The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1900-06-01
VALUE OF THE HAND.
DR.. Talmage Calls It the Souls
Executive Officer.
its Construction Illustrates Divine
wisdom and It's Right Employ
ment Makes Mankind Bet-
ter and Happier.

copyright, 1900 by Louis Klopschl
Washington Jan. S
The discourse of DR.. Ialmage is a
lesson of gratitude for that which
none Of us fully appreciate and shows
the divine meaning in our physical
structure; text, l Corinthians 1921;
"The eye cannot say unto the hand,
] have no need Of thee"
These words suggest that some time
two very important parts of the hu-
man body got into controversy, and the
eve became insolent and full of brag-
psdocio aud said. - am an independ-
ent part of the human system. How
.ar I can see, taking in spring morning
and midnight ouroral Compared with
myself, what an insignificant thing n
the human hand. look down upon 1t.
There IL hangs, swinging at the side,
a clump of muscles and nerves, ana
It. cannot see an inch either way. 1t
has no uster compared with that which
I beam forth" "What senseless talk,
responds the hand. you, the eye,
would have been put out long ago but
for me. Without the food l have
earned you would have been sight
less and starved 20 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 cannot say
INTO the hand. have no need Of thee.
Fourteen hundred and thirty-three
times. as nearly as | can count by ana
% concordance, does the Bible speak
Of the human hand. We are all IA
millar with the hand, but the man has
vet TO be born who can fully under
stand this wondrous instrument. SIR
Charles Bell, the English surgeon came
home from the battlefield Of Water
loo where he had been amputauhB
limbs and binding up gunshot irac-
lures. and wrote a book entitled' " ne
Hand: It's Mechanism and Vital In
dowments as Evidencng Design" But
II is so profound a book that only
scientist who is familiar with the
technicalities Of anatomy and physi-
ology can understand II.
So we are all going on opening ana
shutting this divinely constructed IN
strument-the hand-ignorant Of much
of the revelation it was intended 10
make of the wisdom and goodness OF
God. You can see by their structure
chat shoulder and elbow and forearm
are getting ready for the elimination
I'm the hand. There Is your wrist, with
its eight bones and their ligaments IN
Two rows. That wrist, with its bands
of fibers and its hinged joint and turn
ino on two axes-on the larger axis
moving backward and forward, and on
the smaller axis turning nearly round.
And there is the palm Of your hana'
with its five bones. each having a shaft
and two terminations. There are the
dnoers of that hand, with IA bones,
each finger with its curiously wrought
tendons. five Of the bones with end
ing roughened for the lodgment OF tne
nails. There is the thumb, coming
from opposite direction to meet the
fingers. so that in conjunction they
NAV clasp and hold fast that which
YOU desire to take. There are the long
nerves running from the armpit 10 the
ss muscles. so that all are under mas
terry. The whole anatomy Of your hand
AS complex. as intricate, as symmet-
rical AS useful as God could make it.
What can it not do2 II can climb 1t
can lift, it can push, it can repel' II
can menace. it can clutch, it can deny
IL can affirm. it can extend, it can
weave. it can bathe. it can smite, it can
humble. Il can exalt, il can soothe, 1t
ran throw, it. can defy, it can wave
Il can imprecate, it can pray.
A skeleton of the hand traced on
blackboard. or unrolled in diagram, or
hung in medical museum, is nightly
illustrative Of the divine wisdom and
coodness. but how much more pleas