St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-08-25

for an oculist! And / do not Deheve
that more than one out of hundred
of that surgeons cures were reported.
He went up and down among those
people who were feeling slowly their
way by staff, or led by the hand OF man.
or rope of dog. and introducing them
to the faces of their own household,
to the sunrise and the sunset and the
evening star. He just ran his hand
over the expressionless face, and the
shutters of both windows were swung
open, and the restored went home cry
ing: 81 see! see! Thank God. see!"
That is the oculist We all need. Till
he touches our eyes we are blind.
Yea, we were born blind. BY nature
we see things wrong, If we see them
at all. Our hest eternal interests are
put before us. and we cannot see
them The glories Of . loving and
pardoning Christ are projected, and
we do not behold them. Or we have
a defective sight which makes the
things of this world larger than the
things Of the future, time bigger than
eternity. Or, we are color blind and
cannot see the difference between the
blackness of darkness forever and the
roseate morning of an everlasting
day. But Christ the Surgeon comes
in, and though we shrink back, afraid
to have Him touch us, yet He puts
His fingers on the closed eyelids Of
the soul and midnight becomes mid
noon, and we understand something
of the joy of the young man OF the
Bible who, though he had never before
been able to see his hand before his
face, now by the touch of Christ had
two headlights kindled under his
brow, cried out in language that con-
founded the jeering crowd who were
deriding the Christ that had effected
the cure and wanted to make Him out
a bad man, "Whether He be q sinner
or not, know not. One thing know.
that whereas I was blind, now see. !"
But this surgeon was just AZ won
derful as an aurist. Very few people
have two good ears. Nine out OF ten
people are particular to get ON this
or that side of you when they sit or
walk or ride with you. because they
have one disabled ear. Many have
both ears damaged, and what with the
constant racket of our great cities and
the catarrhal troubles that sweep
through the land. it is remarkable
that there are any good ears at all.
Most wonderful instrument is the hu-
man ear. 1t is harp and drum and
telegraph and telephone and whisper
ing gallery all in one. So delicate
and wondrous is its construction that
the most difficult of all things to re-
construct is the auditory apparatus.
The mightiest scientists have put
their skill to its returning, and some
times they stop the progress OF its
decadence or remove temporary OBJ
structions, but not more than one
really deaf ear out of 100000 is ever
cured. 1t took God to make the ear,
and it takes a God to mend it. That
makes me curious to see how Christ
the Surgeon succeeds as an aurist.
We are told Of only two cases He
operated on as an ear surgeon. His
friend Peter, naturally high tempered
saw Christ insulted by . man by the
name of Malchus, and Pster let his
sword fly, aiming at the mans head,
but the sword slipped and hewed on
the outside ear, and our Surgeon
touched the laceration and another
ear bioomed in the place of the one
that had been slashed away. But II
is not the outside ear that hears
That is only funnel for gathering
sound and pouring it into the hidden
and more elaborate ear. On the
beach of Lake Galilee our Surgeon
found q man deaf and dumb. The pa
tient dwelt in perpetual silence and
was speechless. He could not hear
a note Of music or a clap of thunder
He could not call father or mother OF
wife or children by name. What pow
er can waken that duh tympanum OF
reach that chain of small bones or re-
vive that auditory nerve or open the
gate between the brain and the out
side world? The Surgeon put his fin.
gers in the deaf ears and agitated
them and kept on agitating them
until the vibration gave vital energy
to all the dead parts, and they re
sponded, and when our surgeon
withdrew His fingers from the ear
the two tunnels of sound were cleal
| for all sweet voices of music and
| friendship. For the hrst time in his
life he heard the dash of the waves o.
Galilee. Through the desert of pain
full silence had been built king''
highway Of resonance and acclama
ton. But yet he was dumb. NJ
word had ever leaped over his lip
Speech was chained under his tongue
| Vocalization and accentuation wert
to him an impossibility. He could ex
press neither love nor indignation mol
worship.
What = grand thing for our poor hu
man race when this Surgeon shall hav'
completed the treatment of the world
wounds! The day will come when ther
will be no more hospitals, for there will
be NO more sick. and NO more eye ant
ear infirmities, for there will be no NOR
blind or deaf, and NO more deserts, TO
the round earth shall be brought unde
arboriculture, and no more billiards o
sunstrokes, for the atmosphere will b
|expurgated of scorch and chill, and n
more war, for the swords shall come ou
of the foundry bent into pruning hooks
while in the Heavenly country we shal
see the victims of accident or malforms
ton or hereditary ills on earth becom
the athletes in Elysian fields. Who !
that man with such brilliant eyes clos
before the Throne? Why, that is tn
man who, near Jericho, was blind an
our Surgeon cured his ophthalmia
Who is that erect and graceful an
oueenly woman before the Throne
That was the one whom our Surgeo
found bent almost double and could i
nowise lift herself up, and He made he
straight. Who il that listening wit
such rapture to the music of Heavez
solo melting into chorus, cymbal n
spending to trumpet, and then himsel
ioining in the anthem? Why, that
the man whom our Surgeon found des
and dumb on the beach of Galilee an
by two touches opened ear gate an
mouth gate. Who is that around whol
| ~. .o,-1. ara 0afherinu NTH admiI