St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-03-03
VALUE OF THE HAND.
d.. Talmage Calls Il the Souls
Executive Omcer.
Its Contraction Illustrates Divine
Window and Its Right Employ
nent Makes Mankind bet.
ter and Happier.
ICopyrisht, 100. by Louis Kiopsch.l
Washington.

The discourse of DR.. Talmage is )
lesson of gratitude for that which
none of US fully appreciate and shows
the divine meaning in our physical
structure; text, / Corinthians 1921:
'sThe eye cannot say unto the hand.
I have no need Of thee"
These words suggest that some time
two very important parts Of the hui
man body got into controversy, and the
eve became insolent and full of Drag
gadocio and said: Il am m independ-
ent part of the human system. How
FAR can see, taking in spring morning
and midnight aurora! Compared with
myself, what an Insignificant thing is
the human hand. look down upon it.
There it hangs, swinging at the side.
q clamp of muscles and nerves, and
it cannot see an inch either way. 1t
has no luster compared with that which
/ beam forth" what senseless talk
responds the hand. You. the eye.
would have been put out long ago but
for me. Without the food have
earned you would have been sight
less and starved to death years ago.
You cannot do without me any better
than I can do without you" At this
part of the disputation Paul OF my
text breaks in and ends the controversy
by declaring: 1.-The eye cannot say
unto the hand, have no need Of thee. =
Fourteen hundred and thirty-three
times. as nearly as can count by aid
Of concordance, does the Bible speak
of the human hand. We are all ia
miiiar with the hand, but the man has
yet to be born who can fully under
stand this wondrous instrument. Sir
Charles Bell, the English surgeon, came
home from the battlefield Of Water
loo, where he had been amputating
limbs and binding up gunshot frac-
lures, and wrote book entitled: THE
Hand: Its Mechanism and Vital En-
dowments as Evidencing Design" But
it is SO profound : book that only q
scientist who is familiar with the
Of anatomy and physi-
ology can understand it.
So we are all going on opening ard
shutting this divinely constructed in
hand-ignorant Of much
Of the revelation it was intended TO
make Of the wisdom and goodness of
God. You can see by their structure
that shoulder and elbow and forearm
are getting ready for the elimination
in the hand. There is your wrist. with
its eight bones and their igaments in
two rows. That wrist, with itS bands
Of fibers and its hinged joint and turn
ing on two axes-on the larger axis
moving backward and forward, and on
the smaller axis turning nearly round.
And there is the pain OF your hand,
with its five bones, each having shaft
and two Examinations. There are the
fingers of that hand, with II bones,
each finger with its curiousiy wrought
tendons, five of the bones with end
ing rougnened for the lodgment OF the
nails. There is the thumb, coming
from opposite direction to meet the
fingers, SO that in conjunction they
may clasp and hold fast that which
YOU desire to take. There are the long
nerves running from the armpit to the
l6 muscles, so that all are under mas
terry. The whole anatomy Of your hand
Is complex, as intricate, as symmet-
-ical. as useful as God could make it.
What can it not do? 1t can climb, it
ran lift, it can push, it can repel, it
al fnh
il can affirm, it can extend, it can
weave, it can battle, it can smite, it can
it can exalt, it can soothe, it
AN throw, it can defy, it can wave,
I can imprecate, it can pray.
4 skeleton of the hand traced on
or unrolled in diagram, or
hung in medical museum, is nightly
of the divine wisdom and
goodness, but how much more pleas
ng when in living action all its nerves
md muscles and bones and tendons
INC tissues and phalanges display
Thtt God invented when He invented
he human hand. Two specimens of
t We carry at our side from the time
sh.n in infancy we open them to take
| tcr till in the last hour Of long life
re extend them in bitter farewell.
With the divine help shall speak
II the hand as the chief executive Off
'er Of the soul, whether lifted for de-
ens-. or extended for help. or busted
n tie arts, or offered in salutation, or
vrung in despair. or spread abroad In
God evidently intended
III the lower orders Of living beings
hculd have weapons Of defense. and
lerce the elephants tusk, and the
10 SEES hoof, and the cows horn, and
be lions tooth, and the insects sting.
having given weapons of defense to
he lower orders Of living beings, Of
curse He would not leave man. the
lighes: order of living beings on earth.
and at the mercy Of brutal
r ruffian attack. The right, yea, the
uty of self-defense is so evident it
leeds no augmentation. The hand
) the divinely fashioned weapon of
efense. We may seldom have to use
/ for such purposes. but the fact that
re are SO equipped insures safety.
he hand is weapon sooner loaded
nan any gun, sooner drawn than any
word. It's fingers bent into the palm,
| becomes bolt Ut demolition. Sol
mon speaks of the hands as the
keepers Of the house." or the defend
rs. Surely such = castle as the hn-
IAN body needs such protection as the
and alone can offer.
What a defense it is against acct
emit! There have been times in all
ur experiences when we have with
be hand warded OF something that
'ould have extinguished our eye
ight. or broken the skull. or crippled
S for lifetime. While the eye has
the approaching peril. the
and has beaten it back, or struck 1t
own. or disarmed it. Every day thank
cd for your right hand, and if you
an. to hear its eulogy ask him who
! swift revolution of machinery has
ad it crushed, or 1T Chapultepec or
outh mountain or San Juan hill or
edan lost it.
And in passing let me say that he