The Bossier banner., 1892-07-21
SILENCE A CRIME.
Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage Defines
the Christians Duty.
1t Is to Defend the Cause of Christ al
All Times, and Not, by silence,
to Give Aid and Comfort
to the Devil.


come out of him.-MRrk tx 25
Here was case of great domestic an
guish. The son of the household was
possed of an evil spirit, which, among
other things, paralyzed his tongue and
made him speechless. When the in
fiuence was on the patient he could not
say word articulation was impossi-
Bile. The spirit that captured this MEM
Der of the household was dumb spirit
-so-called by Christ-a spirit abroad
to-day, and as lively and potent as in
the New Testament times. Yet, in all
the realms of sermonology, can not
find discourse concerning this dumb
devil which Christ charged upon in my
text, saying: ''Come out of him."
Against this dumb devil of the text
put you on your guard. Do not think
that this agent or evil has put his blight
on those who by omission of the vocal
organs have had the golden gates of
speech bolted and barred. Among those
who have never spoken a word are the
most gracious and lovely and talented
souls that were ever 'incarnated. The
chaplains of the asylums for the dumb
can tell you enchanting stories of those
who never called the name of father
mother or child, and many of the most
devout and prayerful souls will never
IN this world speak the name of God or
Christ. Many deaf mute have seen
with the angel of intelligence seated at
the window of the eye, who never came
forth from the door of 7the mouth.
What a miracle of loveliness and knowl-
edge was Laura Bridgman, of New
Hampshire, not only without faculty of
speech, but without hearing and with
out sight, all these faculties removed
by sickness when two years of age, yet,
becoming a wonder at needle work, at
the piano, at the sewing machine, and
an intelligent student of the Scriptures,
and confounding philosophers, 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 condition of the
deaf and the dumb. 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 our
own century we have had John Braid
wood and Doctors Mitchell and Ackerly,
nd nd ~ io11 lot
to uncounted thousands of those whose
tongues were forever silent the power
to spell out on the air by manual al
phabet their thoughts about this world
and their hopes for the next We re-
joice in the brilliant inventions in be-
half of those who were born dumb. One
OF the most impressive audiences | ever
addressed was in the far west two or
three years ago-an audience of about
SIX hundred persons, who had never
heard sound or spoken word, an in
terpreter standing beside me while I
addressed them. | congratulated that
audience on two advantages they had
over the most of us-the one that they
escaped hearing great many disagree
able things, and, on the other fact. thew
escaped saying things they We're sorry
for afterward. Yet, after all the al
ieviations, shackled tongue is an ap-
palhng limitation. Butwe are not this
morning speaking of congenital mutes.
We mean those who are born with all
the faculties of vocalization, and vet
have been struck bv the evil one men
toned in the text--the dumb devil TO
whom Christ called, when he said:
Thou dumb and deaf spirit, | charge
thee, come out of him.
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 a crime and
the direct result of the baleful inf,u-
ence on the dumb devil of Our text.
There is hardly a man or woman in
this house to-day who has not been
present on some occasion when the
Christian religion became target for
raillery. Perhaps it was over in the
store some day, when there was not
much going on and the clerks were in a
group or 1T was in factory at the
noon spell; or it was out on the farm,
under the trees, while you were rest
ing; or it was in the club room: or it
was in a social circle; or it was in the
street, on the way home from business:
or 1t was on some occasion which YOU
remember without my describ
ing it. Some one got the laugh
on the Bible, and caricatured
the profession of religion as
hypocrisy, or made a pun out of some
thing that Christ said. The laugh
started and you joined in, and not one
word of protest did you utter. What
kept you silent? Modesty? No. In
capacity to answer? No. Lack of op-
portunity? No. 1t was blow on both
your lips by the wing of the dumb
devil. If some one should malign vour
father, or mother, or wife, or husband.
or child, You would flush up quick. and
either with an indignant word or
doubled-up fist, make response. And
yet, here is our Christian religion.
which has done so much for Won
and SO much for the world that it will
take all eternity to celebrate it, and
yet, when it was attacked, you did not
SO much as say: Il differ. / object.
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