Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1895-05-23


teri Hope it Is not a fclon, /" OF, "Have
your fingers been crusheds'' But nine out
Of ten Of all Christians are going their life
long with their hand In sling. They
have been hurt by indifference or wrong
ideas Of what Is best, or it Is injured OF
conventionalities, and tboy never put forth
that hand to lift or help or rescue any one.
They pray, and their prayer has wings, but
there is no hand under the wings From
the very structure OF the hand we might
make up our mind as to some OF the things
1t was made for-to hold fast, to lift, to
push to pull, to help and to rescue, and
endowed with two hands we might take
the broad hint that for others us well as
for ourselves we were to hold fast, to lift,
to push, 10 pull, to help, to rescue. Won
drous handi You know something Of the
"Brldgcwater Treatises. When Rev.
Francis Henry Bridgewater, In his will,
left $40, 600 for essays on 1.-THE Power,
Wisdom and Goodness of God as Mani
tested In the Creation, and Davies Gil
bert, the president of the Royal society,
chose eight persons to write eight books,
Sir Charles Bell, the scientist, chose as
the subject Of his great book, 1.-The Hand,
Its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as
Evincing Design" Oh, the hand Its
machinery beginning at the shoulder, and
working through shafts of bone, upper
arm and forearm down to the eight bones
Of the wrist, and the five bones Of the
palm, and the IA bones OF the fingers and
thumb, and composed Of labyrinth Of
muscle and nerve and artery and flesh,
which no one but Almighty God could
have planned or executed. But how sug-
gestive when it reached down to us from
under the wings of the cherubiml "The
likeness of the hands Of man was under
the wings"
Another Application.
This idea is combined in Christ. When
he rose from Mount Olivet, he took wing.
All up and down his life you see the up
lifting divinity. 1t glowed in his forehead
1t flashed in his eye. Its cadences were
heard in his voice. But he was also very
human. 1t was the hand under the wing
| that touched the woes of the world and
took hold of the sympathies of the centu-
| ries. Watch his hand before it was spiked.
| There was dead girl In a governors 6
house, and Christ comes into the room and
| takes her pale, cold hands In his warm
| grasp, and she opens her eyes on the weep
| ing household and says. Father, what
are you crying about? Mother, what are
| you crying about?" The book says, 'He
took her by the hand, and the maid rose. "
| A follower, angered at an insult offered
! Christ, drew the sword from sheath and
struck at a man with the sharp edge, aim.
| ing, l think, at his forehead. But the
| weapon glanced aside and took off the
L -, a., - Iax
reconstructed that wonderful organ Of
sound, that whispering gallery of the soul,
that collector of vibrations, that arched
way to the auditory nerve, that tunnel
without which all the musical instruments
of earth would be of no avail. The book
says, "He touched his ear and healed him. y
Meeting full grown man who had never
seen sunrise, or sunset, or flower, OF
the face of his own father or mother, Christ
| moistens the dust from his own tongue
and stirs the dust into an eye salve an6
with his own hands applies the strange
medicament, and suddenly all the colors
of earth and sky rush In upon the newly
created optic nerve, and the instantaneous
noon drove out the long night.
When he sees the grief of Mary and Mar
tina, he sits down and cries with them
Some say 1t is the shortest verse in the Bi
BILE, but to me 1t seems because of Its far
| reaching Bympathies about the largest
Jesus wept!" So very humane HI
could not stand the sight of dropsy or epi
lepsy or paralysis or hunger or dementia
but he stretches out his sympathetic han(
toward it. So very, very human. Omnip
otent and majestic and glorious, this an
| ~ t,a ynt mi
Bile of encircling a universe, and yet hand
Of gentleness, hands of helpfulness, "Th'
hands of a man under the wings" Their,
is kind Of religion In our day that IN,
text rebukes. There are men and womer
spending their time in delectation owe
their saved state, going about from praye
meeting to prayer meeting and from churci
to church telling how happy they are. Blu
show them subscription paper, or asl
them to go and visit the sick, or tell then
to reclaim a wanderer, or speak out TO
some unpopular Christian enterprise, ant
they have bronchitis, or stitch in the side
or sudden attack Of grip. Their religion
is all wing and no hand. They can fl.
heavcnward, but they cannot reach ou
earthward.
A Hand Under the Wing.
1 While Thomas Chalmers occupied tn
chair Of moral philosophy in st. Andrew
university he had at the same time Sab
bath school class of poor boys down ii
the slums Of Edinburgh While Lore
Fitzgerald was travelling in Canada h,
saw poor Indian squaw carrying crush
ing load, and he took the burden on hi
own shoulders. That was Christlike. Tha
was "a hand under the wing" The high
est type of religion says little about itself
but is busy for God and in helping to tn
heavenly shore the crew and passengers o
this shipwrecked planet. Such people ar
busy now up the dark lanes of this city
and all through the mountain glens, an,
down In the quarries where the sunligh
has never visited, and amid the rigging
helping to take In another reef before tn
Caribbean whirlwind.
A friend was telling me Of an exquisit
thing about Seattle then Of Washington
territory, now of Washington state. Tn
people of Seattle had raised generou
sum of money for the Johnstown sufferer
from the food. A few days after Seattl
was destroyed by fire. / saw 1t while tn
whole city was living in tents. In pub
money raised for Johnstown be used 70
the relief Of their own city, and the or,
was Mol Mol No! Send the money t
Johnstown, and by acclamation he mon
ey was so sent. Nothing more beautiful o
sublime than that. Under the wing o
| fire that smote Seattle the eympatheti
hand, the helping hand, the mighty han,
of Christian relief for people thousands 0
miles away. Why, there are a hundre'
thousand men and women whose one busi
ness is to help others. Helping hands
inspiring hands, lifting hands, emanci
pating hands, saving hands. Sure enough
those people had wings Of faith, and wing
of prayer, and wings Of consolation, bu
"the likeness Of the hands Of man wa
under the wings" There was much sens
4. in that which the robust boatman sait