The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1900-02-02

down, or disarmed it. Every day thank
God for your right hand, and if you
want to hear its eulogy ask him who
in swift revolution of machinery has
had il crushed, or at Chapultepec or
South mountain or San Juan hill or
Sedan lost it.
And in passing let me say that he
who has the weapon of the hand un-
injured and in full use needs no other.
You towards who walk with sword
cane or carry a pistol in your hip
pocket had better lay aside your dead
ly weapon. At the frontier, or in bar
barous lands, or as an officer of the
law about to make arrest, such
arming may be necessary, but no citi-
zen moving in these civilized regions
needs such reinforcement. If you are
afraid to 60 down these streets or
along these country roads without
dagger or firearms, better ask your
grandmother to go with you armed
with scissors and knitting needle.
What towards, if not intended muir
derers. uselessly to carry weapons of
death! In our two hands God gave US
all the weapons we need ito carry!
Again, the hand is the chief exec
utive officer of the soul for affording
nelp. just see how that hand is con-
structed. How easily you can lower
II to raise the fallen. How easily 1t
Is extended TO feel the invalid's pulse,
CT gently wipe away the tear of or
phanICe, or contribute aims, or
smooth the excited brow, or becllon
into safety. y the helping hands!
There are hundreds of thousands Of
hem. and the world wants at least
l.6OO.OOO,OOO of them. Hands to bless
others. hands to rescue others, hands
10 save others. What are all these
schools and churches and asylums OF
rncrCy? Outstretched hands. What
are all those hands distributing tracts
and carrying medicines and trying TO
cure blind eyes and deaf ears and
broken bones and disordered intel
lects and wayward sons? Helping
hands. Let each one of us add two
to that number if we have two, or, if
through casualty only one, add that
one If these hands which we have
so long kept thrust into pockets
through Incidence or folded in indif-
ference or employed in writing wrong
things or doing mean things or heav-
ing up obstacles in the way of right
eous progress might from this hour
be consecrated to helping others out
and up and on, they would be hands
worth being raised on the resurrec-
ton morn and worth clapping in eter-
nal gIadness over a world redeemed.
The great artists of the ages
Raphael and Leonardo da Ninci and
Quentin Matsys and Rembrandt and
Albert Durer and Titan - have done
their best picturing the face of Christ,
but none except AIRY Scheffer seems to
have put much stress upon the hand of
Christ. Indeed, the mercy of that hand.
the gentleness of that hand, is beyond
all artistic portrayal. Some of His mir
acles He performed by word of mouth
and without touching the subject be-
fore Him, but most of them He per-
formed through the hand. Was the
dead damsel to be raised to life? ''He
took her by the hand" Was the blind
man to have optic nerve restored? He
took him by the hand" Was the demon
to be exercised from a suffering man?
He took him by the hand" The peO-
pie saw this and besought Him to put
His hand on their afflicted ones.
His own hands free, see how the
Lord sympathized with the man who
had lost the use of his hand. 1t was
case of atrOphy, wasting away until |
the arm and hand had been reduced in |
size beyond any medical or surgical |
Moreover, it was his right |
hand, the more important of the two, |
for the left side in all its parts is weak |
er than the right side, and we involun |
tarily, in any eXigeucy, 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 arma- |
ment. 1t would not have been so bad if |
it had been the left hand. But Christ |
looked at the shriveled up right hand |
dangling uselessly at the mans side |
and then cried out with a voice that had |
in it: stretch forth thy |
right hand!" and the record is 'he |
stretched il forth whole as the other"
The blood rushed through the shrunk- |
en- veins, and the shortened muscles |
and the dead nerves |
thrilled, and the lifeless fingers tingled |
with resumed circulation, and the re-
stored man held up in the presence of |
the skeptical Pharisee one of Jehovah's
masterpieces perfect hand. No won
der that story is put three times in the
Bible, so that if sailor were cast away |
On a barren island. or a soldiers New
Testament got mutilated in battle and
whole pages are destroyed, the ship
wrecked or wounded man in hospital
would probably have at least one of /
hose three radiant stories of what
Christ thought of the human hand.
a pastor in his sermon told how a
little child appreciated the value of
bis hand when he was told that on /
the morrow il must be amputated in or
der to save his life. Hearing that, he
went TO a quiet place and prayed that
God would spare his hand. The sur
geon, coming the next day to do his
work, found the hand so much better
hat amputation was postponed, and
he hand got well. The pastor. telling
1f this in a sermon, concluded by hold
ng up his hand and saying: THAT is
he very hand that was spared in an
'wer to prayer, and hold it up, a mon
lment of Divine mercy"
Again, the hand is the chief execu-
i've officer of the soul when wrung in
agony. Tears of relief are sometimes
denied to trouble. The eyelids at such
lines are as hot and parched and burn
ng as the brow. AT such time even
he voice is suppressed, and there is no
lob or outcry. Then the wringlng of
he hand tells the story. AT the close of
life wasted in sin sometimes comes
hat expression of the twisted fingers
the memory of years that will never