The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1900-02-02
VALUE OF THE HAND.
Dr.. Talmage Calls 1t the Souls
Executive Cahcer.
Its Construction Illustrate. Divine
Wisdom ana Its Right Employ
nent Makes Mankind Bet
ter and Happier.
copyright, 1900, by Louis Klopsch1
N~uShLrr.nn


the divine meaning in our physical
structure; text, | Corinthians 1921:
"The eye cannot say unto the hand,
] have no need of thee"
These words suggest that sometime
two very important parts Of the hui
man body got into controversy, and the
eye became insoIent and full of brag-
gadocio and said: Il am an indepcnd-
ent part OF the human system. How
Ear | can see, taking in spring morning
and midnight aurora! Compared with
myself. what an insignificant thing is
the human hand. | look down upon il.
There it hangs. swinging at the side,
a clump of muscles and nerves, and
il cannot see an inch either way. II
has no luster compared with that which
l beam FORTH What sensciesS talk"
responds the hand. You. the eye.
would have been put out long ago but
for me. Without the food | have
earned you would have been sight
less and starved to death years ago.
You cannot do without me any better
than )! can do without you.' At this
part Of the disputation Paul Of my
text breaks in and ends the controversy
by declaring: THE eye annot say
unto the hand. | have no need of thee"
Fourteen hundred and thirty-thrge
times. as nearly as | can count by aid
Of concordance. does the Bible speak
of the human hand. We are all ia
.r... -.s-l a. l,-J l.,. a. r,,, H..
vet to be born who can fully under
stand this w]ondrous instrument. Sir
Charles Bell, the English surgeon, came
home from the battlefield Of Water
loo, where he had been amputating
limbs and binding up gunshot trac-
lures, and wrote a book entitled; "The
Hand: Its Mechanism and Vital En-
dowments as Evidencing Design But
it is so profound a book that only a
scientist who is familiar with the
technica.itics of anatomy and physi-
ology can understand it.
So we are all going on opening and
shutting this diyincly constructed in
strument-the hand-ignorant Of much
of the revelation it was intended to
make OF the wisdom and goodness OF
God. You can see by their structure
that shoulder and elbow and forearm
are getting ready lor'the elimination
in the baud. There is your wrist, with
it's eight bones and their li@amcntS IN
w rows. That wrist win It' bands
oil tibers and its hinged Jolnt ana turn
ing on two aNes-on the larger axis
moving backward ana forward ara on
:he smaller MS turning nearly round.
And there is the pam OF your hahd'
with its five bones, each having a shall
and two examinations. There are the
fingers OF that hand, with ii bones,
eacA finger with It's curlousIN Wfo"&A'
tendons, live OF the bones with enc
ing roughencd Tor the lodgment OF the
nails. There is the thumb, coming
from opposite direction to meet the
fingers, so that in conjunction tIc}
may clasp and Old tast mat WiIch
you desire TO take. ih"rr are the long
nerves running from the armp!t 10 tAe
As muscles, SO that all are under mas
terry. The whole anatomy OF your hand
us complex, as intricate. as sEn'n'ct-
rlcal, as useful as God could make r.
What can 1t not DO? 1t can c4linb, II
can MT, 1t can push, II can repeI' IL
can menace, it can clutch, it can deny,
il can affirm. it can extend. it can
weave, it can battle. it can smjte. it can
humble, it can eNalt. it can soothe. il