Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1900-02-02
p,s own hands free, see how the Lord

the use OF his hand. IL was case OF
atrophy, a wasting away until the arm ana
hand had been reduced In size beyond any
medical or surgical restoration. More
over, 1t was his right hand, the most I'm,
nortant of the two, for the left side In all
ire narts is weaker than the right side, and
we involuntarily in any exigency put out
the right hand because we know Is the
best hand. So that poor man had lost
more than half Of his physical armament:
II would not have been so bad IL 1t had
beeu the left hand. But Christ looked at
that shriveled up right hand dangling
uselessly at the mans side and then cried
out with voice that had omnipotence in
#. "Stretch forth thy hand" and the
record is, "He stretched 1t forth whoie as
the other" The blood rushed through the
shrunken veins, and the shortened
muscles heightened, and the dead nerves
thrilled, and the lifeless fingers tingiea
with resumed circulation, and the restored
man held nm in the presence OF the skep-
ticaI Pharisees one of Jehovah's master
pieces. O. perfect hand. No wonder that
story is put three times in the Bible, so
that IL a sailor were cast away on Darren
island or soldiers New Testament got
mutilated in battle and whole pages are
DESTROYED the shipwrecked or wounded
man in hospital would probably have at
least one Of those three radiant stories OF
what Christ thought OF the human hand.
How often has the hand decided des-
tinyl Mary, Queen OF Scots, was escaping
from Imprisonment at Locn'ever III tne
dress OF laundress and had her face
thickly Yelled When boatman attempted
to remove the veil. she put up her hand to
defend it and so revealed the white and
fair hand Of a queen, and so the boatman
took her back to captivity. Again and
again it has been demonstrated that the
hand hath language as certainly RS the
mouth. Palmistry, or the science by which
character and destiny are read In the
lines of the hand, is yet crude and uncer-
tain and unsatisfactory, but as astroiogy
was the mother OF astronomy and alchemy
was the mother OF chemistry 1t may be
that palmistry will result In a science yet
to be born.
Again, as the chief executive officer OF
the soul, behold the hand busy in the arts!
What a comparatively dull place this
world would be without pictures, without
statuary, without music, without architec-
ture! Have you ever realized what fifty
seeming miracles are In the five minutes
lingering OF piano or harp or flute? Who
but the eternal God could make hand
capable of that swift sweep OF the keys or
that quick feeling of the pulses Of flute
or the twirl Of the fingers amid the strings
OF the harp? All the composers OF music
who dreamed out the oratorlos and the
cantatas of the ages would have had their
work dropped fiat and useless but for the
translations OF the hand. Under the dsft
fingers OF the performer what cavalries
gallop and what batteries boom and what
birds carol and what tempests march and
what oceans billowi The great architects
OF the earth might have thought out the
Alhambras and the Parthenons and the
st. Sophias and the Tai Mahals, but all
those visions would have vanished had 1t
not been for the hand on hammer, on
plummet, on trowel, on wall, on arch, on
pillar, on stairs, on dome.
In two discourses, one concerning the
ear and the other concerning the eye,
spoke from the potent text In the Psalms,
"He that planted the ear, shall He not
hear?" and "Be that formed the eye, shall
He not seer" but what use in the eye and
what use In the ear il the hand had not
been strung with all its nerves and moved
with all its muscles and reticulated with
all its Joints and strengthened with all its
bones and contrived with all its ingenui-
ties! The hand hath forwarded all the arts
and tunneled the mountains through
which the rail train thunders and launched
all the shipping and fought all the battles
and built all the temples and swung all the
cables under the sea rs we'll as lifted to
midair the wire tracks on which whole
trains OF thought rush across the con-
tinents and built all the cities and hoisted
the pyramids.
Do not euloglze the eye and ear at the
expense OF the hand, for the eye may be
blotted out, as in the case OF Milton, and
vet his hand writes a paradise Lost" or q
"Samson Agonistes;" as in the case OF WILL
lam a. Prescott, and yet his hand may
write the enchanting Conquest OF Peru"
Or the ear may be silenced forever, as In
the case Of Beethoven, and yet his hand
may put into immortal cadences the "Ninth
Symphony" Oh, the hand! The God
fashioned handl The triumphant handl 1t
is an open Bible Of Divine revelation, and
the five fingers are the Isaiah and the Eze-
kie and the David and the Micah and the
Paul OF that almighty inspiration.
A pastor in his sermon told how little
child appreciated the value OF his hand
when he was told that on the morrow 1t
must be amputated In order to save his
life. Hearing that, he went to a quiet
place and prayed that God would spare
his hand. The surgeon, coming the next
day to do his work, found the hand so
much better that amputation was post
poned, and the hand got we'll. The pastor,
telling OF this In sermon, concluded by
holding up his hand and saying, THAT Is
the very hand that was spared in an
swer to prayer, and I hold 1t up, monu-
ment of Divine mercy"
Again, the hand in the chief executive Of
fcer OF the soul when wrung In agony.
Tears OF relief are sometimes denied to
trouble. The eyelids at such time are rs
hot and parched and burning as the brow.
At such time even the voice is suppressed,
and there is no sob or outcry. Then the
wringing OF the hand tells the story. At
the close OF life wasted In sin sometimes
comes that expression Of the twisted
fingers-the memory OF years that will
never return, of opportunities the like OF
which will never again occur, and con-
science in its wrath bouncing upon the
soul, and all the past a horror, only to be
surpassed by the approaching horror. SO
man wrings his hands over the casket OF q
dead wife whom ne has cruelty treated.
So man wrings his hands a. the fate OF
sons and daughters whose prospects have
beeu ruined by his inebrlety and neglect and
depravity. So the sinner wrings his
hands when, after q life full OF offers OF
pardon and peace and heaven, he dies
without hope. When there are sorrows too
poignant for lamentation on the lip and
too hot for the tear glands to write In let
tiers of crystal on the cheek, the hand re-
cites the tragedy with more emphasis than
anything in Macbeth" and "King Lear"
But it is not always in such glad greeting
that we can employ our right hand. Alas
that so often we have to employ the hand
In farewell salutation! II your right hand
retained some impress OF all such uses, 1t
would be a volume OF bereavements. Oh,
the goodbys In which your right hand has
participated! Goodby at the steamboat
wharf. Goodby at the rail train window.
Goodby before the opening OF the battle.
Goodby at the dying pillow. We all needed
grace for such handshakings, though our
hand was strong and their hand was weak,