The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-05-24

and usefulness and heaven, and who has
nothing TO show for It but premature gray
hairs and profusion of deep wrinkles, *
like Christ, and strength has gone out of
her. That strength or virtue may have
gone out through garment she has made
for the home; that strength may have gone
out through the sock you knit for the bare
foot destitute; that strength may go ont
through the mantle hung up in some closet
after you are dead. So crippled child sat
every morning on her fathers front step so
that when the kind Christian teacher
passed by to 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 stayg But, mark you, the
principle l evolve from this subject-no
addition Of health to others unless there be
a subtraction Of strength from ourselves.
He felt that strength had gone out of him.
THE TWO CURRENTS.
Notice also in this subject Christ sensi-
tive to human touch. We talk about God
on a vast scale so much we hardly appre-
rather than God in minutie, God In the In
finite rather than God in the infinitesimal
But here in my text we have God arrest
ed by suffering touch. When in the sham
trial of Christ they struck him on the
cheek, we can realize how 0at cheek tin
gled with pain. When under the securing
the rod struck the shoulders and back Of
Christ, we can realize 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 meg"
We talk about sensitive people, but
Christ was the impersonation of all sensi-
tiyeness. The slightest stroke of the small
est finger Of human disability makes all
the nerves of his head and heart and hand
and feet yibrate. It is not a stolid Christ,
not a phlegmatic Christ, not preOccupied
Christ, not hard Christ, not a.i'iron cased
Christ, but an exquisitely sensitive Christ
that my text unveils. ASl 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 sympa-
thies of an ardent and glowing and respon-
sive 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 sorrow roll
ing up from your heart to Christ and q cur
rent 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
thatf Why do you not touch him?
Are you sick? donot think you are any
worse off than this invalid of the text.
Have you had long struRgle' l do not
think it has been more than IL years. Is
your case hopelesst 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 through, and guess you can press
through.
Is your trouble home troublei Christ
shows himself especially sympathetic with
questions % domesticity, when at the
wedding in Cana he alleviated housekeep-
er's predicament, as when tears rushed
forth at the broken home of Mary and Mar
tina 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 ii Is manliness and eyi-
dence of a great heart. / 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 the1wo words
of the evangelist, Jesus weptw Behold
Christ on the only day Of his early triumph
marching on Jerusalem, the glittering
domes obliterated by the binding rain of
tears in his eyes and on his cheek, for when
he beheld the city he wept over it. o man
OF the many trials, o woman Of the heart
break, why do you not touch hims
oh" says some one, Christ don'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
overthrow, and there are so many worse
cases of trouble than mine he doesn't care
about me, and his face is turned the other
way" SO his back was turned 10 this in
valid of the text. He was on his way TO
effect a cure which was famous and popu-
lar and wide resounding. But the context
facing to the north, h. turned to the south;
If he was facing to the east, he turned TO
the west. What turned him about The
Bible says he has no shadow of turning.
He rides on in his chariot through the eter-
mites. He marches on crushing scepters as
though they were the cracking alders on
brooks bank, and tossing thrones on either
side OF him without stopping to look which
way they fall. From everlasting TO ever
lasting. He turned him about" He whom
all the allied armies of hell cannot stop
minute or divert an inch, by the wan, sick,
nerveless finger Of human suffering turned
clear about.
MEDICINE FOR NERVOUS PEOPLE.
Oh, what comfort there is In this subject
for people who are called nervousI OF
course it is a misapplied word in that case,
but use it in the ordinary parlance. After
u years of suffering, oh, what nervous de-
preston she must have hadi You all know
that good deal of medicine taken, iii does
not cure, leaves the system exhausted, and
in the Bible 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 apprehension of some
thing going TO happen, and irritability
about little things that in health would
not have perturbed her. warrant you it
was not a straight stroke she gave TO the
garment of Christ, but trembling fore
arm, 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