The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-03-08
BENTON. LOUISIANA, THURSDAY, MARCH g. 1900

lne hand is weapon sooner loaded
than any gun, sooner drawn than any
sword. Its fingers bent into the palm,
1t becomes bolt Of demolition. Sol
omon speaks of the hands as the
keepers of the house," or the defend
ers. Surely such a castle as the hu-
man body needs such protection as the
hand alone can offer.
What a defense it is against acci-
dent! There have been times in all
Cur experiences when we have with
the hand warded of something that
would have extinguished our eye
sight, or broken the skull, or crippled
us for q lifetime. While the eye has
discovered the approaching peril, the
hand has beaten it back, or struck it
down. or disarmed it. Every day thank
God for your right hand, and If you
want to hear its eulogy ask him who
in swift revolution of machinery has
had it crushed, or at Chapultepec or
South mountain or San Juan hill or
Sedan lost it.
And in passing let me say that he
who has the weapon of the hand un-
injured and in fill use needs no other.
You towards who walk with sword
cane or carry pistol in your hip
pocket had better lay aside your dead
~ weapon. At the frontier, or In bar
b:---Qs lands, or as an officer of the
law about to make arrest, such
arming may be necessary, but no citi-
zen moving in these civilized regions
needs such Reinforcement. II you are
afraid to go down these streets or
along these country roads without
dagger or firearms, better ask your
grandmother to go with you armed
with scissors and knitting needle.
What towards, if not intended MUIR
derers, uselessly to carry weapons of
death! In our two hands God gave us
all the weapons we need to carry!
Again, the hand is the chief exec
utive officer of the soul for affording
help. just see how that hand is con-
'tructed. How easily you can lower
it to raise the fallen. How cas-, IT
is extende< to feel the invalid's pulse.
or gently wipe awsy the tear of or
phanage, or contribute aims, or
smooth the excited brow. or beckon
into safety. . the helping hands!
There are hundreds of thousands of
Them. and the wo-ld wants at least
! 600, 900 900 of them. Hands to bless
others, hands to rescue others, hands
to save others. What are all these
schools and churches and asylums OF
mcrcS? Outstretched hands. What
are all those hands distributing tracts
and carrying medicines and trying 10
cure blind eyes and deaf ears and
broken bones and disordered intel
lects and wayward sons? Helping
hands. Let each one of us add two
to that number if we have two, or, if
through casualty only one, add that
one. If these hands which we have
so long kept thrust into pockets
through Incidence or folded in indif-
ference or employed in writing wrong
things or doing mean things or heav-
ing up obstacles in the way of right
eous progress might from this hour
be consecrated to helping others out
and up and on. they would be hands
worth being raised on the resurrec-
ton morn and worth clapping in eter-
nal glSdness over a world redeemed.
The great artists of the ages
Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci and
Quentin Matsys and Rembrandt and
Albert Durer and Titan = have done
their best picturing the face of Christ,
but none except AIRY Scheffer seems to
have put much stress upon the hand of
Christ. Indeed, the mercy of that hand,
the gentleness of that hand, is beyond
all artistic portrayal. Some of His mir
acles He performed by word of mouth
and without touching the subject be-
| fore Him, but most of them He per-
formed through the hand. Was the
dead damsel to be raised to life? "He
took her by the hand" Was the blind
man to have optic nerve restored? He
took him by the hand" Was the demon
to be exercised from suffering man
HE took him by the hand" The peo-
pie saw this and besought Him to put
His hand on their afflicted ones.
| His own hands free, see how the
Lord sympathized with the man who
had lost the use Of his hand. 1t was a
case of atrophy, wasting away until
the arm and hand had been reduced in
size beyond any medical or surgical
! restoration. Moreover, it was his right
hand, the more important of the two
for the left side in all its parts is weak.
er than the right side, and we involun-
tarily. in any exigency, put out the
right hand because we know it is the
best hand. So that poor man had los,
more than half of his physical arma.
| ment. 1t would not have been so bad il
it had been the left hand. But Christ
Hooked at the shriveled up right hand
dangling uselessly at the mans side
and then cried out with voice that ha6
omnipotence in it: Stretch forth thy
right hand!" and the record is chs
istretched it forth whole as the other.
The blood rushed through the shrunk
en- veins, and the shortened muscle,