Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-10
THE HEALING POWER.
Lesson in the Miracle Performed by
the Savior at Decapolis.
THE MENTALLY DEAF AND DUMB
Compared With the Sufferer for Whom
the Multitude Pleaded.
TIE REAL REWARD OF THE HELPER
rwn1rrxx FOR TEE pIsrAroH.i


they brought to Christ deaf and dumb
man that he might heal him. Let us read
the story over and get what truth and help
We can out of it. "They bring unto him
one that was deaf and had an impediment in
his speech and they beseech him to put his
hands upon him."
What parable such man as thls is, OF
the relation between utterance and knowl-
edge. The ear is the organ of knowledge,
and the lips of speech. Whoever has some
thing the matter with his hearing Is pretty
sure to have something the matter with his
tongue. The two 60 together. The deaf
| have almost of necessity some impediment
in their speech. And this is just as true in
tellectually as it is physically. We must
listen in order to talk. We must learn be-
tore we can teach. 1t is only out of disci-
Piles that apostles can be made. First hear
els, then intelligent speakers. There are a
great many people who have no need OF
physician, and yet speak with stammer
and have an impediment In their
speech-an intellectual lmpedlment-De-
cause they are deaf-mentally deal. They
will not hear. In this "age Of words, as
our generation has recently been called, this
parable is worth attending to. Some Of the
prevalent stammering and mistaken speech
about the religion of Christ we may set down
to the account of deafness. These speakers
have not been listeners. They have not
heard Christ. That is what is the matter
with them.
WHERE THE REMEDY LIES.
The best thing which any man can do
whose tongue stammers when 1t touches the
syIlables Of the Christian creed, is to come
where this deaf and dumb man came-to
Christ. They bring this afflicted man to
the Healer, and pray for him who cannot
we'll pray for himself-or at any rate does
not pray for himself-that He may lay
His helping hand upon him. They bring
the man and Christ together. What did
| Christ do? "He took him aside from the
| multitude, and put his fingers into his ears,
and he spit and touched his tongue"
1t is no use talking the English language
to deaf and dumb man, nor even the Syriac
language If that is the speech of the
country. At least in those days, which
we're centuries before lip-reading was
thought of, there was no use. Ordinary
speech would not do with him. Whoever
would talk to this deaf man must make
signs. That is what Christ did. He put
His finger into the deaf mans ears. That
was a plain enough sentence. And He
touched the stammering tongue with His
moistened finger. Nobody could miss know
| ing what that meant. Then they stood
"apart from the multitude" the patient and
the Physician, the two together; the deaf
and dumb man looking at Christ, and Christ
looking at him. That was the beginning of
it. The first essential for this man il he
waited to be cured, was to understand that
Christ was looking at that moment straight
| at him, and at nobody else, His back was
against the whole world. and his face was
toward Christ's face; and he said to himself:
''Now the Healer is thinking about nae, and
is going to help me-" And that thought
helped him.
| INDIVIDUAL RECOGNITION.
That is thought to help anybody. Re-
| ligion, ter all, consists mainly in standing
thus face to face with God, knowing that
God beholds and loves not only 'us" but
"me," and each one for our own self behold
ing, serving and loving God. When a man
begins to say to himself-Christ came into
this world for my sake; to set me an e1.
ample which 1 am to follow in my life to.
day; He lived to redeem me from death and
to save me from my sins; He died upon the
cross; above there in heaven-or. no, here
rather, close by my side-He loves and helps
me- When a man begins to speak with
himself after that fashion. making the great
truths personal, and realizing that they are
true for him, and then in his turn consecrat
ting his life more closely to Him whom ht
knows as his Savior and his Lord, then thai
man discovers what Christ's religion is.
take this dumb and deaf man, looking
to Christ for help and understanding. Thai
Christ cares Tor and loves him. take him
as the type OF the beginning OF personal re
ligion. "And looking up to heaven, HI
sighed" That is the next thing we are told
Looking up into that blessed home, wher,
sorrow and crying, and de ect and pain art
all banished, and then down upon this grief
stained earth; looking up above where tht
will of God is perfectly understood and per.
fectly and lovingly done, and then down
upon this disobedient earth, peopled with
the spiritually deaf and dumb none Of III
hearing as we might nor speaking as We
might, He sighed
THE WORD OF HEALING.
"And saith unto him, Ephphatha, tha
is, be opened" 1t is a strange word. Ever
in the Greek it had to be translated. 1t be
longs to the language in which the peopl,
of our Lords land and day uttered thei
thoughts language long passed out of thu
using OF the greater nations of the earth
'.Ephphatha, that is, be opened" So neal
we get to that scene of healing in Decapoli
that we can hear the very sound of the Mas
ter's voice. These were the very syllable
He uttered. After that the word had such
beauty of sound and such richness of mean
ing that there was NO transferring it out o
| that language into another. Something o
Christ's voice, something of the association
of that hour clung to it afterward always
When st. Peter told this story of healing
for St. Mark to write it down, be remem
bered Just how that word sounded. "Eph
phathaI' 1t called back the whole scene
So it stands here even in our English Bible
!, s'And straightway his ears were opened
and the string OF his tongue was loosed AM
he spake plain" And that is all that W
are told about him. The veil of siienc
falls between him and us. We would lik
3 to know more about SO many Bible people
. About the Bethlehem shepherds who hear
{ the angels sing in the Christmas sky, an
= about the little daughter OF Jairus VIII
came back to life again, and about Lazarus
$ How far was the Imagination of Brownin
D true in that fine "Epistle of Karshish
. which he wrote, in which the Arab physi
. clan interviews that strange inhabitant Q
. Bethany? And that other and even fine
) poem, "a Death in the Desert" about th
: last hours of St. John, how far was ths
Z true, we wonder. And this deaf and dunn
man, what did he afterward do with tn
hearing and the speech which Christ ha
given him? But that we know not.
, EFFECT ON THE PEOPLE.
Whatever is told more-and that is nc
much-is about the people. Around tn
patient crowded the people. Every dee
I worth doing or word worth saying divide
q | tha hvston6ers at once into classes accord