Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1900-01-29

need to carry.
Asylums of Mercy.
Again. the hand is the chief execu.
tive officer OF the soul for affording
help. Just see how that hand is con.
structed! How easily you can lower it
to raise the fallen! How easily 1t Is
extended to feel the inyalid's pulse. or
gently wipe away the tear of orphan.
age. or contribute aims. or smooth the
excited brow. or beckon into safety!
Oh, the helping hands! There are hun.
dreds OF thousands of them, and the
world wants at least 1,G0O 100000 of
them. Hands to bless others: hands to
rescue others; hands to save others.
What are all these schools and church
es and asylums of mercy? Outstrctch-
ed hands. What are all those hands
distributing tracts and carrying medi-
cines and trying to cure blind eyes and
deaf ears and broken bones and disor.
dered intellects and waywnrd sons?
Helping hands. Let each one of us
add TO that number. If we have two,
or If through casualty only one add
that one. IL these hands which we
have so long kept thrust into pockets
through Incidence or folded In ind!ffer-
ence or employed In writing wrong
things or doing mean things or heaying
up obstacles In the way of righteous
progress might from this hour be cou.
secrated to helping others out ana up
and on, they would be hands worth
being raised on the resurrection morn
and worth clapping In eternal gladness
over a world redeemed.
The great artists of the ages--Ra-
phael and Leonardo da Vinci and
Quentin Matsys and Rembrandt and
Albert Durer and Titlan-have do:e
their best In picturing the face Of
Christ. but none except AIRY schefis-
seems to have put much stress upon
the hand of Christ. Indeed. the mercy
OF that hand, the gentlcness of that
hand. Is beyond all artistic portrayal.
Some of his miracles he performed by
word Of mouth and witlOdt touching
the subject before him, bat most Of
them he performed through the hand.
Was the dead damscl to be raised to
life? He took her by the hand" Wns
the blind man to have optic nerve re-
stored? "He took him by the hand"
Was the demon to be exercised from a
suffering man? "He took him by the
hand" The people saw this and be.
sought him to put his hand upon their
afflicted ones,
The Lords Sympathy.
His own hands free. see how the
Lord sympathized with the man who
had lost the use OF his hand. 1t was
case of atrophy. a wasting away until
the arm and hand had been reduced In
size beyond any medical or surgical
restoration. Moreover. 1t was his right
hand. the most important of the two.
for the left side in all Its parts Is weak.
er than the right side. and we involun.
tarily In any exigency put out the right
hand because we know 1t Is the best
hand. So that poor man had lost more
than half Of his physical armament.
II would not have been so bad II II
had been the left hand. But Christ
looked at that shrivelcd up right hand
dangling uselessly at the mans side
and then cried out with voice that
had omnlpotence In It, Stretch forth
thy hand" and the record Is, "He
stretched It forth whole as the other"
The blood rushed through the shrunk-
en- veins, and the shortened muscles
heightened. and the dead nerves thrill.
ed, and the lifeless fingers tingled with
resumed circulation, and the restored
man held up In the presence of the
Nls snt tanl .n pts - Vnl. a,
masterpieces, n perfect hand. No won
der that story Is put three times in the
Bible, so that If sailor were cast
away on n barren island or n soldiers
New Testament got mutilated in battle
and whole pages are destroyed the
shipwrecked or wounded man In hos.
pital 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 n
destiny! Mary, queen of scots, was
escaping from Imprisonment at Loeb
lever In the dress of n laundress and
bnd her face thickly yelled. When a
boatman attempted to remove the VEIL
she put up her hand to defend 1t and
so revealed the white and fair hand of
n queen, and so the bontman took her
back to captivity Again and again II
has been demonstrated that the hand
hath language as certainly rs the
mouth. Palmistry, or the science by
which character and destiny are rend
in the lines of the hand. Is yet crude
and uncertain and unsatisfactory, but
as astrulogy was the mother OF astron.