The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-06-07

you had long struggle? do not think 1t
has been more than 12 years. Is your case
| hopeless? So was this Of which my text Is
the diagnosis and prognosis. "Oh, you say,
''there are 80 many things between me and
God" There was whole mob between this
, invalid and Christ. She pressed through, and
guess you can press through.
is YOUR trouble a home trouble? Christ
shows Himself especially sympathetic with
questions Of domesticity, as when at the we'd
ding In Cana He alleviated a housekeeper's
predicament. as when tears rushed forth at
the broken dome Of Mary and Martha and
Lazarus. Men are sometimes ashamed to
weep. There are men who II the tears start
will conceal them. They think It Is unmanly
to cry. They do not seem to understand 1t Is
manliness and evidence Of q great heart. I
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 the two
words of the evangelist "Jesus wept" Be-
hold Christ on the only day OF His early
triumph marching on Jerusalem, the glitter
ing domes obliterated by the binding rain OF
tears In His eyes and on His cheeks, for when
He beheld the city He wept over 1t. o man
Of the many trials, o woman Of the heart
break, why do you not touch Him2
"Oh," says some one, "Christ doesn'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 over
throw, and there are 80 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 to this invalid OF the
text. He was on His way to effect cure
which was famous and popular and wide re-
sounding. But the context says. "He turned
Him about" II He was facing to the north,
He turned to the south if He was facing to
the east, He turned to the west. What
turned Him about2 The Bible says He has no
shadow Of turning; he rides on His chariot
through the eternities. He marches on,
crushing scepters as though they were the
cracking alders on brooks bank, and toss
ing thrones on either side Of Him without
looking which way the fail. From everlast.
ing to everlasting. "He turned Him about" I"
He, whom all the allied armies Of hell can
not stop minute or divert an inch, by the
wan, sick, nerveless finger Of human suffer-
ing turned clear about.
Oh, what comfort there is In this subject
for people who are called nervous OF course
1t Is misappied word In that case, but use
1t I'm the ordinary parlance After IL years
of fsufrering, oh, what nervous depression she
must have hid You all know that good
deal OF medicine taken If it 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 ap-
prehension Of something going to happen,
and irritability about little things that In
health would not have perturbed her. war
rant YOU It was not straight stroke she gave
to the garment Of Christ, but trembling
forearm, and an uncertain motion OF the
hand, and quivering finger with which she
missed the mark toward which she aimed.
She did not touch the garment just where
she expected to touch 1t.
When see this nervous woman coming to
the Lord Jesus Christ, say she is making
the way for all nervous people. Nervous
people do not get much sympathy. II q man
breaks his arm, everybody Is sorry, and they
talk about 1t ali up and down the street. II 9
woman has an eye put out by accident, they
say: 'sThat's dreadful thing" Everybody
Is, asking about her conyalescenee.' But when
person Is suffering under the atlment OF
which I am now speaking they say: "On,
ALL" putting slight upon the most agonlz-
ing Of suffering.
Now, have o new prescription to give you.
I do not ask you to discard human medica-
ment. I believe in 1t. When the slightest
thing occurs In the way OF sickness In my
household, we always run for the doctor.
do not want to despise medicine. II you cam
not sleep nights do not despise bromide OF
potassium. II you have nervous paroxysm,
do not despise morphine. II you wants to
strengthen up your system, do not despise
ouinine as a tonic. Use all right and proper
medicines. But want you to bring your
insomnia, and bring your irritabiltty, and
bring all your weaknesses, and with them
touch Christ. Touch Him not only on the
hem OF His garments, but touch Him on the
shoulder, where he carries our burden, touch
Him on the head where He remembers all
our sorrows, touch Him on the heart, the
center Of all His symrathtes. Oh, yes, Paul
was right when he said, "We have not q high
priest who cannot be Touched"
The fact is Christ Himself Is nervous. AL
those nights out OF doors In malarial districts,
where an Englishman or an American dies II
he goes at certain seasons. Sleeping out OF
doors so many nights, as Christ did, and 80
hungry, and His feet wet with the wash OF
the sea, and the wilderness tramp, and the
persecution, and the outrage must have
broken His nervous system fact proved by
the statement that He lived so short q time
on the cross. That Is lingering death Or
dinarily, and many sufferer on the cross
has writhed In pain "A hours, 48hours. Christ
lived only six. Why2 he was exhausted be-
wornout Christ, sympathetic with all peo-
pie worn out.
Christian woman wont to the Tract
House In New York and asked for tracts for
distribution. The first day she was out on
her Christian errand she saw q policeman
taking an intoxicated woman to the station
house. After the woman was discharged
from custody, this Christian tract distributor
saw her coming away all unkenipt and un-
lovely. The tract distributor went up, threw
her arms around her neck and kissed her.
The woman said, "Oh, my God, why do you
kiss me?" "Wen," replied the other, IT
think Jesus Christ told me to-" "Oh, no."
the woman said, "don't you kiss me. 1t
breaks my heart. Nobody has kissed me
since my mother died" But that sisterly
kiss brought her to Christ, started her on the
rosd to heaven. The world wants sympathy;
It Is dying for. sympathy, large,hearted
Christian sympathy. There Is omnipotence
Oh, am so glad that when We touch Christ
Christ touches US! The knuckles, and the
limbs, and the joints, all falling apart with
that living daath called the leprosy, q man 1s
brought to Christ. A hundred doctors could
not cure him. The wisest surgery would
stand appalled, before that loathsome pa
tient. What did Christ do? He did not am
putate He did not poultice He did not scar
ify. He touched him, and he was well. The
mother-in-law Of the Apostle Peter was In
raging fever-brain fever, typhoid fever, or
what, I do not know. Christ was the physi-
clan. He offered no febrifuge He prescribed
no drops; He did not put her on plain diet.
He touched her, and she was perfectly we'll.
Two blind men come stumbling into room
where Christ is. They are entirely sightless.
Christ did not lift the eyelid to see whether it
was cataract or ophthalmia. He did not put
the men into dark room for three or four
weeks. He touched them. and they saw every