Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1900-01-18
WONDERS OF THE EYE
Rev Or. TALMAGe'S SERMON ON THE
SYSTEMS IMPERIAL ORGAN.
The Two Great Lights of the Human
Fncc-Hov God Honcrs the Eye.
Not Blind Giant Stumbling
Through the Heavens.
Copyright, Louis Klopsch. 1soo.I

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14.--ln this dis
course DR.. Talmage in his own way, calls
attention TO that part of the human body
never perhaps dscoursed upon In the pull
pit and challenges MS all to the study OF
omniscience; text, Psalm KEW, s., He
that formed the eye, shall he not see?"
The imperial organ OF the human sys-
tenn is the eye. All up and down the
Bible God honors it, cxtols it, illustrates
it or arraigns it. Five hundred and thir-
ty-four times Is it mentioned in the Bible.
Omniprcscucc--"the eyes OF the Lord
are in every place" Divine care--"as the
apple of the eye" The clouds--"the eye
lids Of the morning" Irrevcrence--"the
eye that mockcth at its father" Pride
"oh, how lofty are their eyes" Inatten-
tion-"thc fools eye in the ends of the
EARTH Divine wheels full
uf eyes" Suddcnncss-"in the twinkling
Of an eye at the last trump" Olivetic
scrmon-"the light of the body is the
cye.' This mornings text HE that
formed the eye shall he not secT
The surgeons, the doctors, the anato-
mists and the psychologists understand
much of the glories OF the two great
lights of the human race, but the vast
multtudes go on from cradle to grave
without any appreciation of the two
great masterpieces Of the Lord God AL
mighty. If God had lacked anything OF
infinite wisdom, he would have failed in
creating the human eye. We wander
through the earth trying to see wonderful
sights, but the most wonderful sight we
ever see is not so wonderful as the nstru
ments through which we soc it.
It has been a strange thing to me for
60 years that some scientist with enough
eloqucnce and magnetism did not go
through the country with illustrated lee
ture on canvas 80 feet square TO starte
and thrill and ovcrwhelm Christcndom
with the marvels of the human eye. We
want the eye taken from all its TECHNICAL
ties and some one who shall lay aside all
talk about the pterygomaSillary assures,
the sclerotic and ;ho chasma of the optic
nerve and in plain. common purlance
which you and and everybody can un-
derstand present the subject. We have
learned men who have been telling MS
what our origin is and what we were.
oh. if some one should come forth from
the dissccting table and from the class
room Of the university and take the plat
form and asking the help of the Creator,
demonstrate the wonders of what we are!
gosted by the former part of my text. it
is only TO bring out in palmer way the
theological lessons OF the latter part of
my text, He that formed the eye, shall
he not sec!"
The window OF the Soul.
| suppose my text referred to the hui
man eye, since it cxcels all others in
structure and adaptation. The eyes Of
fish and reptiles and moles and bats are
very simple things because they have not
much to do. There are insects with a
hundred eyes, but the hundred eyes have
less faculty than the two human eyes.
The black beetle swimming the summer
pond has two eyes under the water and
two eyes above the water, but the four
nSectiie are not equal to the two human.
Man placed at the head of all living crea-
lures must have supreme equipment.
while the blind fish in the Mammoth
cave of Kentucky have only an undevel-
oped organ of sight, an apology for the
eye, which if through some crevice Of the
mountain they should 90 into the sun
light might be developed into positive
oyesght.
In the first chapter of Genesis we find
that God without any consultation Gre
ated the light, created the trees. created
the fish. created the fowl, but when he
was about to make man he called a con-
venton of divinity, as though TO imply
that all the powers of Godhead were to
he enlisted in the achievement. Let us
make man. Put n whole ton of empha-
SIS on that word "us" Let us make
man" Ard if God called convention Of
divinity to create man, think the two
srcNt questions in that conference We're
how to create a soul and how to make nm
appropriate window for that emperor to
look ont Of.
See how God honored the eye before he
created it. He cried until chaos was IRA
dated with the utterance, Let there be
light In other words, before he intro
duccd man into this temple of the world
he ilumined it. prepared it for the eye
sight. And SO after the last human eye
has been destroyed in the final demolition
Of the world. stars are to fall and the sun
is to cease its shining and the moon is to
turn into blood. In other words, after the
human eyes are no more to be profted by
their shining the chandeliers of heaven
are to be turned out. God, to educate and
to bless and to help the human eye. set
on the mantel of heaven two lamps--a
the day and the other for the night.
How God Honors the Eye.
To show how God honors the eye, look
nj the two halls built for the residence Of
the eyes. Seven bones making the wall
for each eye. the seven bones curiously
wrough- togethe~. Kingly palace Of ivory
is considereI rich. but the halls for the
residence of the human eyes are richer by
SO much as human bone is more sacred
than olcphantine tusk. See how God hon
ored the eyes when he made roof for
them, so that the sweat of toll should not
smart them ana the rain dashing against
the forehead might not drip into them;
the eyebrows not bending over the eye,
but rcaching to the right and to the left
so that the rain and the sweat should be
compelled to drop upon the cheek instead
Of falling into this divinely protected hui
man eyesight.
See how God honored the eye in the
fact presented by anatomists and phys-
ologsts that there are 800 contrivances in
every eye. For window shutters, the eye
lids opening md closing 10000 times a
day. The eyeashes so constructed that
they have their selection as to what shall