Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-02-22

hand OF Christ. Indeed. the mercy OF that
hand, the genteness OF that hand, is be-
yond all artistic portrayal Some of His
miracles He performed by word OF mouth
and without touching the subject before
Him. but most OF them He performed
through the band. Was the dead damsel
to be raised to life? "He took her by the
hand" Was the blind mnn to have optic
nerve restored? "Hc took him by the
hand" Was the demon TO be e1 orcised
from suffering man? "IIe took him by
the hand" The people saw this and be-
sought Him to put His hand upon their af-
His own bands 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 hey yond any
medical or surgical restoration. More
over, it was bis right hand, the most Inn
portant OF the two, for the left side ia all
Its parts Is weaker than the right side, and
We involuntarily in any eyigency put out
the right hand because We know it Is the
best hand. So that poor man had lost
more than half OF his physical armament.
1t would not have been so bad II it had
been the left hand. But Christ looked at
that shriveled up right hand dangling
uselessly at the mans side and then cried
out with n voice that had omnipotence in
it, "Strctch forth thy hand" and the
record is, "He stretched it forth whole rs
the other" The blood rushed through the
shrunken veins, and the shortened
muscles heightened, and the dead nerves
thrilled, and the lifeless fingers tingled
with resumed circulation, and the restored
man heldup in the presence OF the skep-
teal Pharsees one OF Jehovah's MASTER
pieces, II perfect hand. No wonder that
story is put three times in the Bible, so
that II II sailor were east away on u barren
island or Il soldiers New Testament got
mutilated in battle and whole pages are
okaH lid
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 q des-
tiny! Mary, Queen of Scots. was escaping
from Imprisonment at Lochlever in the
dress OF II laundress and had her face
thickly yelled. When II boatman attempted
to remove the veil, she put up her hand to
defend 1t and so revealed the white and
fair hand OF queen, and so the boatman
took her back to captivity. Again and
again 1t has been demonstrated that tho
hand hath n language rs certainly as THO
mouth. Palmistry, or the science by which
character and destiny are read in tho
lines of the hand, is yet crude and uncer.
tain and unsatisfactory, but rs astrology
was the mother of astronomy and alchemy
was the mother OF chemistry it may be
that palmistry will result in n science yet
to be born.
Again, rs the chief executive officer OF
the soul, behold the hand busy in the artist
What comparatively dull place this
world would be without pictures, without
statuary, without music, without architec-
turc! Have you ever realized what Nfty
seeming miracles are in the five minutes
lingering OF piano or harp or flute? Who
but the eternal God could make II hand
capable or that swift sweep of the KEYS or
that quick feeling OF the pulses of flute
or the twirl of the Ringers amid the strings
OF the harp? All the composers OF music
who dreamed out the oratorIos and the
cantatas of the ages would have had their
work dropped fiat and useless but for the
translations OF the hand. Under the deft
fingers OF the performer what cayalries
galop aud what batteries boom and what
birds carol and what tempests march and
what oceans billowl The great architects
of the earth might have thought out the
Ahambrns and the parthsnons and the
ST. Sophlas and the Tai Mahals, but all
those visions would have vanished had it
not been Tor 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, l
spoke from the potent text in tho Psalms
He that planted the ear, shall He not
hear?" and He that formed the eye, shall
He not seeP" 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 aud swung all tho
cables under the sea as we'll as lifted to
midair tho wire tracks on which whole
trains of thought rash across the con-
tiDents and built all the cities and hoisted
the pyramids.
Do not euloSize the eye and ear Mt the
expense OF the hand. for the eye may be
blotted ont, as in the ease of Milton, and
yet his hand writes Paradise Lost or a
samson Agonistes; as in the case of Will
lam III. Prescott, and YET his hand may
write the enchanting Conquest of Peru
Or the ear may be sileDced forever, ms 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 triumphant handl Il
is an open Bible OF Divine revelation. and
the five fingers ARE the Isaiah and the Eze-
kiel and tho 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 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 II sermol 4, concluded by
holding up his hand and saying, That is
the very hand that was spared in an
swer to prayer. and hold 1t up, monu-
ment OF Divine mercy"
Again, the hand in the chief executive Of
hcer OF the soul when wrung in agony.
Tears of relief are sometimes denied to
trouble. The eyelids ut such time are as
hot and pnrched 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 n life wasted In sin sometimes
comes that expression OF the twisted
lngers--the memory of years that will
never return, of opportunities the like OF
which will never again occur, and con-
science in its wrath pouncing upon the
soul, and all the past u horror, only to be
surpassed by the approaching horror. SO
man wrings his hands over the .casket of
dead wife whom he has cruelty treated.
SO Il man wrings his hands Il. the fate of
sons and daughters whose prospects have
beeu ruined by his inebriety and neg ect and