The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-08-09

ing through pulley to turn it round
and round-an elaborate gearing OF
six muscles as perfect as God could
make them. There also is the retina,
gathering the rays of light and pass
| ing the visual impression along the
optic nerve, about the thickness of the
lampwick-passing the visual impress
sion on to the sensorium, and on into
the soul. What delicate lens, what
an exquisite screen, what soft cush-
ions, what wonderful chemistry of
the human eye! The eye washed
by slow stream of moisture,
whether we sleep or wake, roll
ing imperceptibly over the pebble
of the eye and emptying into a bone of
the nostril. A continuance so wonder
full that it can see the sun, ninety five
million miles away, and the point of
pin. Telescope and microscope in
| the same continuance. The astronomer
swings and moves this way and that,
and adjusts and readjusts the telescope
until he gets it to the right focus; the
microscopic moves this way and that,
and adjusts and readjusts the magni-
! flying glass until it is prepared to do
| its work; but the human eye, without
| torch, beholds the star and the
smallest insect. The traveller among
| the Alps, with one glance taking in
Mont Blanc and the face of his watch
| to see whether he has time to climb it.
Oh! this wonderful camera Obscura
which you and carry about with us,
so to-day we can take in our friends,
so from the top of Mount Washington
L al
night we can sweep into our vision
the consultations from horizon to
horizon. So delicate, so semi-infnite,
and yet the light coming ninety five
million miles at the rate of two hun
dred thousand miles a second is obliged
| to halt at the gate of the eye, wait
! ing for admission until the portcullis
! be lifted. Something hurled ninety
five million miles and striking an in
strument which has not the agita-
ton of even winking under the
power of the stroke. There, also,
is the merciful arrangement of
the tear gland, by which the eye
is washed, and from which rolls the
tide which brings the relief that comes
in tears when some bereavement or
great loss strikes us. The tear not an
augmentation of sorrow, but the
breaking up of the arctic of frozen
grief in the warm gulf stream of con-
ISOLATION. Incapacity to weep in mad
ness or death. Thank God for the tear
glands, and that the crystal gates are
so easily opened. Oh! the wonderful
hydraulic apparatus Of the human eye.
Divinely constructed vision! Two
light houses at the harbor of the i'm
mortal soul, under the shining of
which the world sails in and drops an
Choir. What an anthem of praise to God
is the human eyel The tongue is
speechless and clumsy instrument of
expression as compared with it. Have
you not seen it flash with Indignation
or kindle with enthusiasm, or expand
with devotion, or melt with sympathy,
or stare with fright, or leer with viii
liany, or droop with sadness. or pale
with envy, or fire with revenge, or
twinkle with mirth, or beam with
love? 1t is tragedy and comedy and
pastoral and lyric in turn. Have you
not seen its uplifted brow of surprise,
or It's frown of wrath, or its contrac-
ton of pain2 If the eye say one
thing, you believe the eye rather than
the lips The eyes of Archibald Alex
ander and Charles G. Finney were the
mighticst part Of their sermon.
George Whitefield cnthralled great as
semblages with his eyes, though they
were crippled with stra bismus. Many
a military chicftain has with look
hurled a regiment to victory or to
death. Martin Luther turned his great
eye on an assassin who came to Take
his life, and the villain fed. Under
the glance of the human eye, the tiger,
with five times a mans strength,
snarls back into the African jun
gle. But those best appreciate the
value of the eye who have lost it. The
Emperor Adrian by accident put out
the eye of his servant, and he said to
his servant: ''What shall pay you in,
money or in lands? Anything you ask
me; 1 am so sorry l put your eye out. "
But the servant refused to put any
financial estimate on the value of the
eye, and when the emperor urged and
urged again the matter, he sail: "Oh,
emperor, want nothing but my lost
eye" Alas for those for whom a
thick ard impenetrable vail is drawn
across the face of the heavens
and the face of ones own
kindred. That was pathetic
scene when a blind man lighted
torch at night AMI was found passing
along the highway, and some one said:
"Why do you carry that torch when
you can't see?" 'Ahp' said he, ~
can't see, but 1 carry this torch that
others may sec me and pity my help
lessness and not run me down" Sam
son, the giant, with his eyes put out
by the Philistines, is more helpless
than the smallest dwarf with vision
unchanged. All the sympathieS of
Christ were stirred when He saw Bar
timeus with darkened retina, and the
only salve He ever made that we read
of was a mixture of dust and saliva
and prayer, with which he cured the
eyes of man blind from his nativity.
The value of the eye is shown as much
by its catastrophe as by it's healthful
action. Ask the man who for twenty
years has not seen the sun rise. Ask
the man who for half a century has
not seen the face of friend. Ask in
the hospital the victim of oph thalmia-
Ask the man whose eyesight persisted
III a powder blast. Ask the Bartimeus
who never met a Christ, or the man
born blind who is to die blind. Ask
him. This morning, in my imperfect
way, have only limited at the SPLEEN
doris, the glories, the wonders, the
Divine revelations, the apocalypses