The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-08-03

alton is gone. You have waited until
there is a complete contraction of the
muscles, and false ligatures are form
ed, and ossificatton has taken place.
1t ought to have been attended to long
ago" But Christ the Surgeon seemed
to prefer inveterate cases. One was a
hemorrhage Of II years, and he stopp-
ed il. Another was a curvature of IS
years. and he Strengthened it. Another
was a cripple OF IS years, and he walk
ed out we'll. The 1s-year patient was
a woman bent almost double. II you
could call a convention Of all the sur
geons OF all the centuries, their COM
bined skill could not cure that body
so drawn out of shape. Perhaps they
might stop il from getting any worse
perhaps they might contrfve braces
by which she might be made more
comfortable. but il is. humbly speak
ing, incurable. Yet this divine surgeon
put both his hands on her, and from
that doubled up posture n began TO
raise, and the empurpled face began
10 take on a healthier hue and the
muscles began TO relax from their
rightly, and the spinal column began
20 adjust itself, and n cords of the
neck began to be more supple, and the
eyes. thai could see only the ground
before, now looked into the face OF
Christ with gratitude and up toward
heaven in transport. Straigh. After
IS weary and eXhausting years,
straight, The poise, the g~racefulness,
the beauty of healthy womanhood re-
instated. The 3S-years' case was a
man who lay on a mattress near the
mineral baths at Jerusalem There
were five apartments where lame peo-
pie were brought, so that they could
get the advantage of these mineral
baths. The stone basin Of the bath
is still visible. although the waters
have Iicnnnanr nd nrnhahlU ThrnnDh
some CONFUSION of nature. The bath
120 feet long, 40 feet wide n S feet
deep. All, pOor man, il you nave been
lame and helpless IS years that min
eral bath cannot restore you. Why,
IS years is more than the average OF
human life. Nothing but the grave
will cure you. But Christ h Surgeon
walks along these baths and I AVE
no doubt passes by some patients who
have been only six months disordered
or a year or five years n comes to
the mattress of the man who had been
nearly four decades helpless and to
this 3S-years' invalid said, What thou
be made whole?"
CHRIST THE CHIEF SURGEON.
The question asked not because the
geo did not understand the pro-
tractedness, the desperateness, OF the
case, but to evoke the mans pathetic
narrative. '7Wilt thou be made
whoIe?" "Oh yes" says the man.
THAT is what l came to these mineral
baths for. 1 have tried everything.
All the have failed and all
the prescriptions have proved valueless
and I got worse and worse, and I can
neither move hand nor foot nor head.
Oh, if / could only be free from
this pain of IS years." Christ the
Surgeon could not stand that. Bending
over the man on the mattress, and In
a voice tender with all sympathy, but
strong with all omnipotence, he says,
Rise" And the invalid instantly
scrambles to his knee and then puts
out his right foot, then his left foot,
and then stood upright as though he
had never been Frustrated. While he
stand looking at the doctor, with a joy
too much to hold, the doctor says:
Shoulder this mattress, for you are
not only we'll enough to walk, but
we'll enough to work, and start out
from these mineral baths. Take up
thy bed and walk" Oh, what a sur
geon for chronic cases then and for
chronic cases now!
This is not applicable SO much to
those who are only a little hurt of sin
and only for a short time, but to those
| prostarted of sin II, Is and 80 years.
| Here is a able to give immor-
tai health. oh" you say, Il am so
completely overthrown and trampled
down Of sin that 7 cannot rise" Are
fatter down thai this patient at the
mineral baths? No. Then rise. In
| the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the
surgeon who offers you his right hand
of help, I bid thee rise. Not cases OF
| acute SIM, but of chronic Sln-thoSe
who have not prayed for IS years,
| those who have been gamblers, or lib
e~rtines, or thieves, or outlaws, or bias
| nhar0ArS or inh6PlS or A1hSlS1S. OF
all these together, for So years. A
| Christ for eXigencieS! A Christ for a
dead lift! A surgeon who loses
a easel
In speaking of Christ as a surgeon /
must consider him as an oculist or eye
doctor, and an auriSt or ear doctor.
| Was there ever such another OcullSt!
That he was particularly sorry for the
| blind folks / take from the fact that
| the most of his works were with the
| diseased optic nerves. I have not time
to count UP the number of blind people
| mentioned who got his cure. TWO
| blind men in house: also one VINO
was born blind; so that 1T was as not
| removal of a visual obstruction, but
| the creation of the cornea and cliary
| muscle and crystalline lens and retlna
| and optic nerve and tear gland; also
the blind man of B~ethsaida, cured by
the saliva which the Surgeon took
| from the trip of his own tongue and
| put upon the eyelidS; also two blind
men who by h wayside.
WORK OF THE OCULIST.
In our civilized lands we have blind
ness enough, the ratio fearfully in
creasing according to the statement OF
European and American oculists. be-
cause of the reading of morning and
evening newspapers on h jolting cars
by the m~ultitudes who live out Of the
city and come in to business. But In
the lands where this divine
operated the cases of blindness were
multiplied beyond everything by the
particles of SAND floating in the air.
and the night dews falling on the eye
lids Of those who slept on the top of
their houses, and in some Of these
lands it is estimated that 20 out of 100
people are totally blind. Amid all that
crowd Of v%isionless people, what work
for an oculist! And I do not believe
that more thar one out of a hundred
OF hat surgeons cures were reported.
He went up and down among those
people who feeling slowly their