Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-12-19
CalnaSe
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmase. ID. d.


usual theme and shows the value and
far reaching importance to society at
large Of individual character and a con
sistent, conscientious. Christian life
The text is Acts Y. -, That at the
least the shadow of Peter passing 10y
might overshadOw some of them
The struggle Of the chronic invalid
after health is woefully, heartrending-
ly and overwhelmingly pathetic. To
see a child born to life of inevitable
physical pain and torture; to see a
young man in the grip Of cancer or
with bones and joints twisted out of
shape by that fiend of inquisitorial
tOrturers, iniammatory rheumatism;
TO see n young woman slowly fading
away with consumption. going from
place TO place for a change Of climate,
trying first this doctor and that doctor,
and then, finally, as a drowning man
grasps at a straw. going to the "sure
patent medicine cures and trying the
nOstrums Of quack dOctors-ah, these,
to me, are among the saddest of all
the sad sights of human life.
Yet we may see these pathetic trag-
edes everywhere Il cannot lie here
and die without making an effort to
be cured said once great lawyer to
me in the city of Brooklyn There
was a time when l had a large income
and many friends. But now that / am
old and without money and dying with
a cancer nearly all my friends have left
me alone. The doctors come and say
Judge, how do you feel today?' Then
they propose to cut me with knife
saying: The cancer is growing. Judge:
the cancer is growing. 1t must be cut
out Then when l say. Doctor, il /
submit to the knife will get well?'
they simply shake their heads and an
swer Judge, you must die 1t does
not seem strange that when q man Is
fatally i'll he will go anywhere and to
anybody who promises to make him
well"
Poor Robert Louis Stevenson! The
doctors said he had to. die. But Steven
son said, IF | can only go to a warmer
climate l shall get we'll" So he went
He Travelled south. He Travelled west
He lived here and there. He was
travelling not for pleasure. but for
health. He tried to flee his fatal i'll
ness, but sickness kept on his track.
1t crossed the seas with him. 1t dwelt
with him in boat in hut. in tent. At
last. In faroff Samoa, it climbed the
mountains with him, and among those
tropical woods Death said, Come, Rob
= I,nY, S,.,.I,n
little gasp. and poor Robert Louis
Stevenson was no more.
Health Is a Treasure.
The health - what treasure it Is.
When it is once lost, how men strive to
regain 1t! In every age the medical
Profession has been honored and its
members held in high esteem. I sup
pose there was as much disease in
Judaea in apostolic times rs we have
In our day: perhaps more, for diseases
which our physicians can cure were
then pronounced incurable. We can
imagine what a sensation there would
be in those times, in every home where
/. there was q lame child or a cripple or
"a father or mother suffering from dis
ease, when 1t was told that Peter, who
had cured the lame man of the temple
gate, was curing all who came to him.
No wonder that sick people sought him
and that those who could not leave
their beds begged their friends to carry
them to him. for we read that they
were healed. every one"
These crowds of chronic sufferers in
stead of decreasing kept growing larger
oil the time. At last the numbers OF
the sick became 50 great that they
could not get near to or have an audi
ence with the famous apostle. They
were too many Then the friends OF
the sick said among themselves. Il
sufferers are cured when Peter lays hi:
hands on them perhaps they may bt
rured when his shadow passes owe
them" So the Bible says these be
IIevers brought forth the sick into til,
streets and laid them on beds ant
touches that at least the shadow o
Peter passing by might Overshadov
some of them. There came also Il mul
titude out of the cities roundabout
into Jerusalem. bringing sick folks ant
them which were vexed with uncleal
spirits and they were healed, ever!
one"
The Bible does not distinctly stat
whether the sick were healed by Pc
ter's shadow; but, reading between The
lines OF these two verses. it implies it
We know that under the power of the
Holy Spirit it would be no greatei
miracle for Peters shadow to heal the
lick than it would for the handker
.hiefs and the clothes which had once
louched the living body of Paul to hea
he sick. We read about this miracle
In the nineteenth chapter of Acts anC
" the miracle of Peters shadow in TIN
ifth chapter Of the same book. l thinl
that cures must have been wrought Il
his way Perhaps Peter himself wa
unconscious OF It and did not know
Fhat his shadow was the means of dc
ng until he was told of the cures aft
award AS he passed through til