Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-01-15


vision unchanged. All the sympathies
of Christ were stirred when he saw
Bartimeus with darkened retina, and
the only salye he ever made that we
read of was a mixture of dust and
saliva and prayer with which he
cured the eyes of man blind from
his nativity. The value Of the eye
shown as much by it's catastrophe as
by it's healthful action. Ask the man
who for 20 years has not seen the sun
rise. Ask the man who for half a
century has not seen the face Of a
friend. Ask in the hospital the victim
of ophthalmia. Ask the man whose
eyesight persisted in a powder blast.
Ask the Bartimeus who never met a
Christ or the man born blind who is
to die blind. Ask him.
God Given Sight.
How it adds to John Millions sublim-
ity of character when we find him at
the call of duty sacrificing his eyesight
Through studying at late hours and
trying all kinds of medicament to pre-
serve his sight he had for II years
been coming toward blindness, and aft
er awhile one eye was entirely gone
continued reading and writing he
would lose the other eye. But he kept
on with his work and said after sitting
in total darkness: "The choice lay be-
fore me between dereliction of a SUI
preme duty and loss of eyesight. In
such a case I could not listen to the
physicians. not if Esculapius himself
had spoken from his sanctuary. l
could not but obey that inward moni-
tor. 1 know not what spoke to me
from heaven" Who Of us would have
grace enough to sacrifice our eyes at
the call of duty?
But, thank God, some have been en-
abled to see without very good eyes.
General Havelock, the son of the more
famous General Havelock, told me this
concerning his father: In India, while
his father and himself with the army
were encamped one evening time after
a long march, General Havelock called
up his soldiers and addressed them,
saying in words as near as l can recol-
lect: "Soldiers, there are 200 or 800 Wo-
men, children and men at Cawnpur at
the mercy Of Mana Sahib and his
butchers. Those poor people may any
hour be sacrificed. How many of you
will go with me for the rescue of those
women and children? 1 know you are
all worn out, and so am 1. But all
those who will march with me to save
those women and children hold up
your hand" Then Havelock said: SIT
is almost dark, and my eyesight is
very poor, and I cannot see your rails
ed hands, but I know they are all up.
IN 81,
eyes, though almost extinguished in
the service Of God and his country,
could see across India and across the
centuries. But let anybody who has
one good eye be thankful and all who
have two good eyes be twice as thank
full. Take care of your eyes and thank
God every morning when you open
them for capacity to see the light. !
do not wonder at the behavior of q
poor man in France. He had been
born blind, but was a skillful groom in
the stables.
A surgeon riding up one evening
gave his horses into the care of the
blind groom. Late at night the tray
cling surgeon went to the stables and
found the groom still at work upon the
horses, and the grateful and sympa-
thetic surgeon resolved in the morn
ing to reward the blind groom with
money. But in the night the surgeon
bethought himself that perhaps he
Gould give the groom something bet
ter than money. In the morning he
said to the blind groom: "Step out into
the sunshine. You are 40 years of age.
I could surely have cured your blind
ness if I had seen you sooner, but
come to Paris and I will give you sight
if you do not die under the operation"
Paying the poor mans way to Paris,
the operation was successful. For the
first time the man saw his wife and
children, and having taken good look
at them he turned and said, LET me
look on my friend the surgeon, who
has opened all this beautiful world to
me and shown me my loved ones"
Was not that glorious? Only those
who have been restored from utter
blindness can appreciate the omnip-
otent blessing Of eyesight. /
Wisdom of the Almighty. /
The Earl Of Bridgewater in his last
will and testament bequeathed $4,000 |
for essays to be written on the power
and wisdom and goodness of God as
manifested in creation, and Sir Charles
Bell, the British surgeon, fresh from
Coruna and Waterloo, where he had
been tending the wounded and study
ing the formation of the human body
amid the amputating horrors of the |
battlefield, accepted the invitation to
write one of those Bridgewater trea-
tises, and he wrote his book on the hui
man hand a book that will live as long
as the world lives. Today I have only
limited at the splendors, the glories, the
wonders, the divine revelations, the