Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1900-02-02
REV. Or. TALMAGE.
THE EMINENT DIVINE'S SUNDAY
DISCOURSE.
Subject: The Wonders of the Human
. Hand-Our Physical Structure Proof
of Divine Wisdom-The Extended
Hand the Symbol of In finite Mercy.

OF Divine WtsdOm-Ino Extohoou
Hand the Symbol of Infinite Mercy.
Copyright, Louis Klopsch, 1901
WASHINGTON, D. C.-The discourse OF DR..
Talmage Is O lesson Of gratitude for that
which none of us fully appreciate and
shows the Divine meaning In our physical
structure; text, Corinthians xiii, 81, "The
eye cannot say unto the hand, have no
need OF thee"
These words suggest that some time two
very important parts of the human body got
into controversy, and the eye became inso-
lent and full of braggadocio and said: 81
am an Independent part of the human sys-
TEN. How far can see, taking in spring
morning and midnight aurora! Compared
with myself what an Insignificant thing is
the human handl look down upon 1t.
There it hangs, swinging at the side,
clump of muscles and nerves, and 1t can.
not see an inch either way. 1t has no lus-
ter compared with that which 1 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
sightless 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, "The
eye cannot say unto the hand, have no
need OF thee.'
Fourteen hundred and thirty-three
times, as nearly as l can count by aid OF
concordance, does the Bible speak OF the
human hand. We are all familiar with the
hand, but the man has yet to be born who
can fully understand this wondrous instru-
ment. Sir Charles Bell. the English sur.
geon, came home from the battlefield OF
Waterloo, where he had been amputating
limbs and binding up gunshot fractures,
and wrote book entitled "The Hand: Its
Mechanism and Vital Endowments as Evil
dencing Design" But it is so profound
book that only'a scientist who is familiar
with the technicalities OF anatomy and
physiology can understand 1t.
So we are all going on opening and shut
ting this divinely constructed instrument,
the hand, ignorant OF much Of the reyela-
ton it was intended to make of the wis
dom and goodness of God. You can see by
their structure that shoulder and elbow
and forearm are getting ready for the cul-
mination in the hand. There is your
wrist, with its eight bones and their liga-
ments In two rows. That wrist. with Its
bands of flbres and its hinged joint and
turning on two axes-on the larger axis
moving backward and forward and on the
smaller axis turning nearly around. And
there is the palm of your hand, with Its
FIVE bones, each having shaft and two
Examinations. There are the fingers OF
that hand, with fourteen bones, each fin
ger with it's curiously wrought tendons,
five of the bones with ending roughened
for the Judgment of the nails. There is
the thumb, coming frorl opposite direc.
tion to meet the flngers, so that in con-
junction they may clasp and hold fast that
which you desire to take. There are
4 frnp
armpit to the forty-slx muscles.
so that all are under mastery.
The whole anatomy OF your hand as
complex, as intricate, as symmetrical, as
useful, as God could make it. What can 1t
not do? 1t can climb, 1t can lit, 1t can
push, it can repel, 1t can menace, 1t can
cluch, II can deny, 1t can affirm, 1t can ex'
tend, it can weave, it can battle, 1t can
smite, it can humble, 1t can exalt, 1t can
soothe, it can throw, 1t can defy, 1t can
wave, 1t can imprecate, 1t can pray.
A skeleton of the hand traced on black
board or unrolled In diagram or hung In
medical museum is nightly illustrative OF
the Divine wisdom and goodness, but how
much more pleasing when In living action
all its nerves and muscles and bones and
tendons and tissues and phalanges display
what God invented when He invented the
human handl Two specimens of 1t we
carry at our side from the time when In
infancy we open them to take toy till In
the last hour OF u long life we extend them
in bitter farewell.
With the Divine help shall speak OF the
hand as the chief executive officer OF the
soul, whether lifted for defense, or ex.
tended for help, or busted in the arts, OF
offered in salutation, or wrung In despair,
or spread abroad in benediction. God EVIL.
IDENTIFY intended all the lower order OF liv.
ing beings should have weapons OF defense,
and hence the elephants tusk, and the
horses hoof, and the cows horn, and the
lions tooth, and the Insects sting. Having
given weapons Of defense to the lower
orders OF living beings, OF course He would
not leave man, the highest order OF living
beings on earth, defenseless and at the
mercy of brutal or ruffian attack. The
right-yea, the duty-of self defense is so
evident 1t needs no augmentation. The
hand is the Divinely fashioned weapon OF
defense. We may seldom have to use 1t
for such purposes, but the fact that we are
equipped insures safety. The hand is a
weapon sooner loaded than any gun,
sooner drawn than any sword. Its fingers
bent into the palm, it becomes bolt OF
demolition.
What defense it is against accident!
There have been times in all our expert
ences when we have with the hand warded
off something that would have extinguished
our eyesight or broken the skull or crippled
us for lifetime. While the eye has dis
covered the approaching peril the hand
has beaten it back or struck 1t 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 1t crushed or at
Chapultepec or South Mountain or San
Juan Hill or Sedan lost 1t.
And in passing let me say that he who
has the weapon Of the hand uninjured and
in full use needs no other. You towards
who walk with sword cane or carry a pis-
tol in your hip pocket had better lay aside
barbarous lands or as an officer OF the law
about to make an arrest such armlng may
be necessary, but no citizen moving in
these civilized regions needs such rein
forcement. If you are afraid to go down
these streets or along these country roads
without dagger or firearms, better ask
your grandmother to 90 with you armed
with scissors and knitting needle. What
towards, IL not what intended murderers,
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 executive Of
fcer OF the soul for affording help. Just
see how that hand is constructed! How
easily you can lower it to raise the fallen!
How easily it is extended to feel the in
valid's pulse, or gently wipe away the tear
of orphanage, or contribute aims, or
smooth the excited brow, or beckon into
safety Oh, the helping handsl There are
hundreds of thousands OF them, and the
world wants at least 1000, 000,0 900 Of them.
Hands to bless others, hands to rescue
others, hands to save others. What are
all these schools and churches and asylums
of mercy2 Outstretched hands. What are
all those hands distributing tracts and car
rying medicines and trying to cure blind
eyes and deaf ears and broken bones and
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