The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-01-26

lower the eye and another muscle to
roll it to the right and anothe- mus
Gle to roll II to the left and another
muscle passing through a pulley 10
turn it round and round, al elaborate
gearing of six muscles as perfect as
God could max 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 lamp wick, pass
ing the visual impression on to the
sensorium and or into the soul. What
a delicate dens, what an exquisite
screen. what soft cushions, what Won
derfuI chemistry of the human eyei
The eye washed by a slow stream Of
moisture whether We sleep OF wake,
rolling imperceptibly over the pebble
OF the eye and emptying into a bone OF
the nostTil, a continuance so
that IL can see the sun 50, 600, 900 Of
miles away and the point of a pin.
Telescope and microscope in the same
continuance. The astronomer swings
and o this way and that and ad.
justs and readjuStS the telescope until
he gets il to the right focus. The mi
c~roScopiSt moves this way and that
and adjusts and readjusts the magni-
flying glass until it is prepared to do
its work, but the human eye without
a touch beholds the star and the small
est insect. The traveller along the Alps
with one glance taking in Mount Blanc
ana the face of his watch to see wheth-
er he has time 10 climb IL. oh, this
wonderful camera obscura which you
and 1 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-
tons from horizon to horizon. So deli
cate, so semi-infinite, and yet the light
coming 80. 900, 900 of miles at the rate
Of 200, 900 miles a second is Obliged to
halt at the gate of the eye, waiting
until the portcuiIis be- lifted. Some
thing hurled 95, 200, 900 of miles and
striking an instrument which has not
the agitation of even winking under
the power of the stroke.
AN ANTHEM OF PRAISE.
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 relief that comes
in tears when some bereavemen or
great loss strikes US. The tear not an
augmentation of sorrow, but the break
ing up of the arctic or frozen grief III
the warm gulf stream of consolation.
In capacity ito weep is madness OF
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 immortal soul under
the shining of which the world sails in
and drops anchor.
What an anthem of praise to God is
the human eyeI The tongue is speech
less and a clumsy OF eX-
preston as compared with it. Have you
not seen the eye flash with Indignation,
or kindle with enthusiasm, or expand
with devotion, or melt with sympathy,
or stare with fright, or leer with viii
lainy, or drop with sadness, or pale
with envy, or fire with revenge, or
twinkle with mirth, or beam with love?
1t is tragedy and comedy and pastoral
and lyric in turn. Hav you not seen
its uplifted brow of surprise, or its
frown of wrath, or it's contraction of
pain? If the eye say one thing and the
lips say another thing, you believe the
eye rather than the lips. The eyes of
Archibald Alexander and Charles G..
Finney were the mightiest part of their
sermons. George Whitfield enthralled
great assemblageS with his eyes,
though they were crippled with Stra-
bismus. Many a military chieftain has
with a look hurled a regiment to vic
tory or to death. Martin Luther turn
ed his great eye on an assassin who
came to take his life, and the villain
fed. 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 it. The en-
peror Adrain by accident put out the
eye of his servant and he said to his
servant, What shall 1 pay you in
money Or"in lands-anything you ask
me? l am SO sorry 1 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, 80
emperor, I want nothing but my lost
eye" Alas for those for whom a thick
and impenetrable wall is drawn across
the face of the heavens and the face
of ones own kindred. That was a pa
thetic scene when a blind man lighted
a torch at night and was found passing
along the highway and some one said,
why do o carry that torch when
you can't see?" All" said he, Il can't
see, but I carry this 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 lot helpless than the
smallest dwarf with vision unchanged.
All the sympathies of Christ were
stirred when he saw Bartimeus with