The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-02-09

Icy to damage Individual Oh communi-
Ity or nation, shake hands TO defraud.
shake hands to stand by each other in
wrongdoing. You help me stuff this
ballot OK, and : viii see that when
I am in power you shall have promo
ton You help me in my infamy. and
/ Will help you in your infamy. on,
that is proclamation of a holy rite: that
Is sacrilege against a divine arrang
ment; that is gripping your own de-
struction- PLATE and Herod. though
antagonists before, shook hands over
lChrist's projected 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 a Havelock shook hands
with besieged women at
whom he had come TO save from mas
sacre. Shake hands as Davi Brainerd
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
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 waif of the street COM
ing penitent into the midnight mission.
Shake hands as heaven shook hands
with earth that night when a doxology
lin the gallery OF clouds woke the BETH
IIehem shepherds.
EXPRESSIVE OF GOOD WILL.
But it is not always in such glad
greeting that we can employ our right
hand. Alas, that so often we nave to
employ the hand in farewell sa%lutation,
If your right hand retained some inn
press of all such uses, it would be a
volume of bereavements. Oh. the good
Ibys in which your right hand has par
~ticipated! Goodby at the steamboat
wharf. Goodby at the rail train win
dow. Goodby before the opening of
the battle. Goodby at the dying pillow.
We all needed grace for such hand
shaking, though our hand was strong
need grace for the coming goodbys,
and that grace we had better seek
while amid the felicities of health and
homes u~nbroken. Thank God, there
will be no goodby in heaven.
Again, the hand is the chief execu-
tive Of the soul when employed in ben
Iediction. No gesture of the human
hand means more than that outstretch-
ed gesture. In many of our religious
denominations we are not permitted to
pronounce an apostolic benediction un-
it'll we have been regularly ordained as
ministers Of the gospel, but there are
kinds of benediction that you nay all
pronounce without especial permission
from preSbytery or conference or con-
lvention. You have a right to spread
abroad both right and left hand in be-
lstowlng a blessing of kindness and
good will upon all you meet. With both
hands bless the children. Take them
in your arms and kiss their fair cheek.
Take with them a. round of merriment
in the room before you leave it, and
by prayer PUT them in the arms of that
Christ, to go to whom in olden time
they struggled to get out of the arms
Iof their mothers. God bless the era
ldles and high chairs and nurseries all
laround the world.
Extend your hands in benediction for
the aged. Take their counsel and ask
down the declivities. BY neglect the
I%unfilial demeanor add no wrinkles to
their brow, no more stoop to their
shoulders. They nave their hand on
the latch of the door through which
they will soon go out of sight of your
Ihomes and churches. May the mantles
Iof the Elijahs fall upon the Elishas,
lSpread your hand for the benediction
upon all the men and women in the
tug of life, many of them tired and
lbuffeted and disheartened. Never 20
out of a store or shop or office or field
without ~pronouncing a benediction.
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
~lbenedictiOn which has been
for centuries, and over hundreds Of
thousands of assemblages, at corona
lions and obsequies, at harvest homes
and on fast days, by all the ministers
of the gospel in the past as it will be
by all the ministers of the gospel until
the church militant reaches up it's
right hand to take the right hand of
the church triumphant; a benedictlon
which, when it has full sway, will leave
nothing for our world to want or heav-
en- to bestow; May the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, n the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Ghost,
be with you all forever. Amen"