Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1900-03-09

be surpassed by the approaching hor.
ror. So 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 daughters
whose prospects have been ruined by
his inebriety and neglect and depravity.
So the sinner wrung 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 re-
cites 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
ilnching said: "Forasmuch as my
hand offended in writing contrary 10
my heart, my hand shall therefore be
the first punished. 1t shall be the first
burned. This was the hand that wrote
it,"
or course there Is wicked shak
ing of hands, and Solomon refers TO il
when he says: Though hand join il
hand, the wicked shall not be unpun
ished." Shake hands in conspiracy to
damage individual or community or ma
ton, shake hands to defraud, shake
hands to stand by each other in wrong
doing. You help me stuff this bal
lot box. and will see that when am
in power you shall have promotion.
You help me in my infamy, and will
help you in your infamy. Oh, that is
PROCLAMATION of holy rite; that is sac
rilege against Divine arrangement;
that is gripping your own destruction
PLATE and Herod, though antagonists
before, shook hands over Christ's pro-
jected assassination.
But shake hands the way William
Penn 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 Havelock shook hauds
with besieged women at Lucknow
whom he had come to save from mas
sacre. Shake hands as David Brainero
did with the American Indians whom
he offered a glorious Heaven through
the Gospel. Shake hands as Lincoln
shook hands with the agitated mother
Ia whom he gave back the boy who
had fallen asleep from overfatigue as
a sentinel. Shake hands as during the
civil war Anna Ross shook hands with
the wounded soldier in Cooper Shop
hospital, Philadelphia. Shake hands as
Van Meter, the city evangelist, shook
hands with the wait OF the street com
ing penitent into the midnight mis-
sion. Shake hands as heaven shook
hands with earth that night when
doxology in the gallery of clouds woke
the Bethlehem shepherds.
But it is not always in such glad
greeting that we can employ our right
hand. Ais, that so often we have &c
employ the hand in farewell saluta
ton. II your right hand retained
some impress of all such uses, it would
be volume of bereavements. Oh, the
good-bys in which your right hand has
participated! Good-by at the steam
boat wharf. Good-by at the rail train
window. Good-by before the opening
OF the battle. Good-by at the dying
pillow. We all needed grace for such
handshaking, though our hand was
strong and their hand was weak, and
we will need grace for the coming good.
bys, and that grace we had better seek
while amid the felicites of health and
homes unbroken. Thank God, there
will be no good-by in Heaven.
Again, the hand is the chief executive
of the soul when employed in benedic-
ton. No gesture of the human hand
means more than the outstretched ges.
ture. In many of our religious denom-
nations we are not permitted to pro-
nounce an apostolic benediction until
we have been regularly ordained as
ministers of the gospel, but there are
kinds of benediction that you may all
pronounce without especial permission
from presbytery or conference or con-
vention. You have right TO spread
abroad both right and left hand in be.
slowing blessing Of kindness and
good will upon all you meet. With
both hands bless the children. Take
| in nd hal, -
cheek. Take with them round of
merriment in the room before you
leave it, and by prayer put them in the
arms of the Christ, to go to whom in
olden time they struggled to get out of
the arms Of their mothers. God bless
the cradles and high chairs and nurser.
les all around the world.
Extend your hands in benediction for
the aged. Take their counsel and ask
their prayers, and smooth the path
down the declvities. By neglect and
unfilial demeanor add no wrinkles 70
their brow, no more stoop to their
shoulders. They have their hand on
the latch of the door through which
they will soon go out of sight of your
homes and churches. May the mantles
of Elijah fall upon the Elijahsl Spread
your hand for the benediction upon all
the men and women in the tug of life
many of them tired and buffeted and
disheartened. Never go out of a store
or shop or Office or field without pro,
nouncing benedicton.
And what better use can make OF
my hands, which are the chief execu.
tive officer Of my soul, than now to
spread them abroad in the apostolic
benediction which has been pronounced
for centuries, and over hundreds Of
thousands OF assembages, at corona
tons and obsequies, ~ harvest home.
and on fast days, by all the ministers oil
the Gospel IN the past as 1t will be by
oil rpipistare ~ ba EoepaI ,nt,l 81,