The Penn's Grove record., 1900-02-02

atrOphy, q wasting away until the arm and
hand bad been reduced In size beyond any
meiicai or surgical restoration. More
over, it was his right hand, the most i'm
poftant OF the two, for tbs left side in all
its parts is weaker than the right side, and
we intoldntarily In any efficiency put out
the right hand because we know 1t Is the
best hand. So that poor man had lost
more than half OF bis physical armament.
It would not have been 80 bad II 1t 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 o voice that had omnipotence In
1t, 'Stretch forth thy hand" and the
record is, H stretched it forth whole az
the other" The blood rushed through the
shrunken veins, and the shortened
muscles heightened, and the dead nerves
thrilled. and the lifeless fingers tingIed
with esumed circulation, and the restored
man held up in the presence Of the skep-
tical Pharisees one of Jehovah's master
pieces, a perfect hand. No wonder that
story Is put three times in the Bible, so
that X a sailor were cast away on a barren
island or a soldiers New Testament got
mutilatedi In battle and whole pages are
destroyed the shipwrecked or wounded
man in hospital would probably lave at
least one OF those three radiant stories OF
what Christ thought Of the human hand.
How often has the hand decided a des-
tinyl Mary, Queen OF Scots, was escaping
from Imprisonment at Lochlever in tho
dress Of n ~laundress and had her face
thickly yelled. When a boatman attempted
to remove the veil. sho put up her hand to
defend 1t and so revealed the white and
fair hand OF a queen, and so the boatman
took her back to captivity. Again and
again it has been demonstrated thai the
hand hath q language as certainly as the
month Do1vofok~~~ y. kkz .of---o L. -
character and destiny are read In the
lines OF the hand, is yet crude and uncer-
tain and unsatisfactory, but as ~astrology
was the mother OF astronomy and alchemy
was the mother of chemistry 1t may be
that paimistry will result in a science yet
to be born.
Again, as the chief executive officer of
the soul, behold the hand busy in the artist
What a com paratiyely dull place this
world would be without pictures, without
statuary, without music, without architec-
turel Have you ever realized what fifty
seeming miracles are in the I've minutes
lingering OF piano or harp or flute? Who
but the eternal God could make a hand
capable Of that swift sweep OF the keys or
that quick feeling of the pulses of a flute
or the twirl of the fingers amid the strings
of the harp7 All the composers of music
who dreamed out the oratorios and the
cantatas OF the age would lave had their
work dropped nat and useless but for the
translations OF the hand. Under the daft
fingers OF the performer what cayalries
gallop and what batteries boom and what
birds carol and what tempests march and
what oceans billowt The great architects
OF the earth might have thought out the
Alhambras and the Parthenons and the
st. Sophias and the Tai Mahals, but all
those visions would have vanished had 1t
not been for the hand on hammer, on
plummet, on trowel, on wall, on arch, on
pillar, on stairs, On dome.
In two ~discourses, M concerning the
ear and the other concerning the eye, I
He that planted the ear, shall He not
hear?" and "He that formed the eye, shall
He not see?" 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
oil its joints and strengthened with all its
bones n contrived with all its ingenui-
tiesi The hand hath forwarded all the arts
and tunneled the mountains through
which the rail train thunders and launched
all the shipping a fought all the battles
and built all the temples and swung all the
cables under the sea as we'll as lifted to
mfdair the wire tracks Of which whole
trains OF thought rush across the con-
tinents and built all the cities and hoisted
the pyramids.
Do not eulogIze the eye and ear at the
expense of the hand, for the eye NAV be
blotted ont, as in the case Of Milton, and
yet his hand writes q Paradise LOST or a
samson Agonistos;" as in the case of Will.
lam H. Prescott, and yet his hand may
write the enchanting Conquest of Peru"
Or the ear may be silenced forever, as in
the case OF Beethoven, and yet his hand
may put into immortal cadences the .sNinth
QuunnhnnD 70 m, kIa Ha-lf Tho n.I
fashioned handl The triumphant handi Il
is an open Bible of Divine revelation, and
the five fingers ere the Isaiah and the Eze-
kieI and the David and the Micah and the
Paul OF that almighty inspiration.
A pastor In his sermon told how a 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 a quiet
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 well. The pastor,
telling OF this In q sermon, concluded by
holding up his hand and saying, THAT Is
the very hand that was spared in an
swer to prayer, and I hold 1t up, a monu-
ment Of Divine mercy"
Again, the hand In the chief executive Of
lcer OF the sou when wrung in agony.
Tears of relief are sometimes denied to
trouble. The eyelids at such time are as
hot and parched 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 tolls the story. At
the close OF a life wasted in sin sometimes
comes that expression of the twisted
1ngers-the memory Of years tina will
never return, Of opportunities the like OF
which will never again occur, and con-
science In its wrath pounding upon the
soul, and all the past a horror, only to be
surpassed by the approaching horror. So a
man wrings his hands over the casket OF a
dead wife whom he has cruelty treated.
SO a man wrings his hands q. the fate OF
sons and daughters whose prospects have
beeu ruined by his inebriety and neglect and
depravity. So the sinner wrings his
hands when, after a life full OF offers of
pardon and peace aud 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 LETT
tiers OF crystal on the cheek, the hand re-
cites the tragedy with more emphasis than
ANYTHING In macbeth" and "King Lear"
Again, the hand is the chief executive OF.
ficer OF the soul In salutation. A former
President OF the United States said: II
think h~andshaking is q great nuisance, and
should be abolished. 1t not only makes
the rIght arm sore, but SHOCKS tue Wnole
system and units a nan for writing or at
tending to other duties. It d~emoralizes
the entire nervous and muscular systemi'
But while this exercise may be ~fatiguing it
Is also an opportunity. He who knows
how heartily to shake hands has one OF the
mi4htiest arts for conveying happiness and
good cheer and lifo eternal. After you
have shaken hands with one a line of COM
munication is opened that was not open
before. Two hands clasped In greeting
are q bridge on which all sympathies and
kindnesses and en~couragements and bless
ings cross over.
But 1t is not always In such glad greeting
that we can employ our right hand. Alas
that so often We lave to employ the hand
In farewell salrtationl II your right hand
retained some impress OF all such uses, it
would be a volume OF be~reavements. Oh,
the goodbys in which your right hand has
participated Goodby at the steamboat
wharf. Goodby at the rail train window.
EGoodby before the opening Of tue battle.
Goodby at the dying pillow. We all needed
grace for such handshakings, though our
hand was strong and their hand was weak,
and we Will need grace for the coming
goodbys, and that grace We a better seek
Whilo amid the felicities Of health and
homes unbroken, Thank God there will
be no goodby in heavenl
Aud what better use can / mako of my