Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-09-29

| their sensitiveness of touch. Tho bridges,
the tunnels, the cities of the whole earth
are the victories of the hand. The hands
arc not dumb, but often speak rs distinct
ly as the lips With our hands VIC invite,
VIC repel we invoke, we ontreat, we wiring
them in grief or clap them in joy, or
spread them abroad in bonediction. The
malformation of the giants hand In tho
text glorihcs tho usual hand. Fashioned
of God moro cxquisitely and wondrously
than any human mechanism that was ever
oontrived, Charge you to use 1t for God
and the lifting of the world out of its
moral prodicament. Employ it in tho sub
lime work of gospel handshaking. You
can SEQ tho hand is just made for that.
Four fingers just set right to touch your
neighbours hand on one side, and your
thumb set so as to clinch it on tho other
side BY all its bones and joints and
muscles and cartilaRes and lignments the
voice of nature joins with the voice of God
commanding you to shake hands. The
custom is as old as tho Bible, anyhow.
Jehu said TO Jchonadab; as thino heart
right as my heart is with thine heart? II
1t DO, give mo thino hand" When hands
Join in Christian salutation, gospel ecc.
tricity thrills across the palm from heart
to heart, and from tho shoulder of ono to
the shoulder of the other
With tho timid and for their encourage
mcnt, shake hands. With tho troubled in
warm hearted sympathy, shake hands.
With tho young man just entering bust
ness and discouraged at the small sales
and the large expenses, shake hands.
With tho child who is new from God and
started on unending journey, for which he
needs TO gather great supply of strength,
a
because you arc so much taller, shake
hands. Across cradles and dying beds
and graves, etiakc hands With your enc
mics who have done all TO defamo and
hurt you but whom you can afford to for
give, shnl;, hands. At the door OF tho
churches where people come in, and at the
door Of churches where people go out,
shake hands Let pulpit shake hands
with pew and Sabbath day shake hands
with weekday, and earth shake hands with
heaven. Oh, tho strange, sho mighty, the
underlined, the mysterious, the eternal
power of an honest handshaking! The
difference between these times and the
millCnnial times Is that now some shake
huuds, but then all will shake hands
throne and footstool Hcross seas, nation
with nation, God and man, church mill
tant and church triumphant.
The Errant Foot.
Yea, the malformation of this fallor
giants foot glorilios the ordinary foot, fol
which l fear you have never once thanked
God. The 60 bones Of the foot are tho ad
Iniration of the anatomist Tho arch OF
tho foot, fashioned with grace and poist
that 4 ajan's arch or Constantino's arch
or any other arch could not cqua! Those
arches stand where they were planted, but
this arch of the foot is an adjustable arch
yielding arch flying arch, and ready
for movements innumerablc Tho human
foot, SO fashioned as to enable man t
stand upright rs no other creature, ant
leave tho hand that would otherwise have
to help in balancing the body free for any
thing it chooses The foot of the came
fashioned for the sand, tho foot of the birt
fashioned for tho tree branch, the foot o.
the hind fashioned for tho slippery rock
tho foot &C the lion fashioned to rend II!
prey, the foot of tho horse fashioned fol
the solid EARTH but the foot of man made
to cross the desert, or climb tho tree, OIL
scale the cliff, or walk tho earth, or e
anywhere he needs to go.
With that divine triumph of anatomy II
your possession where do yoI walk2 Ii
what path of righteousness or what patti
VI Dill naNe you SeU ~ uOWH! NHcro nav
you left tho mark of your footsteps? Annie
the pctrfactions in the rocks have beer
found tho marks OF the feet of birds ant
beast of thousands of years ago. And Goo
can trace out all the footsteps of your life
time, and those you made 90 years agc
aro as plain as those made in the last sof
weather, all Of them petrllcd for tho judg
mcnt dag. Oh, the foot Give mo The
autobiography Of your foot from tho time
you stepped out of the cradle until today
and l will tell your exact character nov
and what are your prospects for the worlt
to come.
That there might DO no doubt about th,
fact that both these pieces of divin,
mechanism, hand and foot, belong tt
Christi service both hands of Christ ant
both feet of Christ were spiked on tn,
cross. Right through the arch Of both hi
feet to the hollow Of his instcp went TIT
iron of torture, and from tho palm Of hi
hand to tho back of IT., and there is not
muscle or nerve or bone among the q
bones OF hand and wrist or among tho y
bones OF the foot but it belongs to hin
now and forever.
A Fable of Service.
That is tho most beautiful foot that goe
about paths of greatest usefulness, ant
that tho most beautiful hand that does til,
most TO help others. l was reading o
three women in rivalry about the appear
ance of the hand And the one reddoneC
her hand with berries and said the bcauti
ful lingo made hers the most beautiful
And another put her hand in the noun
lain brook and said as the waters drippct
off that her hand was the most beautiful
And another pluckcd flowers off the bank
and under the bloom contended that he
hand was the most attractive Then {
poor old woman appeared, and looking
up in her decrepitude, asked for aims
And "a woman who had not taken part il
tho rivalry gave her aims. And all tn,
women resolved to leave to this beggar tn,
question his to which Of all the hands pres
ert was the most attractive, and she said
"The most beautiful of them all is tho one
that gave relief to my necessities" And
as she so said her wrinkles and rags and
her dccrepitude and her body disappeared
and in place thereof stood tho Christ, who
long ago said, "Inasmuch rs ye did it to
ono of the least of these ye did it unto
mo" and who TO purchase the service OF
our hand and foot here or earth had his
own hand and foot laceratcd.
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John Bright's Prophecy.
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