The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-08-03

becomes midnoon, n we understand
something Of the JOY OF the young man
Of the Bible who. thought he had new
CT before been able 20 see his hand be-
fore his face, now by thetouch Of
Christ had two headlights kindled un-
der his brow, cried out in language
that COMPOUNDED the jeering crowd who
were deriding the Christ that had ef-
fected the cure and wanted to make
him out a bad man. Whether he be
a sinner or no I know not. One thing
1 know, that whereas I was blind, now
] see"
WONDERFUL AS AN AURIST.
But this surgeon vas just as Won
derful as an aurist. Very few people
have two good ears. Nine out o. ten
people are particular to get on this
or that side of you when they sit or
walk or ride with you, because they
have one disabled ear. Many have both
ears damaged, and what with the
constant racket of our great cities and
the catarrhal troubles that sweep
through the land, il is remarkable III
there are any good ears at all. Most
wonderful intrument Is the human ear.
1t is harp and drum and telegraph and
telephone and whispering gallery all in
one. So delicate and wonderous is its
construction that the most difficult of
all things 20 reconstruct is the audi
tory apparatus. The mightiest scien-
tisits have put their skill TO its return
ing, and sometimes they stop the prog
resS of its d~ecadence or remove tenn
porary Instructions, but not more than
one really deaf Ear out of 100. 900 is
ever cured. 1t oookLa God to make
the ear, and it takes a God 10 mend il.
That makes me curious 10 see how
Christ the Surgeon succeeds as an
auriSt.
We are told of only two cases he
operated on as an ear surgeon. His
friend Peter, naturally high tempered,
saw Christ insulted by a man by the
| name of Malchus, and Peter let his
SWORD fly, aiming at the mans head,
but the sword slipped n hewed off
the outside ear, and our surgeon touch
ed the liberation and another ear
bloomed in the place of the one that
had been SlaShed away But it is not
the outside ear that hears. That is
only a funnel for gathering sound and
pouring it into the hidden and more
elaborate ear. On the beach of Lake
| Galilee our surgeon found a man deaf
and dumb. The patient dweLt i'm per-
| petual silence and was ~Speechless. He
could not hea a note of music or a
clap of unde He could not call
father or mother or wife or children
by name. What power can wa1e that
| dull tympanum or reach that chain of
small bones or review that au tory
nerve or open the rate beteeWa the
brain and the outside world? The sur
gean put his fingers on the deaf ears
and agitated them until the vibration
gave vital energy to all the dead parts,
and they responded, and when our
surgeon his fingers from the
| ears the two tunnels of sound were
| clear for all sweet voices of music
1 on6 frinn6chin ENnr rhA fr~St time in
his life he heard the dash of the waves
of Galilee. Through the desert of pain
full silence had been built a kings high
way of and reclamation.
But yet he was dumb. No word had
ever leaped over his lip. Speech was
chained under his tongue. Vocalization
n ~accentuatiOn were to him an i'm
possibility. He could express neither
love nor Indignation o Tl,'t
UNLOOSING THE BARRED
TONGUE.
Our having unbarred his
ear will now unloose the shackle of
his tongue. The surgeon will use the
same IMMINENT or Salve h he used
on two occasions for the cure of blind
people-namely, the moisture of his
own mouth. The application is made,
and 10, the rigidity of the dumb tongue
is relaxed, and between the tongue and
I lCclh was VI d WIlOlS NOcdDuIdIy
n words flew into expression. He
not only heard, but he talked. One
gate of his body Swung in to let sound
enter, and the other gate swung out to
let sound depart. Why is it that,
while other surgeons used knives and
forceps and probes and stethoscopes,
this surgeon used only the ointment of
his own lips? To show that all the
cura tive power we ever feel comes
straight from Christ. And if he touch
eS us not we shall be deaf as a rock
and dumb as a tomb. Oh, thou great
est of all artists compel us to hear and
help us to speak!
But What were the surgeons fees
for all these cures of eyes and ears
and tongues n withered hands and
crooked backs? The skill and the
painleSSnesS of the operations were
worth hundreds and thousands of dol
lars. Do not mir that the cases he
took were an moneyless. Did he not
treat the nObleman'S son? Did he not
doctor the rulers daughter? Did he
not a cure in the house of a
centurlan of great wealth. who had out
of hiS own pocket built a synagogue?
They would have paid him large fees,
and there were hundreds of wealthy
people dn Jerusalem and among the
merchant castles along Lake Tiberias
who would have given this surgeon