Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-16
THE SIN OF SILENCE.
A Dumb Devil Is in the Land, Who
Stills the Christians Voice.
INFIDEL SCOFFERS UNREBUKED.
Sounds of Singing, Prayer and EIhorta-
tion Are SmOthered.
RlTFFTL ISFTTENCE ON POLITICS
INFIDEL SCOFFERS UNREBUKED.
A BALEFUL INFLUENCE ON POLITICS

to-day was Mark tx 25, Thou dumb and
deaf spirit, charge thee, come out of him. I"
Here was a case of great domestic anguish
The son of the household was possessed of
an evil spirit which, among other things,
paralyzed his tongue and made him speech
less. When the influence was on the pa
tient, he could not say a word-articulation
was impossible. The spirit that captured
this member of the household was dumb
spirit-so-called by Christ-a spirit abroad
to-day and as lively and as potent as in New
Testament times. Yet in all the realms of
sermonology, l cannot find a discourse con-
rerning this DUMB devil which Christ
charged upon in my text, saying: Come
out of him.
There has been much destructive SUPER
stitiOn abroad in the world concerning pos
session by evil spirits. Under the form of
belief in witchcraft this delusion swept the
continents. Persons were supposed to be
possessed with some evil spirit which made
them able to destroy others. That belief,
which has become the laughing stock OF all
sensible people counted its disciples among
the wisest and best people of Sweden, Ger
many. England, France, Spain and New
England.
Evil Spirits Still in the Land.
But while we reject witchcraft, any man
"
there are diabolical agencies abroad in the
world. While there are ministering spirits
to bliss, there are internal spirits TO hinder,
to poison and destroy. Christ was speaking
TO a spiritual existence, when, standing be-
fore tie afflicted one of the text He said,
Thou dumb and deaf spirit, come out of
linn
Against this dumb devil of the text, put
yOU on your guard. Do not think that this
Hgent of evil has put his blight on those
w lN- 0rroiS n he
had the golden gates of speech bolted and
barred Among those who have never spok-
EN- word are the most gracious and lovely
and talented souls that were ever incarnat-
ed The Chanlains of the aSylums for the
dumb can tell you enchanting stories of
those, who never called the name of father
ing speaking OF congenital mutes. Wemean
those who are born with all the faculties of
voCalization. and yet have been struck by
the evil one mentioned in the text.
There has been apotheosization of silence.
Some one has said silence is golden, and
sometimes the greatest triumph is to keep
your mouth shut. But sometimes silence is
q crime and the direct result of the baleful
influence of the dumb devil of our text.
= ere is hardly man or woman in this
house to-day who has not been present on
some occasion when the Christian religion
became 4 target for rafllery. Perhaps it
was over in the store some dav when there
was not much going on and the clerks were
in a group; or ii was in the factory at the
noon spell
Silence When Religion Is Rallied.
Some one got the laugh on the Bible and
caricatured the profession of religion as
hypocrisy, or made pun out Of something
that Christ said. The laugh started and you
Joined in, and not one word of protest did
Won utter. What kept you silent? Modesty?
No. Incapacitv to answer? No. Lack of |
No. 1t was q blow on both |
your lips by the wing of the dumb devil.
II some one should malign your father or |
mother or wife, or husband, or child, you |
W Ould flush up quick and either with an in |
d Cnant word, or doubled up fist make re- |
spOnse. And yet here is our Christian re- |
liCiOn, which has done so much for Won and |
so much for the world that it will take all |
eternity to celebrate it, and vet, when it was /
You did not so much as say: 81 |
dlller. object. am sorry to hear you say |
that. There is another side to this"
Nou Christian people ought in such times
as these TO go armed, not with earthly wea-
pons but with the sword of the Spirit. You
ought to have four or five questions with
which You could confound any man who at
taCl1s Christianity. Oh, friends, better load
up with a few interrogation points. You
cannot afford to be silent when God and the
Bible and the things of eternity are assaied.
\ oUr silence gives consent to the lombard
ment of your fathers house You allow a
slur to be cast on Your mothers dying pill
went through the agonies OF assassination
on the rocky bluff back of Jerusalem, YOU
dared not face a sickly joke. Better load up
with few questions SO that next time you
viii be ready.
Few Leading Questions Suggested.
say to the scoffer: "My dear sir, will YOU
tell me what makes the difference between
the condition of woman in China and the
United States? What do you think of the |
sermon on the Mount2 How do you like the |
golden rule laid down in the Scriptures? Are /
you in favor of the ten commandments? In |
your large and extensive reading have you |
come across a lovelier character than Jesus
Christ? VIII you please to name the triumph
ant death-beds of inffdels and atheists? How
do YOU account for their fondness for the
Christian religion? Among the innumerable |
colleges and universities of the earth, will |
you name me three started by infidels and |
now supported by infidels? Down in Your
heart are you really happy in the position
you occupy antagonistic to the Christian re-
llEion? When do you have the most raptur-
Gus views of the world?"
60 at him with few such questions and
be viii get so red in the face to suggest
apppleNy, and he will look at his watch and |
say ne has an engagement and must go. |
on VIII put him in a sweat that will beat a |
Turkish bath. You will put him on a rout
with which our troops at Bull |
with arguments, but Interrogation points, |
and l promise you victory. Shall such a
man as you, shall such a woman as you sur
render to one of the meanest spirits that
ever smoked up from the pit-the dumb
devil spoken of in the text?
But then there are occasions when this
particular spirit that Christ exercised when
be said: Il charge thee to come out OF him."
takes people by the wholesale.
Silence That Ought to Be Song.
In the most responsive religious audience
have you noticed how many people never
sing at all7 They have a book and they
have a voice and they know how to read i
They know many of the tunes, and vet are
silent while the great raptures of music pass
by. Anon those who sing not one out of a
hundred sings loud enough to hear his own
voice. They hum it. They give sort OF
religious grunt. They make the lips go but
il Is inaudib lie. With voice strong enough
to stop a stree car one block away, all they
can afford in the praise of God is about half
i whisper. With enough sopranos, enough |
ilto~, enough bassos to make a small heaven |
letWeen the four walls they let the oppor- |
unity go by unimproved. The volume of |
voice that ascends from the largest audience
mat ever assembled ought to be multiplied |
about twO-thousand fold.
But the minister rises and gives out the |
lH mn; the organ begins; the choir OF pre- |
5ehtOr leads; the audience are standing so |
hat the lungs may have full expansion, and
mighty harmony is about to ascend, when
ne eFll spirit spoken of in my teIt-the
iumb devil-spreads his two wings, one
INet the lips OF one-half the audience ana
ne other wing over the lips of the other
nall Of the audience. and the voices roll
lack INTO the thrOats from which they |
started, and only here and there anything is
leard, and nine-tenths of the holy mower is |
destroyed: and the dumb devil, as he flies |
tWay, says: 81 could not keep Isaac Watts
rom writing that hymn, and could not
leeP Lowell Mason from composing the
Ghe TO which it is set, but ] smote into |
'Hence or half silence the lips from which it
: Sou,a nave spread abroad to bless neighbor-
hoods and cities.
some Stories of Favorite HYMNS