the eyes of these
passers-by; a flood of vibration passes on to the brain and then the motor
impulses go out to the muscles. In the case of the good Samaritan, the
impulse went from the brain or the spinal nerve to the arms and he stooped
down and picked the poor fellow up and carried him off; while in the priest
and the Levite the impulses all went down into the legs and the cowards
hustled off for Jericho.

A healthy nervous system is the rarest thing in this wide world. I have one
illustration in mind, which I always like to think of, which I am going to
give you of a perfectly healthy and normal nervous system. It was possessed
by a good old negro minister. He had been preaching to his congregation for
a long time on the subject of meekness and it had not produced the desired
effect; so he said to them one morning: "Brethren, I'se gwine to give you
the illustration of meekness for a week now and show you what it is," and
the old man did. His congregation naturally rose to the occasion: They
insulted his wife; they abused his children; they stoned his dog; they
stole his chickens; they did everything under the heaven to break down the
meekness of that man; but he went on through the week and came into church
the next Sunday and began to preach. The congregation recognized that their
time was short and they redoubled their efforts, but all in vain. Finally,
about five minutes before the closing of the service, he turned to the
congregation and said: "Brethren, I think I ought to denounce to this
congregation that my week of meekness is just about up, and when the clock
in yonder steeple strikes twelve, I'se gwine to quit preachin', close this
blessed Bible, go down from this pulpit, and then, Brethren, Judgment day
and hell is gwine to break loose on some of you." Now, that old colored
minister had an ideal nervous system. There had not been one single
response all that week long, and not one single stimulus which had come in
from the outside had been lost either, but it was all waiting to leap into
that good right arm when the emergency was to be met, in the fullness of
time, and I commend you to go and do likewise.

It is only a step, thank fortune, from the ridiculous to the sublime, just
as it is only a step from the sublime to the ridiculous. Another
illustration of a perfect nervous system: You remember how our Lord spent a
whole day in preaching, in healing, working deeds of kindness, in pouring
out sympathy a