The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1900-07-28
A MISSION OF CHRIST
DR.. Talmage Discourses on the
Great Surgeon.
Efficacy of the Divine Power In Heal
ing the Worlds Wounds and De-
fOrmities-RelntiOn of Sur
gerry and Theology.
copyright. 1900. by Louis Klopsch.l

unusual light the mission of Christ
and shows how Divine power will yet
| make the illnesses of the world fall
back; text, Matthew xi, 5: The blind
| receive their sight. and the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed and the deaf
hear"
Doctor" l said to a distinguished
surgeon, do you not get worn out
with constantly seeing so many
wounds and broken bones and distor-
tions of the human body?" "Oh, no."
he answered; "all that is overcome by
my Joy in curing them" A sublimer
and more merciful art never came
down from Heaven than that of sur
gerry. Catastrophe and disease en-
tered the earth so early that one of
the first wants of the world was a
doctor. Our crippled and agonized
human race called for surgeon and
family physician for many years be-
fore they came. The first surgeons
who answered this call were minis
ters of engion-namely, the Egyp-
tian priests. And what grand thing
If all the clergymen were also doc
are so many cases where body and
soul need treatment at the same time,
consolation and medicine, theology
and therapeutics. AS the first sur
geons of Il world were also ministers
of religion, may these two professions
always be in full sympathy! But un-
der what disadvantages the early sur
geons worked, from the fact that the
dissection of the human body was for
hidden, first by the pagans and then
by the early Christians. Apes, being
the brutes most like the human race,
were dissected, but no human body
might be unfolded for physiological
and anatomical exploration, and the
surgeons had to guess what was in
side the temple by looking at the out
t side of it. If they failed in any surgi-
cal operation, they were prosecuted
and driven out of the city, as was
Archagathus because of his bold but
unsuccessful attempt to save a pa
8 tient.
But the world from the very begin
ming kept calling for surgeons, and
their first skill is spoken of in Genesis,
: where they employed their art for the
= incisions of sacred rite, God making
a surgery the predecessor of baptism,
. and we see it again in ii. Kings, where
Ahaziah, the monarch, stepped on
some cracked latticework in the pal
. ace, and it broke, and he fell from the
t upper to the lower floor, and he was
: so hurt that he sent to the village
of Ekron for aid, and Aesculapius,
{ who wrought such wonders of surgery
Il that he was deified and temples were
: built for his wors hip at Pergamos;
A and Epidaurus and Podelirius intro
duced for the relief of the world
phlebotomy, and Damocedes cured
g the dislocated ankle of King Darius
and the cancer of his queen, and
Hippocrates put successful hand on
y fractures and introduced amputa'
/" ton, and Praxagoras removed obstruc
ls tions, and Herophilus began dissec
l. ton, and Erasistratus removed tu
mors, and CELSIUS, the Roman surgeon
removed cataract from the eye ane
Dc used the Spanish fly; and Heliodoru:
l. arrested disease of che throat, and Al
d exander of Tralles treated the eye, anc
: Rhazas cauterized Tor the prevention
of hydrophobia, and Perciyal Pot
!. came to combat diseases of the spine
is and in our own century we have had
d among Others RouX and Larray
" in France, an Ashley Cooper and al
- Abernethy in Great Britain and {
Valentine Mott and Willard Parkel
u and Samuel ID. Gross in America anC
n a galaxy of living surgeons as bril-
. liant as their predecessors. Wha
mighty progress in the battling of dis
ease since the crippled and sick o
lie ancient cities were laid along th
le streets, that people who had ever beel
,e hurt or disordered in the same wa.
,t might suggest what had better b
done for the patients, and the priest
h' of olden time, who were CONSTANT.
n, suffering from colds received in walk
* ing barefoot over the temple pave
IN ments, had to prescribe for them
selves, and fractures were considere
o so far beyond all human cure that in
he stead of calling in the surgeon tn
people only invoked the gods!
n notice this Surgeon had fondnes
for chronic diseases. Many a surgeon
'o when he has had patient brought t
him. has said: "Why was not this al
of tended to five years ago? You brin
him to me after all power of recupers
y ton is gone. You have waited unit
lg there is a complete contraction of tn
IN muscles, and false ligatures are formed
Y and ossification has taken place.
a ought to have been attended to lon
- ago." But Christ the Surgeon SCENE
u to prefer inveterate cases. One was
t. hemorrhage of 12 years, and he stoppe
al 1t. Another was curvature of 49, year
q. and He Strengthened it. Another was