The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1900-06-01
FARMVILLE. VA. FRIDAY. JUNE l. 1900.

IL we carry at our side from the time
when in infancy we open them 20 take
a toy till in the last hour of long life
we extend them in bitter farewell.
With the divine help shall speak
of the hand as the chief executive Off
Ger Of the soul, whether lifted for de-
fense, or extended for help, or busted
in the arts, or offered in salutation, or
wrung in despair, or spread abroad in
benediction God evidently intended
oil the lower orders of living 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
highes: order Of living beings on earth,
defenseless and at the mercy of brutal
or Ufiian attack. The right, yea, the
duty of self-defcnse is so evident il
needs no augmentation. The hand
is the divinely fashioned weapon Of
defense We may seldom have to use
It for such purposes, but the fact that
we are 50 equipped insures safety.
The hand is a weapon sooner loaded
than any gun, sooner drawn than any
sword. It's fingers bent into the palm,
II becomes bolt of demolition. Sol
omon speaks of the hands as the
keepers of the house." or She defend
ers. Surely such a castle as the hu-
man body needs such protection as the
hand alone can offer.
What q defense II is against acci-
dentl There have been times In all
our experiences when we have with
the hand warded off something that
would have extinguished our eye
eight, or broken the skull. OF crippled
US for a lifetime While the eye has
discovered the approaching peril, the
hand has beaten It back, or struck il
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 full use needs no other.
You towards who walk with sword
cane or carry a pistol in your hip
pocket had better lay aside your dead
" weapon. At the frontier. or in bar
barOus lands. or as an officer OF the
law about 20 make arrest. such
arming may be necessary, but no citi-
zen moving in these civilized regions
needs such reinforcement. If You arc
afraid to 90 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. 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 aifording
help. just see how that hand IS con-
structed How easily you can lower
1t to raise the fallen. How easily II
Is extended 10 feel the inyalid's pulse,
CT gently wipe away the tear Of or
phanage, or contribute aims, or
smooth the excited brow, or beckon
into safety y the helping hands,
There are hundreds of thousands Of
them. and the world wants at least
1000. 900 of them. Hands TO bless
others, hands to rescue Others hands
10 save others. What are all these
schools and churches and asylums Of
mcrct? Outstretched hands. What
arc all those hands distributing tracts
and carrying medicines and trying TO
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
10 that number if we have two or II
through casualty only one. add that
one. If these hands which we have
so long kept thrust into pockets
through Incidence OF folded In indh-
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 rladness over a world redeemed.
The great artists of the ages
Raphael and Leonardo da Ninci 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 10
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 lie 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? lie
took him by the hand" Was the demon
TO be exercised from a suffering manY
"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
case Of atrophy. a wasting away until
the arm and hand had been reduced in