The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1900-01-31

ing or aLLon0lnS TO OLucE uullSS. II oS
moralizes the entire nervous and muscu-
lar SYSTEM But while this exercise may
be fatiguing, it is also an opportunity.
He who knows how heartily to shake
hands has one of the mightiest arts for
conveying happiness and good cheer and
life eternal. After you have shaken
hands with one, a line of communication
is opened that was not open before. Two
hands clasped in greeting are bridge on
which all sympathies and kindnesses and
encouragements and blessings cross over.
TO shake hands with some persons does
us more than a good sermon-aye, 1t is
sermon. TO shake hands with good doc
tor when we are sick is an anodyne,
tonic il febrifuge, before he feels the
pulse or writes the prescription. To shake
hands with a cheerful man when we are
discouraged fills us with faith to try
again what we have failed in doing. 10
shake hands with some consecrated man,
clerical or lay, after we have wandered
away into sin, is to feel the grasp OF
father-God welcoming home the prodl-
gal. Shake hands, Q We stolid and exclu-
sive and cold-blooded and precise and con-
ventional Christians! Jehu cried out to
Jehonadab rs thine heart right? Ii it
be, give me thine hand"
The Christian Handshake.
There is in an honest and Christian
handshake a thrill of gospel electricity.
You take part Of his trouble and he takes
part Of your jubilance. In that way you
divide up anXieties and congratulations.
The main trunk line Of that handshake
has branches of blessed telegraphy right
down to both hearts and up to both
heads, and you both get the message the
same instant. Take the hand gently, rea-
sonably heartily and know that God or
dered that form of sautation. That is
one important thing that the hand was
made for. You can see the indications in
it's shape and equipment--the four fingers
to take your neighbours hand on one side,
and the thumb to take it on the other,
and the forearm so swung that you can
easily draw it toward you.
Of course there is wicked shaking OF
hands, and Solomon refers to it when he
says, Though hand join in hand, the
wicked shall not be unpublished" Shake
hands in conspiracy to damage individual
or community or nation, shake hands to
defraud, shake hands to stand by each
other in wrong doing. You help me stuff
this ballot box, and will see that when |
am in power you shall have promotion.
You help me in my infamy, and will
help you in your infamy. Oh, that is
proclamation of a holy rite; that is sacri-
lege against a divine arrangement; that
is gripping your own destruction. PLATE
and Herod, though antagonists before
shook bands over Christ's projected as
50 ssination.
Penn shook hands with the Indians for
their civilization. Shake hands the way
Missionary Carey shook hands with the
Hindoos, for whose salvation he became
lifetime exile. Shake hands the way
Havelock shook hands with besieged
women at Lucknow whom he had come
to save from massacre. Shake hands as
David Brainerd did with the American
Indians whom he offered Il glorious heav-
en- through the gospel. Shake hands as
Lincoln shook hands with the agitated
mother to whom he gave back the boy
who had fallen asleep from overfatigue
as sentinel. Shake hands as during the
civil war Anna Ross shook hands with
the wounded soldier in Cooper Shop hos
pital, Philadelphia. Shake hands as Van
Meter, the city evangelist, shook hands
with the waif of the street coming penni-
tent into the midnight mission. Shake
hands as heaven shook hands with earth
that night when a doxology in the gallery
of clouds woke the Bethlehem shepherds.
Expressive of Good Will.
But it is not always in such glad greet
ing that we can employ our right hand.
Alas, that so often we have to employ the
hand in farewell salutation. If your
right hand retained some impress of all
such uses, it would be volume of be-
reavements. Oh, the good-bys in which
your right hand has participated! Good
by at the steamboat wharf. Good-by at
the rail train window. Good-by before the
opening of the battle. Good-by at the dy
ing pillow. We all needed grace for such
handshaking, though our hand was
strong and their hand was weak, and we
will need grace for the coming good-bys
and that grace we had better seek while
amid the felicities of health and homes
unbroken. Thank God, there will be no
good-by in heaven.
Again, the hand is the chief executive
of the soul when employed in benediction
No gesture of the human hand means
more than that outstretched gesture. In
many of our religious denominations we
are not permitted to pronounce an apos-
tOlic benedictiOn until we have been ~egu-
larry ordained as ministers of the gospel
but there are kinds of benediction that
you may all pronounce without especial
permission from presbytery or conference
or convention. You have right to spread
abroad both right and aleft hand in be-
slowing a blessing of kindness and good
will upon all you meet. With both hands
bless the children. Take them in your
arms and kiss their fair cheek. Take
with them round Of merriment in the
room before you leave it, and by prayer
put them in the arms of that Christ. TO
go to whom i'll olden time they struggled
to get out Of the arms of their mothers.
God bless the cradles and high chairs and
nurseries all around the world Extend
your hands in benediction for the aged.
Take their counsel and ask their pray
ers, and smooth the path down the decliy-
tiles.
And what better use can make of nv
hands, which are the chief executive Off
GER Of my SOUL than now to spread them
In =