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

blind eve or reconstruct the drum of u
soundless ear or reduce dropsy with
out any pain at the time or any pain
after. and that surgeon was Jesus
Christ, the mightiest, grandest, gen.
tlest and most sympathetic surgeon the
world ever saw or ever will see, and
He deserves the confidence and love
and worship and hosanna of all the
earth and the halleluiaks of all Heaven.
1.-THE blind receive their sight and the
lame walk; tie lepers are el~A1sed. and
the deaf hear"
l notice this Surgeon had fondness
for chronic diseases. Many surgeon,
when he has had a patient brought to
him. has said: "Why was not this at
tended to five years ago? You bring
him to me after al power of recupera-
ton is gone. You have waited until
there is a complete contraction OF the
muscles, and false ligatures are formed.
and ossification has taken place. 1t
ought to have been attended to long
ago." But Christ the Surgeon seemed
to prefer inveterate cases. One was a
hemorrhage of 12 years, and he stopped
it. Another was a curvature of IS years,
and He Strengthened it. Another was
cripple of 3S years, and he walked out
well. The 1s-year patient was worn-
an bent almost double. If you call
convention of all the surgeons of the
centuries, their combined skill could
not cure that body SO drawn out of
shape. Perhaps they might stop it
from getting any worse, perhaps they
might contrive braces by which she
might be mace more comfortable, but
it is, humbly speaking, incurable. Yet
this Divine Surgeon put both His
hands on her, and from that doubled
up posture she began to rise, and the
empurpled face began to take on .
healthier hue, and the muscles began
to relax their rigidity, and the spinal
column began to adjust itself. and the
cords of the neck began to be more sup
pie, and the eyes that could see only
the ground before. now looked into the
face of Christ with gratitude and up
toward Heaven in transport. Straight!
After IS weary and exhausting years,
straight! The poise. the gracefulness,
the beauty of healthy womanhood re-
instated. The 3s years case was a
man who lay on a mattress near the
mineral baths at Jerusalem. There
were five apartments where lame peo-
pie were brought, so that they could get
the advantage of these mineral baths.
The stone basin of the bath is still
visible, although the waters have dis
appeared, probably through some con-
vulsion of nature. The bath, 120 feet
long, 10 feet wide and eight feet deep.
All, poor man, if you had been lame ano
helpless 3s years, the mineral bath can
not restore you. Why, 3s years is more
than the average of human life. Moth
ing but the grave will cure you. But
Christ the Surgeon walks along these
baths and have no doubt passes By
some patients who have been only six
months disordered, or year or five
years and comes to the mattress OF the
man who had been nearly four decades
helpless. and to this 3S years invalid
said: "Wilt thou be made whole?"
The question asked not because the
SuIycOu uAu uOI LAG RAO
tractedness, the desperateness, of the
case, but to evoke the mans pathetic
narrative. "Wilt thou be made whole p
'Would you like to get well?" "Oh.
yes" says the man. THAT is what
came to these mineral baths for. l
have tried everything. All the sur
geons have failed, and all the pre-
scriptions have proved valueless. and
I got worse and worse, and | can
neither move hand nor foot nor head.
Oh, il / could only be free from this
pain of 3s years!" Christ and surgeon
could not stand. that. Bending over
the man on the mattress, and in a
voice tender with all sympathy. but
strong with all omnipotence, he says:
"Rise!" And the invalid instantly
scrambles to his knees and then puts
out his right foot, then his left foot,
and then stood upright as though he
had never been prostrated. While he
stands looking at the doctor, with
Joy too much to hold, the doctor says:
"Shoulder this mattress, for you are
not only wei enough to walk. but well
enough to work, and start out from
these mineral baths. Take up thy bed
and walk!" Oh, what surgeon for
chronic cases then and for chronic
cases now!
This is not applicable. 50 much to
those who are only a little hurt OF sin
and only for short time, but to those
prostrated of sin IL years, Is years,
3S years. Here is a sturgeon able to
give immortal health. "Oh." you say,
Il am so completely overthrown and
trampled down of sin that cannot
rise" Are you fatter down than this
patient at the mineral baths? No.
Then rise. In the name OF Jesus OF
Nazareth, the surgeon who offers you
His right hand of help, I bid thee rise
Not cases of acute sin, but of chronic
sin-those who have not prayed foI
3s years, those who have not been to
church for 3S years, those who have
been gamblers, or libertines, or thieves,
| or outlaws, or blasphemers, or infidels
or atheists, and all these together, FOL
3s wears. A Christ for exigencies! A
Christ Il a dead liftl A surgeon who
| never loses a case!
In speaking Of Christ as q surgeon
| I must consider him as an oculist OF
eve doctor; and an aurist or ear doc
tor. Was there ever such another ocu
list? That he was particularly sorry
for the blind folks l take from the fact
that the most of His works were will
the diseased optic nerves. / have not
time to count up the number Of blind
people mentioned who got His cure
Two blind men in one house; also on1
who was born blind; SO that it wa
not removal of = visual obstruction
but the creation of the cornea ant
ciliary muscle and crystalline lens ant
retina and optic nerve and tear gland
also the blind man of Bethsaida, curet
by the saliva which the Surgeon tool
from the tip of His own tongue ana
put upon the eyelids; also two blin<
linen who sat. by the wayside.
In our civilized lands we have blind
ness enough, the ratio rfearfully in
eressinx, according to the statemen
orA ArAriron nrulixfe