Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-01-29
the harp? All the composers of music

| who dreamed out the OratOrios and the
cantatas of the ages would have had
their work dropped fat and useless but
| for the translations of the hand. I'm
| der the deft fingers Of the performer
what cavalries gallop and what bat
teries boom and what birds carol and
what tempests march and what oceans
billow! The great architects of the
| earth might have thought out the AL
hambras and the Parthenons and the
st. Sophias and the Tai Mahals, but all
| those visions would have vanished had
| it not been for the hand on hammer, on
plummet, on trowel, on wall, on arch
on pillar, on stairs, on dome.
The Triumphant Hand.
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 Gle that formed the
eye, shall he not see?' but what use in
the eye and what use in the ear if the
hand had not been strung with all it's
nerves and moved with all it's muscles
and reticulated with all it's joints and
strengthened with all it's bones and
contrived with all it's ingenuities! 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 bat
ties and built all the temples and
swung all the cables under the sea as
we'll as lifted to midair the wire tracks
on which whole trains Of thought rush
across the continents and built all the
cities and hoisted the pyramids.
Do not eulogize the eye and ear at
the expense of the hand, for the eye
may be blotted out, as in the case Of
Milton, and yet his hand writes a
paradise Lost" or a Samson Ago
nistes;;" as in the case of William Fl.
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 hand! The trium-
plant hand! 1t is an open Bible of d.
vine revelation, and the five fingers
are the Isaiah and the Ezekiel and the
David and the Micah and the Paul of
that almighty inspiration.
A pastor in his sermon told how lit
tie child appreciated the value Of his
hand when he was told that on the
morrow it 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, COM
ing the next day to do his work, found |
the hand so much better that amputa-
ton was postponed, and the hand got |
well. The pastor, telling Of this in a !
sermon, concluded by holding up his |
hand and saying, "That is the very |
hand that was spared in answer to |
prayer, and I hold it up, monument |
of divine mercy"
Again, the hand is the chief execu-
tive officer of the soul when wrung in |
agony Tears of relief are sometimes
denied to trouble. The eyelids at such
time are as hot and parched and burn
ing 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-
SCICuCe III It's "IdlH pOuhSihS upOh IhS
soul, and all the past horror only to
be surpassed by the approaching hor-
rOr So a man wrings his hands over
the casket of a dead wife whom he has
cruelty treated. So a man wrings his
hands at the fate of sons and daugh-
tiers whose prospects have been ruined
by his inebriety and neglect and de-
pravity. So the sinner wrings his
hands when, after a 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 letters of crystal on
the cheek, the hand recites the tragedy
with more emphasis than anything in
"Macbeth' and king Lear"
Worse than the wringing Of the
hands was the punishment that Gran
mer gave his right hand when he put it
in the fire of the stake and, without
f1inching, said: "Forasmuch as my
hand offended in writing contrary to
my heart, my hand shall therefore be
the first punished. 1t shall be the first
burned. This was the hand that wrote
it,"
Again, the hand is the chief execu-
tive officer Of the soul in salutation. A
former president of the United States
said: 81 think handshaking is a great
nuisance, and it should be abolished.
It not only makes the right arm sore,
but shocks the whole system and units
a man for writing Or attending to other
duties. It demoralizes the entire nerv-
GUS and muscular system" But while
this exercise may be fatiguing it is
also an opportunity. He who knows
how heartily to shake hands has one