The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1900-07-27
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
TALK ON ONE OF THE MISSIONS
OF CHRIST.
Emcacy OF Divine Power In Healing tho
Worlds Wounds and De:ormitics--The
Intimate Relations of Surgery and
Theology,

In lulS ulSCOuTSe LII. laihobC N"ho
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 XII. 5, THE blind
receive their sight, and the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed and the dear
hear"
Doctor" / said to a distinguished
surgeon. do you not get worn out
with constantly seeing SO many
wounds and broken bones and distor-
lions Of the human body?" "Oh, no."
he answered, "all that Is overcome by
my Joy in curing them. A suDlimer
and more merciful art never came
down from heaven than that OF sur
gerry. Catastrophe and disease entered
the earth so early that one Of the first
wants of the world was doctor. Our
crippled and agonized human race call
ed for surgeon and family physician
for many years before they came. The
first surgeons who answered this call
were ministers of religion-namely,
the Egyptian priests. And what
grand thing IL all clergymen were also
doctors. all D. DIS were M. DIS, for
there are so many cases where Dooy
and soul need treatment at the same
time. consolation and medicine, the
ology and therapeutics. AS the hrst
surgeons Of the world were also minis
tiers of religion, may these two profess
sions always be in full sympathy! But
under what disadvantages the early
surgeons worked, from the fact that
the dissection of the human body was
| forbidden, 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 physi-
illogical and anatomical exploration,
and the surgeons had to guess what
was inside the temple by looking at
the outside of it. If they failed in
any surgical operation, they were per-
secuted and driven out of the city. as
was Archagathus because of his bold
but unsuccessful attempt to save pa
tient.
| The Surgeon in History.
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 a sacred rite, God making
surgery the predecessor of baptism
and we see it again in II Kings, where
Ahaziah, the monarch, stepped OF
some cracked latticework in the pal
ace. and it broke, and he fell from thu
upper to the lower floor, and he wa
so hurt that he sent to the village
Ekron for aid, and. Aesculapius, wh(
wrought such wonders of surgery, tina
he was deified and temples were Dull
for his worship at Pergamos; and Epi
daurus and Podelirius introduced fol
the relief Of the world phlebotomy
and Damocedes cured the dislocatet
ankle OF King Darius and the cancer
of his queen, and Hippocrates put sue
cessful hand on fractures and intro
duced amputation, and Praxagoras re
moved distractions. and Herophilu
began dissection and Erasistratu
removed tumors, and CELSIUS, the Ro
man surgeon, removed cataract from
the eye and used the Spanish fly; ant
Heliodorus arrested disease of TIN
throat, and Alexander of Tralles treat
ed the eye, and Rhazas cauterized TO
the prevention of hydrophobia, ant
Percival Pott came to combat disease
of the spine, and in our century W.
have had, among others, Roux, ant
Larray in France, an Ashley Cooper
and an Abernethy in Great Britain ant
Valentine Mott and Willard Parker
and Samuel D. Gross in America ant
a galaxy Of living surgeons as brillian
as their predecessors. What might!
progress in the battling of disease sine
the crippled and sick of ancient cite!
were laid along the streets, that PEG
nile who had ever been hurt or disor
dered in the same way might sugges
what had better be done for the pa
tients. and the priests of olden time
who were constantly suffering from
colds. received in walking barefoo
over the temple pavements had to pre-
scribe for themselves, and fracture
were considered so far beyond all hu
man cure that instead of calling in tn
surgeon the people only invoked tn
gods!
But notwithstanding all the surgi
cal and medical skill in the world
with what tenacity the old disease
hang on to the human race, and mos
of them are thousands Of years old
and in our Bibles we read of them
the carbuncles of Job and Hezekiah
the palpitation Of the heart spoken Q
in Deuteronomy, the sunstroke OF
child carried from the fields of Shu
mem, crying, MY head, my head!
King Asa's disease of the feet. whic
was nothing but govt; detection Q
teeth. that called for dental surgery
the skill of which, almost equal to any
thing modern, is still seen in the file
molars OF the unrolled Egyptian mum
mics; the ophthalmia caused by tn
Juice of the newly ripe fig, leaving tn
people blind by the roadside; epileps,
| n nffQ