Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-05-27
REV. DR.. TALMAGH.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun.
day Sermon.
subject. "rhe Healing Touch"

each other this way and that and Christ ii,
tne midst OF the commotion. They were on
the way to see Him restore to complete health
dying person. Some thought He could
eHect the cure Others that He could not At
any rate. 1t would be an interesting expert
ment A very sick woman OF twelve years
mvaiidisn is IN the crowd. Some say her
name was Martha ;others say it 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 igno-
rant than we can imagine in this time when
the word physician or surgeon stands for
potent and educated skill Professor Light
ioot gives list OF what he supposes may
have been the remedies she has applied.
suppose she had been blistered from head to
loot and had tried the compress and had
used all styles OF asttihgent herbs, and she
mad been maulod and hacked and cut and
acerated until life to her was plague. Be-
SIDE that the Bible indicates her doctors bills
nad 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, poor woman, are you doing In that
jostling crowd? Better go home and 10 bed and
nurse your disorders. No Wan and wasted
and faint, she stands there, hef face distorted
with suffering, and ever and anon biting her
lip with some acute pain and sobbing until
her tears fell from the hollow eye upon the
faded dress, only able to stand because the
crowd is so close to her, pushing her this
way and that. Stand backi Why do you
crowd that poor beds7 Have you no consid-
Grafton for dying woman? But just at that
time 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
the sick, and che does feel SO wretched she
thinks II she can only Just touch Him once it
will do her good. She will not touch Him
on thesacred bend, for that might be ir-
reverent. She will not touch Him on the
hand, for that might seem too familiar.
She says: Il will, l think, touch Him on
his coat, not on the top Of it, or on the bot
tom Of tho main fabric, but on the border,
the blue border, the long threads of the
fringe Of that blue border there can be no
harm in that. don't think He Will hurt me,
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
hope" And she presses through the crowd
still farther and reaches for Christ, but can
not quite touch Him. She pushes still farther
through tho crowd and kneels and puts her
nnger to the edge Of the blue fringe of the
border. She just touches It. Qhick as an
electric flash there thrilled back into her
shattered nerves, and shrunken veins, and
exhausted arteries, and painting lungs, and
withefed muscles, health beautiful health,
subicund health God given and complete
health. The IL years march of pain and
pang and suffering over suspension bridge 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 intefroga-
tory of my text. "Who touched Me?" The
insolent crowd in substance replied nHow
do we know? You get in A crowd like this
and you must expect to be jostled. You ask
us question you know we cannot answer"
But the reseate and rejuvenated woman came
up, and khelt 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 q dramatization OF the gospel. Oh what
q doctor Christ is 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 adj
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 others? Have you never
preached sermon, or delivered an ex-
hortation, or offered burning player, and
then felt aterward that strength had gone
out of you? Then you have never initiated
Christ?
Are yod curious to know how that garment
Of Christ would have wrought such q cure
for this suppliant invalid2 l 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, end so | suppose that garments may
be surcharged with health. l suppose thai
Christ had such physical magnetism that it
per.neated all His robe down to the last
thread on the border of the blue fringe. Bdl
In addition to that there was divine thrill,
there Was miraculous potency, there was an
o lnipotent therapeutics, without which this
IL years invalid would not have been in
stantly restored.
Now, if omnipotcnce cannot help others
without depletion, how can We ever expect
to bless the world without self sacrifice.
man who gives to some Christian object until
he feels it, man VINO III his occupation OF
profession oyerworks that he may educate
his children, man who on Sunday night
goes home, all his nervous energy wrung out
by active service in church, or Sabbath
school, or city evangelization, has initiated
Christ, and the strength has gone otit Of him.
mother who robs herself of sleep in behalf
of sick cradle, wife who bears up cheer
fully under domestic misfortune that she may
encourage her husband in the combat against
disaster, 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 a profusion of deep wrinkles, Is
like Christ, and strength has gone out of her.
That strength or virtue may have gone out
through d garment she has made for the
home, that strength may have gone ont
through the sock you knit for the barefoot
destitute, that strength may go out through
the mantle hung up in some closet after you
ere dead. SO q crippled child sat every
morning on her fathers frcnt step so that
when the kind Christian teacher passed byto
school she might take hold Of her dress and
let the dress slide through her pale fingers.
She said it 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 through the life of those who stay2
But mark you, the principle I evolve from
this subject. No addition of healteh to others
unless there be subtraction OF strength
from ourselves. He felt that strength had
gone cut ofHim.
Notice also in thi subject Christs sensi
tive to human touch. We talk about God on
vast scale 80 much We hardly appreciate
His accessibility in magnitude rather
than God in mirutie, God in the infinite
rather than God in the ipanitesimal-but
here in my text we have God arrested by a
suffering touch When in the sham trial of
Christ they struck Him on the cheek we can
realize how that check tingled with pain.
When under the scourgins 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 Me2"
We talk about sensitive people, but Christ
was the impersonation of all sensitiveness.
The slightest stroke of the smallest finger OF
niman disability makes all the nerves of Hi.
head and heart and hand and feet vihrate. II
Is not stolid Christ. not phlegmatic Christ,
not preoceuppied Christ, not 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
between Him and ourselves complete Mark
you, this invalid osthe text might have walked
through that crowd all 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