Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-06-02
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE's SUM-
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT: THE HEALING Touch.

tno way 70 Sec ltlLn restore 10 complete nealtl
| dying person. Some thought He coult
ehect the cure others that He could not. A
any rate, it would be an interesting expert
| ment. A very sick woman OF twelve years
| invalidism Is in the crowd. Some say he
| name was Martha ;others say il was Veronica
| do not know what her name was but thh
Is certain, she had tried all styles o
| cure. Every shelf OF her humble home hac
medicines on It. She had employed many o
| the doctors OF that time, when medica
science was more rude and rough and igno
rant than we can imagine In this time wher
| the word physician or surgeon stands fol
| potent and educated skill. Professor Light
| loot gives r 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 astringent herbs, and SHE
had been mauled and hacked and cut and
lacerated until life to her was plague. Be-
side that the Bible indicates her doctors billi
mad run up frightfully, and she had paid
money for medicines and for surgical attend.
ahce 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 to bed and
| nurse your disorders. No Wan and wasted
| and faint she stands there, her face dist orted
| with suffering, and ever and anon biting her
| lip with some acute pain and sobbing until
her tears feL from the hollow eye upon the
| faded dress, only able to stand because the
crowd is so close to her, pushing her this
I way and that Stand back Why do you
crowd that poor body2 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 she does feel so wretched she
| thinks IL she can only Just touch Him once 1t
| will do her good. She will not touch Him
on the sacred head, for that might be ir-
reverent. She will not touch Him on the
hand, for that might seem too familiar.
She says: II will, think, touch Him on
| His coat, not on the top fit, or on the bot
| tom OF the main fabric, but on the border,
tho 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 the crowd and kneels and puts her
finger to the edge OF the blue fringe OF the
border. She just touches it. 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 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
| put He turns and looks upon that excited
crowd and startles them with the interroga-
tory OF my text. who touched Me2" The
insOlent crowd in substance replied "How
do we know? You get in q crowd Ike this
and you must expect TO be jostled. You ask
US question you know we cannot answer"
But the roseate and rcjuvenated woman came
up, and knet 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 a dramatiZation OF the gospel. oh, what
a 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 ad-
dition Of help to others without subtraction
OF strength from ourselves. Did you never
| ret tired for others? Have you never risked
your health for others2 Have you never
preached a sermon, or delivered an eI-
horation, or offered burning prayer, and
then felt aiterward that strength had gone
out OF you? Then you have never initiated
| Christ?
Are you curious to know how that garment
OF Christ would have wrought such cure
for this suppliant invalid? 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 epi-
demic, and so | suppose that garments may
be surcharged with health. l suppose that
Christ had such physical magnetism that IL
permeated 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 n miraculous potency, there was an
omnipotent therapeutics, without which this
IL 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 objeo until
he feels 1t, q man who in his occupation or
profession overworks that he may educate
his children, a 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 out 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, 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, is
like Christ, and strength has gone out OF her.
That strength or virtue may have gone out
through garment she has made for the
homo, that strength may have gone out
through the sock you knit for the barefoot
destitute, that strength may go out through
the mantle hung up In some closet after you
are dead. So crippled child sat every
morning on her fathers front step 80 that
when the kind Christian teacher passed byto
school she might take hold Of her dress and
let tho dress slide through her pale fingers.
She said it helped her pain 80 much and
made her 50 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 stayt
But mark you, the principle l evolve from
Ihis subject. No addition ofhealteh to Others
unless there be q subtraction OF strength
from ourselves. He felt that strength had
gone out ofHim.
NOtlCo ulbO III III puuJcOh u Shiloto oCLoi-
tive to human touch. We talk about God on
vast scale so much We hardly appreciate
His accessibility In magnitude rather
than God in minutHs, God In the infinite
rather than God In the infniteslmal-but
here In my text we have God arrested by a
suffering touch. When In the sham trial oi
Christ they struck Him on the cheek we can
realize how that cheek tingled with pain.
When under the scourging the rod struck
lHa ahn,,ldaro and bao Of Oh rfat tpan "a.
alize how He must have writhed under the
decorations. But here there Is q 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 MeY
We talk about sensitive people, but Christ
was the impersonation Of all sensitiveness
The slightest stroke Of the smallest finger o.