Connecticut western news., 1900-01-18

and round an Sia5crate gearing of six muscles aS perfect as God could make them.
 There Is also the retina gathering the rays of light and passing the visual impression along the optic nerve about
 the thickness of the lampwick, pass ing the visual impression on to the sen sorium and on into the soul. What q
 delicate lens. what an exquisite screen.
 what soft cushions, what wonderful
 chemistry of the human eye. The eye
 washed by slow stream of moisture
 whether we sleep or wake, rolling i'm
 perceptibly over the pebble of the eye
 and emptying into bone of the nos
 tril, a contrivance so wonderful that 1t
 can see the sun 95,O0OO0O of miles
 away and the point of pin. Telescope and microscope ill the same contri-
 vance. The astronomer swings and
 moves this way and that and adjusts ! and readjusts the telescope until he gets it to the right focus. The micro scopist moves this way and that and adjusts and readjusts the magnifying | glass until it is prepared to do it's work, but the human eye without touch beholds the star and the small est insect. The traveller along the Alps with one glance taking in Mont Blanc and the face of bis watch to see wheth- CT he has time to climb it. Oh, this | wonderful camera obscura which you and I carry about with us, so from the ! top of Mount Washington we can take | in New England, so at night we can | sweep into our vision the constella | tions from horizon to horizon. So deli | cate, so semi-infnite, and yet the light | coming 95,0O0,000 miles at the rate of | 100000 miles a second is obliged to | halt at the gate of the eye, waiting until the portcullis be lifted. Some | thing hurled 95, ,OO0,0O0 miles and strik- | ing an instrument which has not the | agitation of even winking under the power of the stroke.
 Divine Construction.
 There also is the merciful arrange | ment of the tear gland by which the | eye is washed and through which rolls | the tide which brings the relief that | comes in tears when some bereave- ment or great loss strikes us. The tear not an augmentation of sorrow, but the | breaking up of the arctic of frozen | grief in the warm gulf stream of con- | solation. Incapacity to weep is mad | ness or death. Thank God for the tear | glands and that the crystal gates are so easily opened. Oh, the wonderful | hydraulic apparatus of the human eye! | Divinely constructed vision. Two | lighthouses at the harbor of the i'm ..,f, the world sails in and drops anchor. What an anthem of praise to God is | the human eye! The tongue is speech | less and clumsy instrument of ex- | pression as compared with 1t. Have | you not seen the eye flash with indig- | nation, or kindle with enthusiasm, or | expand with devotion, or melt with | sympathy, or stare with fright, or leer with villainy, or droop with sadness, or pale with envy, or fire with revenge, or twinkle with mirth, or beam with love? It is tragedy and comedy and pastoral and lyric in turn. Have you
 not seen its uplifted brow of surprise,
 or it's frown of wrath, or its contrac-
 ton of pain? If the eye say one thing
 and the lips say another thing, you be- lieve the eye rather than the lips. The eyes of Archibald Alexander and Charles G. Finney were the mightiest part of their sermons. George White | field enthralled great assemblages with | his eyes, though they were crippled | with strabismus. Many military chieftain has with look hurled a regi- ment to victory or to death. Martin Luther turned his great eye on an as- | sassin who came to take his life, and | the villain fled. Under the glance of | the human eye the tiger, with five | times a mans strength, snarls back | into the African jungle.
 But those best appreciate the value | of the eye who have lost 1t. The Elm | peror Adrian by accident put out the | eye of his servant, and he said to his servant: What shall I pay you, in | money or in lands-anything you ask .me? I am so sorry I put your eye out" But the servant refused to put | any financial estimate on the value of the eye, and when the emperor urged | and urged again the matter he said, ] "Oh, emperor, I want nothing but my | lost eye" Alas for those for whom | thick and impenetrable veil is drawn | across the face of the heavens and the face of ones own kindred.
 That was a pathetic scene when a
 blind man lighted torch at night and
 was found passing along the highway and some one said, "Why do you carry
 that torch when you can't seeY' "Ah,"
 said he, 'T can't see, but I carry this i torch that others may see me and pity my helplessness and not run me
 down." Samson, the giant, with his | eyes put out by the Philistines, is more | helpless than the smallest dwarf with | vision undamaged. All the sympathies l of Christ were stirred when he saw | Bartimeus with darkened retina, and I the only salve he ever made that we
 read of was a mixture of dust and
 saliva and a prayer with which he l cured the eyes of a man blind from
 his nativity. The value of the eye
 shown as much by its catastrophe as | by its healthful action. Ask the man 1 who for 20 years has not seen the sun I 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 perished 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 Milton's 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 12 years
 been coming toward blindness, and aft
 CT awhile one eye was entirely gone.
 His physician warned him that If he