News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-05-25

a God arrested by a suffering touch.
When in the sham trial of Christ they
stuck him on the cheek we can realize
he E, nat cheek tingled with pain. When
under the Scourging the rod struck the
shoulders and back of Christ, we can re-
alize how he must have writhed under
the decorations. But here there is a sick
and nerveless finger that just touches the
long threads of the blue fringe of his
coat, and he looks around and says,
WHO touched me?''
We talk about sensitive people, but
Christ was the impersonation of all SEN
sitiveness. The slightest stroke of the
smallest finger of human disability
makes all the nerves of his head and
heart and hand and feet vibrate. 1t is
not q stolid Christ, not phlegmatic
Christ, not a preoccupied Christ, not a
hard Christ, not an iron cased Christ,
but an exquisitely 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 be-
tween him and ourselves complete.
Mark you, this invalid of the text might
have walked through that crowd all day
and cried about her suffering, and no
relief would have come if she had not
touched him. When in your prayer you
lay your hand on Christ you touch all
the sympathies of an ardent and glow
ing and responsive nature.
You know that in telegraphy there are
two currents of electricity. So when you
put out your hand of prayer to Christ
there are two currents-a current of sor-
row rolling up from your heart to Christ
and current of commiseration rolling
from the heart of Christ to you. Two
currents. Oh, why do you go unhelped?
Why do you go wondering about this
and wondering about that? Why do you
not touch him?
Are you sick? l do not think you are
any worse off than this invalid of the
text. Have you had long struggle? l
do not think it has been more than 10
years. Is your case hopeless? So was
this of which my text is the diagnosis
and prognosis. Oh" you say, there
are so many things between me and
God" There was a whole mob between
this invalid and Christ. She pressed
tt = ugh, and l guess you can press
through.
Is your trouble home trouble? Christ
shows himself especially sympathetic
with questions of domesticity, as when
at the wedding in Cana he alleviated
predicament, as when tears
rushed forth at the broken home 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.
am afraid of man who does not know
now to cry. The Christ of the text was
lot ashamed to cry over human misfor-
5une. Look at that deep lake of tears
opened by the two words of the evangel-
st: Jesus weptr' Behold Christ on the
,nly day of his early triumph marching
IN Jerusalem, the glittering domes OBJ
iterated by the binding rain of tears in
lis eyes and on his cheeks, for when he
,eheld the city he wept over it. o man
If the many trials, o woman of the heart
freak, why do you not touch him?
ALWAYS HELPFUL.
oh" says some one, "Christ doesn't
IRE for me. Christ is looking the other
ray. Christ has the vast affairs of his
ingdom to look after. He has the
.rmies of sin to overthrow, and there are
o many worse cases of trouble than
nine he doesn't care about me, and his
ace is turned the other way" So his
Jack was turned to this invalid of the
ext. He was ON his way to effect cure
ghich was famous and popular and wide
But the context says, "He
urned him about" If he was facing to
he north, he turned to the south; if he
vas facing to the east. he turned to the
vest. What turned him about? Tho
Bible says he has no shadow of turning;
le rides ON in his chariot through the
ternities. He marches on, crushing
cepters as though they were the crac-
ling alde.s on a brooks bank, and toss
ng thrones ON either eide of him without
topping 20 look which way they fall.
rom everlasting tJ everlasting. "Hc
urncd him about" He, whom all the
lied armies of hell cannot stop min
tie or divert an inch, by the wan, sick,
erveless finger of human suffering turn
d clear about.
Oh, what comfort there is in this sub
ect for people who are called nerv-
JUS! Of course it is a misapplied word
n that case, but l use it in the ordi-
larry parlance. After - years of suffer
ng, oh, what nervous depression she
must have hadl You all know that a
rood deal of medicine taken if it does
lot cure leaves the system exhausted,
md in the Bible in so many words she
had suffered many things of many
physicians and was nothing bettered,
)ut rather grew worse" She was as
as nervous could be. She knew
Ill about insomnia, and about the awful
of something going to
happen, and irritability about little
Kings that in health would not have
Derturbed her. l warrant you it was
lot straight stroke she gave to the
garment of Christ, but trembling fore
lrm, and an uncertain motion of the
land, and quivering finger with which
she missed the mark toward which she
timed. She did not touch the garment
Just where she expected to touch it.
When | see this nervous woman COM
ng to the Lord Jesus Christ, say she is
making the way for all nervous people.
Nervous people do not get much sylnpa-
by. If a man breaks his arm, every
body is sorry, and they talk about it all
Up and down the street. If woman
las an eye put out by accident, they say,
That's dreadful thing" Everybody
S asking about her convalescence. But
when person is suffering under the all
nent of which / am now speaking they
ay: 'Oh, that's nothing. She's little
nervous, that's all, putting slight upon
he most agonizing of suffering.
Now, | have new prescription to give
'ou. | do not ask you to discard human
nedicament. l believe in it. When the |
lightest thing occurs in the way of sick |
less in my household, we always run for
he doctor. l do not want to despise |
Medicine. If you cannot sleep nights, do |
lot despise bromide of potassium. If |
'ou have nervous parOxysm, do not de- |
pise morphine. If you want to strength |
n up your system, do not despise qui- |
line as tonic. Use all right and prop |
T medicines. But want you to bring
our insomnia, and bring your irritable
y, and bring all your weaknesses, and
With them touch Christ. Touch him
lot only on the hem of his garments, but |
ouch him On the shoulder where he car
les our burden, touch him on the head |
where he remembers all our sorrows,
ouch him ON the heart, the center of all
us sympatE es. Oh, yes, Paul was right |
vhen he said, I'VE havenot high priest
Who cannot be touched"