Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1900-02-07

uttu, DuI most Oh tu6m ne performed
through the hand. Was the dead damse
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 ex orcised
from a suffering man? HE took him by
the hand" The people saw this and be-
sought Him to put His hand upon their af-
iicted ones.
His own hands free, see how the Lord
sympathized with the man who had lost
the use of his hand. 1t was a case OF
atrophy, a wasting away until the arm and
hand had been reduced in size hey ond any
MEDICAL or surgical restoration. More-
over, it was his right hand, the most i'm
portant Of the two, for the left side in all
Its parts is weaker than the right side. and
We involuntarily in any exigency 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 armament.
1t would not have been so bad il it had
been the left hand. But Christ looked at
that shriveled up right hand dangling
"seiasslv at the mans side and then cried
out with voice that had omnipotence in
it, "Stretch forth thy hand" and the
record is, "He stretched 1t forth whole as
shrunken veins, and the shortened
muscles heightened, aud the dead nerves
thrilled, and the lifeless fingers tingled
with resumed circulation, and the restored
man held up in the presence Of the skep-
tical Pharisees one Of Jehovah's MASTER
pieces, perfect hand. No wonder that
story Is put three times in the Bible so
that il a sailor we're cast away on barren
island or soldiers New Testament got
mutilated in battle and whole pages are
destroyed the shipwrecked or wounded
man in hospital would probably have at
least one OF those three radiant stories of
what Christ thought OF the human hand.
How often has the hand decided a des-
:inyl Mary, Queen Of Scots. was escaping
from Imprisonment at Lochlever In the
dress OF a laundress and had her face
thickly yelled. When boat man attempted
defend it and so revealed the white and
fair hand OF a queen, and so the boatman
took her back to captivity. Again and
again 1t has been demonstrated that the
hand hath language as certainly as the
mouth. Palmistry, or the science by which
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 it may be
that palmistry 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 comparatively dull place this
world would be without pictures, without
statuary, without music, without architec-
turei Have you ever realized what fifty
Sc eming miracles are in the five 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 flute
or the twir OF the fingers amid the strings
of the harp? All the composers of music
who dreamed out the oratorios ald the
cantatas Of the ages would have had their
work dropped fat and useless but for the
r. N . slafinnS n fhs hand Tyn6ar tht. a aft
fingers of the performer what cavalries
gallop and what batteries boom and what
birds carol and what tempests march and
what oceans billow! 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 it
not been for the hand on hammer, on
plummet, on trowel, on wall, on arch, on
pillar, on stairs. on dome.
In two discourses, one concerning the
ear-and the other concerning the eye, 1
spoke from the potent text liz the Psalms,
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
all its joints and strengthened with all its
bones and contrived with all its ingenui-
ties! The hand hath forwarded all the arts
and tunneled the mountains through
which the rail train thunders and launched
all the shipping and fought all the battles
and built all the temples and swung al, the
aDles under the sea as well as lifted to
midair the wire tracks on 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 may be
blotted out, as in the case of Milton, and
yet his hand writes a paradise Lost" or a
Samson Agonistes;" as in the case of WILL
lam H. Prescott, and yet his hand may
write the enchanting Conquest OF Peru"
Or the car may be silenced forever, as I'm
The case OF Beethoven, and yet his hand
may put into immortal cadences the Ninth
Symphony" Oh, the handl The God
Is an open Bible OF Divine revelation. and
the five fingers are the Isaiah and the Eze-
kiel and the David and the Micah and the
Paul OF that almighty inspiration.
A pastor In his sermon told how little
child appreciated the value of his hand
when he was told that on the morrow it
must be amputated in order to save his
life. Hearing that. he went to a quiet
place and prayed that God would spare
bis 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 a sermon, concluded by
holding up his hand and saying, That is
the very hand that was spared in an
swer to prayer, and hold 1t up, a monu-
nent Of Divine mercy"
Again, the hand in the chief executive Of
icsr 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 burning as the brow.
At such time even the voice is suppressed,
and there Is no sob or outcry. Then the
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 its wrath pouncing upon the
soul, and all the past a horror, only to be
by the approaching horror. SO "a
man wrings his hands over the casket of u
dead wife whom he has cruelty treated.
So man wrings his hands n: 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 life full of offers of
pardon and peace aud heaven, he dies
hope. When there are sorrows too
poignant for lamentation on the lip and
too hot for the tear glands to write In let
ters OF crystal ON the cheek, the hand re-
cites the tragedy with more emphasis than
anything in Macbeth" and "King Lear
But it is not always in such glad = eeting
that we can floy our right hand. Alas
that SO often we have to employ the hand
In farewell sautation! II your right hand
retained some impress of all such use., it
would be volume OF bereave:nents. Oh
the goodbys in which your right hand has
Goodby ut the steamboat
wharf. Goodby at the rail train window.
Goodby 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 wrnk
and we will need grace for the coming
goodbys, and that grace we had better seek
while amid the felicities OF health and
homes unhroken, TANK Col there will
be no goodby in heavenI
If all men We're TO perish who did not
succeed in obtaining what they wish,
all mankind would die.
To take the long end of the lever
against love is to pry ourselves out OF
existence as human beings