The Penn's Grove record., 1893-05-26
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON.


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
a dying person. some thought He could
effect the cure; others that He could not. Al
any rate, it would be an interesting expert.
ment. A very sick woman OF twelve years
fnvalidism is in the crowd. Some say her
name was Martha Others say 1t was Veronica.
l do not know what her name was. but thi.
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 fol
potent and educated skill. Professor Light
foot gives a list OF what he supposes may
have been the remedies she has applied. i
! suppose she had been blistered from head to
loot and had tried the compress and had
used all styles OF a%stringent herbs. and she
had been mauled and backed and cGt and
lacerated until life to her was a plague. We
side that Inc Rihln indicates her doctors bins
had run up frightfully, and she had paio
money for medicines and for surgical attend
ance and for hygienic apparatus until hey
purse was as exhausted as her body.
What, poor woman, are you doing in thai
jostling crowd? Better &c home and to bed ard
nurse your disorders. No! Wan and wasted
and faint, she stands tn gre, her face distorted
I Win uAi| p thANA w uAA ah-FA ht lat
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 back! Why do you
crowd that poor body? Have you no consid-
Grafton for q 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 wretcbed she
thinks if she can only Just touch Him once it
will do her good. She will not touch Him
on thesacred head, for that might be ir-
reverent. She will not touch Him on the
hand, for that might seem too familiar.
She says: 81 will, l think, touch Him on
His 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
| fringe of that blue border there can be no
harm in that. l don't think He will hurt me, l
have heard SO much about Him. Besides that,
l 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 cam
| 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 oil
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 my text. "Who touched Me?" Tn
| ~ilsolent crowd in substance replied SLOW
| do we know? You get in a crowd like this
and you must expect to be iostled. You ask
| us a question you know we cannot answer"
| But the roseate and reluvenated 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 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 rs 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 others? Have you never
| preached a sermon, or delivered an ex-
I hortation, or offered q burning prayer, and
| then felt alterward that strength had gone
out of you? Then you have never initiated
Christi
Are you curioust to know how that garment
of Christ would have wrought such a 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 cpl
! demic, and so / suppose that garments may
| ba cnr,harpaJ with health SunnOSe that
Christ had such physical magnetism that it
permeated all His rob- down to the last
| thread on the border OF the blu fringe. But
in addition to that there was a divine thrill,
| there was a miraculous potency. there was an
| omnipotent therapeutics, without which this
IL years invalid would not have been IN
stantly restored.
Now, If 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 it, q man who in his occupation or
profession overworks that he may educate
bis 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 evangelization, has initiated
Christ, and the strength has gone out OF MIN.
A mother who robs herself OF sleep In behaif
of d sick cralle, a wife who bears up cheer
fullt under domestic misfortune that she may
| encourage her husband in the combat against
disaster. a woman who by hard saving
| 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 it but premature gray
| hairs and q profusion of deep wrinkles, is
ike Christ, and strength has gone out OF her.
That strength or virtue may have gone out
through u garment she has made Tor the
home, that strength may have gone out
through the sock you knit for the barefoot
IA A. .r- ynaxr 90 nNf fhFnfIyh
the mantle hung up in some closet AFTER you
| are dead. Sc a crippled child sat every
| morning on her fathers front step so that
when the kin 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, a touch OF which thrills us through
and through, the life OF those who are gone
thrilling through the life OF those who stayi
But mark you, the principle l evolve from
this subject. No addition OF aealten TO others
unless there DO y subtraction OF strength
from ourselves. He felt that strength had
gone out ofHim.
Notice also in thi subject a Christs sensl-
tive to human touch. We talk about God on
a vast scale so much We hardly appreciate
His acccssibility-God in magnltude rather
than Col in minutiR, God in the mini
rather than Col in the intlnitesimal-but
here in NY text we have a God arrested by
suffering touch. When in the sham trial OF
Christ they struck Him on the cheek we can
realize how that cheek tinGled with pain.
When under tho scourSing the rod struck
the shoulders and back CT Christ, w can re-
alize how He must have writhed under the
decorations. But here there is a sick and
neryeless finger that just touches the long
threads Of the blue fringe of His coat, and He
looks ar1und and says, "Who touched MeE.
We talk about sensitive people, but Christ
was the impersonation of all sensitiyeness.
The slightest stroke Of the smallest finger Of
human disability makes all the nerves OF His
head and heart and hand and feet vibrate. II
is nora stolid Christ, not a phlegmatic Christ,
not a p~reoccuppied Christ, not shard Christ,
not ar iron cased Christ. but an exquisitely
sensitive Christ that my text unveils. All the
things that touch US touch Him, II by the
hand OF prayer we make the connecting line
between Him and ourselves complete. Mark
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