The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-08-30
A MISSION OF CHRIST
Dr.. Talmage Discourses on the
Great Surgeon
Emcacy of the Divine POwer i'm Heal.
ing the Worlds Wounds and De.
formities-RelatiOn Of Sur
gerry and Theology.
copyright. 1900. by Louis Klopsch.l

gerry and Theology.
copyright. 1909. by Louis Klopsch.l
Washington,
In this discourse DR.. Talmage (who
is now travelling in Europe) puts in an
unusual light the mission of Christ
and shows how Divine power will yet
make the illnesses of the world fall
back; text, Matthew xi, S: The blind
receive their sight, and the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed and the deaf
hear"
Doctor" said to distinguished
surgeon, do you not get worn out
with constantly seeing SO many
wounds and broken bones and distor-
tions of the human body?" ''Oh, NO"
he answered; ''all that is overcome by
My Joy in curing them" A sublimer
and more merciful art never came
down from Heaven than that of sur
gerry. Catastrophe and disease en-
tered the earth SO early that one OF
the first wants of the world was
doctor. Our crippled and agonized
human race called for surgeon and
family physician for many years be-
fore they came. The first surgeons
who answered this call were minis
ters of rengion-namely, the Egyp-
tian priests. And what grand thing
if all the clergymen were also doc
tors, all d. DIS were NJ. DIS, for there
are SO many cases where body and
soul need treatment at the same time,
consolation and medicine, theology
and therapeutics. As the first sur
geons of t. e world were also ministers
| of religion, may these two professions
always be in full sympathy! But un-
der what disadvantages the early sur
| geons worked from the fact that the
| dissection of the human body was for
hidden, first by the pagans and then
| by the early Christians! Apes, being
| the brutes most like the human race,
were dissected, but no human body
might be unfolded for physiological
and anatomical exploration, and the
surgeons had to guess what was in
side the temple by looking at the out
side of it. If they failed in any surgi-
cal operation, they were prosecuted
and driven out of the city, as was
Archagathus because of his bold but
unsuccessful attempt to save q pa
| tient.
But the world from the very begin
ming kept calling for surgeons, and
their first skill is spoken of in Genesis,
where they employed their art for the
| incisions of sacred rite, God making
surgery the predecessor of baptism,
and we see it again in II. Kings, where
Ahaziah, the monarch, stepped on
some cracked latticework in the pal
ace, and it broke, and he fen from the
upper to the lower floor, and he was
SO hurt that he sent to the village
of Ekron for aid, and Aesculapius,
who wrought such wonders of surgery
that he was deified and temples were
built for his worship at Pergamos;
and Epidaurus and Podelirius intro
duced for the relief of the world
phlebotomy, and Damocedes cured
the dislocated ankle of King Darius
and the cancer of his queen, and
Hippocrates put successful hand on
fractures and introduced amputa-
ton, and Praxagoras removed obstruc-
tions, and Herophilus began dissec-
ton, and Erasistratus removed tu-
mors, and CELSIUS, the Roman surgeon,
removed cataract from the eye and
used the Spanish fly; and Heliodorus
arrested disease of the throat, and AL
exander of Tralles treated the eye, and
Rhazas cauterized Tor the prevention
of hydrophobia, and Percival Pott
came to combat diseases of the spine,
and in our own century we have had
among others, Roux and Larray
in France, an Ashley Cooper and an
Il Abernethy in Great Britain and a
Valentine Mott and Willard Parker
and Samuel D. Gross in America and
d galaxy of living surgeons as bril-
liant as their predecessors. What
mighty progress in the battling of dis
ease since the crippled and sick Of
ancient cities were laid along the
streets, that people who had ever beer
hurt or disordered in the same way
might suggest what had better b.
done for the patients, and the priests
of olden time, who were constantly
suffering from colds received in walk
ing, barefoot over the temple pave
ments, had to prescribe for them
; selves, and fractures were considered
.. SO far beyond all human cure that in
stead of calling in the surgeon tn,
people only invoked the gods!
/ notice this Surgeon had a fondnes'
for chronic diseases. Many surgeon
: when he has had patient brought t.
him, has said: "Why was not this at
tended to five years ago? You bring
/ him to me after all power OF recupera
, ton is gone. You have waited unit
there is complete contraction of tn
muscles, and false ligatures are formed
and ossifcation has taken place. I
ought to have been attended to loni
ago" But Christ the Surgeon seeme'
to prefer inveterate cases. One was
hemorrhage Of u years, and he stoppe'
It. Another was curvature Of 1s year.
aud He straightened Il. Another Waa