The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1892-05-27
THE DUMB DEVIL.
you MUST KEEP AN EYE OPEN
FOR HIM,
Or Else, Says DIR. Talmage, You VIII
Suffer the COnsequences-A MemOra-
BILE Sunday Sermon in Tabernacle
Pulpit, Brooklyn.

cumDent upon christians OF embracing every
opportunity that offers in this life to do good
and to advance the cause Of the kingdom of
Christ by bold acknowledgment OF their
principles before men. The text selected was:
Mark 0: 20, Thou dumb and deaf spirit l
charge thee, come out OF him"
Here was a case of great domestic
anguish. The son of the household
was possessed of an evil spirit which,
among other things, paralEzed his
tongue and made him speeches..
When the influence was on the patient,
he could not say word-articulation
was impossible. The spirit that capt
ured this member of the household
was dumb spirit-so-called by Christ
"a spirit abroad to-day ard as lively
and potent as in New Testament times.
Yet in all the realms Of sermonology, l
cannot find a discourse concerning this
dumb devil which Christ charged upon
in my text, saying: "COme out Of
him."
There has been much destructive su-
perstition abroad in the world concern
ing possession by evil spirits. Under
the form Of belief in witchcrait, this
delusiOn swept the continents. Persons
were supposed to be possessed with
some evil spirit, which made them able
10 destroy others. In the Sixteenth
century, in Geneva, 1,5OO persons were
harmed to- death as witches. In one
neighborhOod of France l,00n persons
we've burned In two centuries 100000
persons were slain as witches. So
mighty was the delusion that it in
Guided among its victims some of the
greatest intealects Of all time, such
as Chief Justice Matthew Hale and
Sir Edward Coke, and such re-
nowned ministers of religion as Cot
ton MatHer, one of whose books, Ben
jamin franklin said, shaped his life
and Richard Baxter, aud Archbishop
Cranmer, and Martin Luther; and,
among writer's and philosophers, Lord
Bacon. That belief, which has become
the laughing stock of all sensible peo-
pie, counted its disciples among the
wisest and best people of Sweden, Ger
many, England, Fpance, Spain and
New England. Butt while we reject
witchcraft, any man who believes the
bible must believe that there are dia-
Bolical agencieSabroad in the world.
While there are ministeping spirits to
bless, there are infernaU spirits TO him
DER. to poison and to destroy Christ
was speaking to a'spirituel existence,
when, standing before the afflicted one
of the text, he said, "phou dumb and
deaf spirit, come out Of himl"
Against this dumb devil of the text,
I put you on your guard DO'yOu think
that Ghis agent OF evil has put his
Blighd on those whoy by omissions Of the
vocal organs, have had the golden
gates Of speech bobted' and barred.
Among those who have:never spoken
word are the most gracious and lovely
and talented souls that were ever in
carnn6ed. The chaplhins ct the
asylums for the dumb can tell you en-.
chanting stories of thOse;. who never
called the name of fatherof mother OF
child, and many OF the most devOui
and ppayerful souls willneveT In this
world. speak the name oftGodI opChriSt,
Manga deaf mute have / seen with the
angel of intelligence seated att tho win,
dowoH the eye, who nevericame forth
from the door of the mouth. What
miracle of loneliness and knowledge
was Laura Bridgman of New Hamp
shire, not only without faculty Of
speech, but without hearing and with
out sight, all these faculties, removed
bNsiclIness when two years OF age,
yet. Becoming wonder Ut needle
work, at the piano, at the sewing ma
chine, and an intelligentstudeDt of the
Scriptures, and confounding philOso.
pliers, who came from all parts Of the
world to study the phenomenon.
Thanks to Christianity for what it has
done for the amelioration of the condi-
ton Of the deaf and the dhlnDb, Back
in the ages, they were put to- death as
having no right, with such Paucity OF
equipment, to live, and for centuries
} they were classed among the idiotiC
and unsafe. But in the sixteenth
century, came Pedro Ponce, the
Spanish monk; and in the seventeenth
century came Juan Pablo Bonet
another Spanish monk, with dactylol
Ogy or the finger alphabet; and in oul
own century, we have had John Braid
wood and Drs. Mitchell and Ackerly
and Peet and GallaWdet, who have giveI
TO uncounted thousands of those whose
tongues were forever silent, the powe
to spell out on the air by a manua
alphabet their thoughts about thi
world and their hopes for the next
We rejoice in the brilliant invention
in behalf of those who were borl
dumb. One Of the most impressive au
diences | ever addressed was in the ia
West two, or three yeare ago-an au
! dience of about $50 persons, who ha,
! never heard sound or spokena word
an interpreter standing beside m
: while | addressed them. cOngratU
lated that audience on two advantage
they had over the most of us-the on
that they escaped hearing a great man
! 1isagreeable things, and, on the otht
fact, that they escaped saying thing
they were sorry for afterward. Ye
after all the alterations a shackle
tongue is an appalling limitation. Blu
4 we are not this morning speaking {
|. congenial mutes. We mean those WI