The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1893-06-07

garments as in the case of epidemic,
and so ] suppose that garments may
be surcharged with health. - sup
pose that Christ had such physi-
cal magnetism that it permeated
all his robe down to the last thread of
the border of the blue fringe. But in
addition to that there was divine
thrill, there was miraculous potency,
there was an omnipotent therapeutics
without which this twelve years in
valid would not have been instantly re-
stored.
Now, if Omnipotence can not help 9th
ers 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. man
who in his occupation or profession
children, man who on Sunday night
! goes home, all his nervous energy
wrung out by actite service in church
or Sabbath-school or city evangelical
! ton, has initiated Christ and the
strength has gone out of him. A moth
er who robs herself of sleep in behalf of
sick cradle, a wife who bears up
cheerfully under domestic misfortune
that she may encourage her husband
| in the combat against disaster, wom-
an 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 who has nothing to show
for it but premature gray hairs and a
profusion of deep wrinkles, is like
Christ, and strength has gone
out of her. That strength of 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 barefoot
destitute; that strength may go out
through the mantle hung up in some
closet after you are dead. So a crippled
child sat every morning on her fathers
'front.' step so that when the kind Chris
tan 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 gar
ments 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 stay? But mark
you, the principle | evolve from this
subject. No addition of health to
others unless there be subtraction of
strength from ourselves. He felt that
strength had gone out of him.
Notice also in this subject Christ
sensitive to human touch. We talk
about God on vast scale so much we
hardly appreciate his accessibility. God
in magnitude rather than God in
minutie, God in the infinite rather
than the God in the infinitesimal; but
here in my 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
c%elk tingled with pain. When under
the scourging the rod struck the
shoulders and back of Christ, we can
realize how he must have writhed
under the decorations. But here there
is 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 al
sensitiveness. 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 stolid Christ, not a phlegmatiC
Christ, not preoccupied Christ, not d
hard Christ. not an iron-cased Christ
but an exquisitely sensitive Christ that
my touch 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 of the text
| might have walked through that GROVE
t all day and cried aloud her suffering
} and no relief would have come had she
, not touched Him. When in your pray
er you lay your hand on Christ, YOU
| touch all the sympathies of an ardent
/ and glowing and responsive nature
You know that in telegraphy there
5 are two currents of electricity. Sc
: when you put out your hand of prayer
t to Christ there are two currents--a cur
( rent of sorrow rolling up from you
l heart to Christ, and current of com
: miseration rolling from the heart o
Christ to you. Two currents. Oh
: why do you go unhelped? Why do yol
4 go wondering about this and wonder
e ing about that? Why do you not toucl
: Him?
e Are you sick? | do not think yo,
= are any worse of than the invalid y
the text. Have you long struggle?
: do not think it has been more thar
h twelve years. Is Your case hopeless
S So was this of which my text is tn
d diagnosis and prognosis oh" yo
d say, there are so many things betweer
{ me and God" There was whole mo
/ between this invalid and Christ. Sh
|: pressed through, and l guess you ca
a press through
o Is your trouble home trouble
II Christ shows Himself especially symp;
e thctic with questions of domesticity, a
e when at the wedding in Cana He all,
d waited a housekeopers predicament, a
r when tears rushed forth at the broke
Y home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus
n Men are sometimes ashamed to wee,
l. There are men who if the tears stal
" will conceal them. They think it
p unmanly to cry. They do not seem I