Connecticut western news., 1900-02-01

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- science in it's wrath bouncing upon the soul and all the past horror, only to
 be surpassed by the approaching hor-
 TOT So man wrings his hands over
 the casket of a dead wife whom he has
 cruelty treated. So q man wrings his
 hands at the fate of sons and daugh-
 ters whose prospects have been ruined
 by his inebriety and neglect and de-
 pravity. So the sinner wrings his
 hands when, after 8 life full of offers
 of pardon and peace and heaven, he
 dies without hopes 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 hinching, said: "Forasmuch as my
 hand offended in writing contrary to my heart, my hand shall therefore be the first punished. IL 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 T think handshaking is q great nuisance, aRd 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 nery ous and muscular system" But while this exercise may be fatiguing it is also an opportunity. He who knows HOW lO hdS OLe of the mightiest arts for conveying happiness and good cheer and life eter- nal. After you have shaken hands with one a line of communication is opened that was not open before. Two hands clasped in greeting are bridge | on which all sympathies and kind nesses and encouragements and bless ings cross over. To shake hands with some persons does us more good than a sermon-aye, it is a sermon. To shake hands with good doctor when we are sick is an anodyne. a tonic, a
 febrifuge, before he feels the pulse or
 writes the prescription. To shake hands with a cheerful man when we are discouraged fills us with faith to try again what we have failed in do- ing. To shake hands with some conse-
 crated man, clerical or lay, after we have wandered away into sin is to feel the grasp of a Father-God welcoming home the prodigal Shake hands, O ye stold and exclusive and coldblooded and precise and conventional Chrts- tians. Jehu cried out to Jehonadab:
 'Is thine heart right? If It be, give rue th'~e hand"
 There Is in an honest and Christian
 Landshake thrill of gospel electricity.
 You take part of his trouble, and he takes part of your jubilance. In that way you divide up anxieties and con gratulations. The main trunk line of
 that handshake has branches of bless
 ed telegraphy right down to both hearts
 and up to both heads. and you both get kl,.N tl tl.,oe T.,l-
 off the glove when you shake hands, for that glove puts the hide of q kid
 between the palm of your hand and the palm of his hand. and that animals , hide is nonconductor of this gospel electricity. Do not grip the bone of the foreflnger and the bone of the little finger with crushing power that puts one into a severe suffering. which many of us have experienced from those who are more brutes than men. Take the hand gently, reasonably, heartily, and know that God ordered that form of salutation. This is one important thing that the hand was made for. You can see the indication in it's shape and equipment-the four fingers to take your neighbours hand on the one side,
  1 and the forearm so swung that you can l easily draw it toward you.
 Of course there is wicked shaking of hands, and Solomon refers to it when he says. Though hand join in hand. the wicked shall not go unpun- ished." Shake hands in conspiracy to | damage individual or community or nation; shake hands in wrongdoing- you help me stuff this ballot box, and I will see that when I am In power you shall have promotions: you help
 me In my infamy, and will help you in your infamy. Oh, that is profana-
 ton of holy rite that is sacrilege
 against a divine arrangement, that is gripping your own destruction.
 Glad Greetings.
 But shake hands the way William Pitt shook hands with the Indians for their civilization. Shake hands the
 way Missionary Carey shook hands
 with the Hindoos. for whose salvation
 he became a lifetime exile. Shake
 hands the way Hayelock shook hands with besieged women at Lucknow
 whom he had come to save from mas- | Sacre. Shake hands as David Brain
 erd did with the American Indians,
 whom he offered a glorious heaven
 through the gospel. Shake hands as
 Lincoln shook hands with the agitated
 mother to whom he gave back the boy
 who had fallen asleep from overfatigue
 as sentinel. Shake hands as during
 the civil war Anna Ross shock hands
 with the wounded soldier In Cooper
 Shop hospital, Philadelphia. Shake hands as Van Meter, the city evangel-
 ist, shook hands with the waif of the
 street coming penitent into the mid
 night mission. Shake hands as heaven | shook hands with earth that night when 6oyoIour in I1ayv of