what comfort there is in this subject
for people who are called nervous OF course
it is miSappied word in that case, but use
it in the ordinary parlance. After II years
must have had You all know that good
deal of medicine taken if it does not cure
leaves the system exhausted, and IN the Blblo
in so many words she had suffered many
things Of many physicians and was nothing
bettered. but rather grew worse" She was
as nervous as nervous could be. She knew
all about insomnia, and about the awful ap-
prehensiOn of something going tC happen.
and irritability about little things that in
health would not have perturbed her. I war
M not iCph% ar IL no
to the garment of Christ but trembling
forearm. and an uncertain motion of the
hand, and a quivering finger with which she
missed the mark toward which she aimed.
She did not touch the garment Just where
she expected to touch it.
When see this nervous woman coming to
the Lord Jesus Christ, say she is making
the way for all nervous people. Nervous
people do not get much sympathy. If q man
breaks his arm, everybody is sorry. and they
talk about it all up and down the street. If
woman has an eye put out by accident, they
say That's dreadful thing" Everybody
is asking about her cOnvalescence. But when
person is suffering under the ailment of
which [ Gm now speaking they say ''Oh,
that's nothing. She's little nervous, that's
ALL" putting slight upon the most agoniz-
ing Of suffering.
Now, I have a new prescription to give you.
I do not ask you to discard human medical
ment. I believe in it. When the slightest
thing occurs in the way Of sickness in my
household, we always run for the doctor. [
do not want to deSpise medicine. If you can
not sleep nights, do not despise bromide of
potassium. If you have nervous parOXysm.
do not despise morphine. If you wants to
strengthen up your system, do not dCspse
quinine as a tonic. Use all right and proper
medicines. But l want you to bring your
insomnia, and bring your irritability, and