The Penn's Grove record., 1900-02-02
DR.. TALMAGES SERMON,
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE sY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

SUNDAYS DISCOURSE sY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: The wonders IL the fidman
hahd-Ouf Physical structdrs Proof
OF Divine Wfsdom-The Extended
Hand the symbol of Initiate Mercys
Copyright, Louis Klopsch, 1901
WASHINGTON, D. C.-The discourse OF DR..
aimage Is Q lesson Of gratitude for that
which q OF US fully appreciate and
shows the Divine meaning in our physical
structure; text. / Corinthians Kill. 81. s.The
aye cannot say unto the hand. I have no
need Of thee"
Inese words suggest that some time two
very important parts OF the human body got
into CONTROVERSY, and tue eye became inso-
lens andsfull OF b~raggadocio and said: II
am an independent part OF the human sys-
tenn. How farI can see, taking In spring
morning and midnight aurorai Compared
with myself what an insignificant thing is
the human handl 1 look down upon II.
There It hangs, swinging at the side, a
ciump OF muscles and nerves, and 1t can.
not see an inch either way. It has NO lus-
ter compared with that which I beam
forth." What senseless talk" responds
the hand "You, the aye, would have been
put out long ago but for me. Without the
food have earned you would have been
nghtless q starved to death years ago.
You cannot do without me any better than
can do without YOU" At this part OF the
disputation Paul Of my text breaks In and
ends the controversy by declaring, 1.-The
eye cannot say unto the hnnd, 7 have no
need of thee.''
Fourteen hundred and ~thirty-three
times, as nearly as I can count by aid OF
concordance, does the Bible speak of the
human hand. We are all familiar with the
hand, bur the mar has vet to be born who
can fully understand this wondrous instru-
ment. Sir Charles Bell, the English SUR
geon, came home from the battlefield OF
Waterloo, where he had been amputating
limbs and binding up gunshot fractures,
and wrote q book entitled 1.-THE Hand: It's
Mechanism and Vital Endowmenfs as Evil
dencing Design" But it is so profound a
book that only q scientist who Is familiar
with the technfcalfties OF anatomy and
physiology can understand It.
So We are all going on opening and shut
ting this divlneiy constructed instrument.
the hand, ignorant OF much OF the revela-
ton 1t was intended to make OF the wis.
dom and goodness of God. You can see ry
their structure that shoulder and elbow
and forearm are getting ready for the cul-
minatfon In the hand. There is your
wrist, with Its eight bones and their liga-
ments In two rows. That wrist, with its
bands OF fbres and its hinged Joint and
turning on two axes-on the larger axis
moving backward and forward and on the
smaller axis turning nearly around. And
there Is the palm OF your hand, with its
hye bones, each having a shaft and two
Examinations. There arc the fingers Of
that hand, with fourteen bones, each An
ger with its curiously wrought tendons,
i've OF the bones with ending roughened
Tor the lodgment Of the nails. There IS
the thumb, coming from opposite direc-
ton to meet the fingers, so that In con-
junction they may clasp and hold fast that
which you desire to take. There are
the long nerves running from the
armpit to the forty-six muscles,
SO that all are under mastery.
The whole anatomy OF your hand as
complex, as intricate, as symmetrical, as
not dor 1t Gun climb, 1t can lit, It can
push, it can repel, 1t can menace, it can
cluch. 1t can deny, 1t can affirm, It can ex-
tend, 1t can weave, IL can battle. 1t can
smite, 1t can humble, it can exalt, 1t can
sootbe, 1t can throw. 1t can defy, 1t can
wave, It can imprecate, It can pray.
A skeleton OF the hand traced on black
board or unrolled in diagram or hung in
medical museum is nightly illustrative OF
~-S tA0 - " AOW
much more pleasing when in living action
all its nerves Inc muscles and bones and
tendOns and tissues and phalanges display
what God invented when He invented the
human handi Two specimens OF it we
carry at our side from the time when in
infancy we open them to take 8 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 of1cer Of the
soul, whether lifted for defense, or ex-
tended for help, or busled Id the arts, or
offered In salutation, or wrung In despair,
or spread abrond In benedictiOD. God evil
IDENTIFY intended all the lower order OF lly-
Ing 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 wonl
not leave man, the highest order Of living
beings on earth, defenseless and at the
mercy Of brutal or rufaan attack. The
fiRht-yea. the duty-of self defense IS SO
evident 1t needs no augmentation. The
hand Is the Divinely fashioned Weapon OF
defense. We may seldom have to use 1t
for such purposes, but the fact that we are
equipped insures safety. The hand is a
weapon sooner loaded than any gun,
0VVA0A tAaA 0ny HIS uaK6ES
9 n into the palm, 1t becomes a bolt OF
demolition.
What a defense 1t Is against accidentl
There have been times in all our expert.
ences when we have with the hand warded
of something that would have extinguished
our eyesight or broken the skull or crippled
US for a lifetime. While the eye has dis.
covered the approaching peril the hand
has beaten 1t back or struck It down or
disarmed it. Every day thank God for
your right hand, and II 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 II.
And In passing let me say that he who
has the weapon OF the hand uniniured and
in full use needs no other. You towards
who walk with sword cane or carry a pis-
tol In your hip pocket had better lay aside
your deadly weapon. At the frontier or in
barbarous lands or as an officer OF the law
about to make an arrest such arming may
be necessary, but no citizen moving In
these civilized regions needs shch rein
forcement. II you are afraid to go down
these streets or along these country roads
without dagger or firearms, better ask
your grandmother to go with you armed
towards, II not what intended murderers.
uselessly to carry weapons of death! In
our two hands God gave us all the weapons
we need to carry.
Again, the haadis the chief executive Of
icer OF the soul for aRording help. Just
see how that hand Is c~onstructedl How
easily you can lower it to raise the fallenl
How easily Il is extended to feel the in
valid's pulse, or gently wipe away the tear
Of orpbanage, on contribute aims, or
smooth the ex~citedibrow, or beckon into
safotyl Oh. the helping hands. There are