Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-02-15
SPEAK FOR TIE RIGHT.
Or. Talmage Says Silence Is Rc! Golden
While There Are Evils.
IN Your Large ard Extensive Readings iisye
You Come Across LOyelier Character
Tran Jesus Christ?
TCopyright 1851.

WASHINGTON, u. Gin TINS discourse
DR.. Talmage calls for more demonstra,
tive religion and hearty speaking CUT :
on the right side of everything; text
Mark tx, 25 "1hou dumb and deaf spirit,
| charge thee, come out OF him.
ruish. The son of tAt household was pos
scssed of an evil spirit. which among, other
things paralvzed his tongue and made INN
speechless. When the influence was on
the patient he could not say word-,ar-
ticulstion was impossible. The spirit that
captured this member of the household
was A dumb sprit--so called by Chrlst--a
sn;,it abroad to-day and as lively and po-
tent as in New Testament times. Yet, III
all the realms of sermonoiogy l cannot
find a discourse concerning this devii
which Christ charged, upon IN my text
saving, Come out OF him.
There has been much destructive super
stition abroad III the world concerning
possession of evil spirits. Under the form
Of belief in witchcraft this delusion swept
the continents. Persons were supposed TO
be possessed with some evil spirit when
made them able tc destroy others In the
sixteenth century in Geneva 1900 persons
were burned to death as witches. Under
one Judge, in Lorraine. 900 persons were
burned to death as witches. In one nelgn-
borhond of France 1000 persons were
burned. In two centuries 2Q0,00O persons
dclusion that it included among It's VIC,
tins some OF the greatest intellects o., all
time. such as Chief Justice Matthew Hale
and Sir Edward Coke, and such renowned
ministers of religion as Cotton Mather,
one Of whose books Benjamin Franklin
said shaped his ife-and Richard Baxter
and Archbishop Cranmer and Martin
Luther, and among writers and phllosc-
ohers Lord Bacon. That belief which has
become the laughing stock, of all sensible
people counted its disciples among the
many, England, France, Spain and New
England. But while we reject witchcraft,
any man who believes the Bible must oe-
Geye that there are diaboical agencies
abroad in the world While there arc
ministering spirits to bless there are. in
fernal spirits to hinder, to poison and to
DESTROY. Christ was speaking to a SPIRIT
ual existence when standing before the
afflicted one of the text He said, Inou
dumb and deaf spirit, come out OF him. ;
Against this dumb devil OF the text l
this agent of evil has put his blight on
those who by omission OF the vocal or
CANS have had the COLDER gates OF speech
| 6olted and barred Among those VINO
have never spoken word are the most
gracious and lovely and talented souls
that were ever incarnated The cnaplains
of the asylums for the dumb can tell you
enchanting stories of those VINO never
called the name or father or mother OF
child, and many Of the most devout and
prayerful souls will never IN TINS World
speak the name Of God or Christ.
Many deaf mute have l seen with the
angel of intelligence seated at the WINDOW
OF the eve. who never came forth IRON the
door of the mouth. What miracle OF
loneliness and knowledge was Laura Bridg-
man. of New Hampshire, not only without
faculty of speech, but without hearing
and without sight, all these faculties re-
moved by sickness when two years OF, age,
vet becoming wonder at needlework, at
the piano, at the sewing machine and an
intelligent student of the SCRIPTURES and
confounding philosophers who came from
no Zen o 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 deatf
as having no right, with such pauclty, O.
eouipment, to live, and for centuries they
were classed among the idiotie and unsafe
But in the sixteenth century came. Pedro
Ponce, the Spanish monk, and IN the sew
enteenth century came Juan Paoio Bonet
another Spanish monk, with dactylo!ogy
or the finger alphabet, and IN our owl
century we have had John Braidwood ant
Drs. Mitchell and Ackerly and Peet AM
Callaudet who have given to uncounte'
thousands of those whose tongues Wer
forever silent the power to spell out, o.
the air by a manual alphabet thei
thoughts about this world and their hope
for the next. We rejoice in the brililan
inventions in behalf of those who wer
born dumb.
One of the most impressive audiences
ever addressed was i'll the Far West. a
audience of about 600 persons, who la
never heard a sound OF spoken WORD, a
interpreter standing beside me Wnne
addressed them. [ congratulated that al
dence on two advantages they had owe
the most of us-the one that they escape
hearing a great many disagreeabe thing
and on the other fact that they escape
+ saying things they were sorry for ate
ward.
t Yet after all the alleviations OF
shackled tongue is an appalling limitation
+ But we are not this morning speaking
q congenial mntes We mean those VINO al
; born with all the faculties OF yocallzatlo
u and vet have been struck by the EVIL OF
u mentioned in the teXt,the, dump deiv
n
>, "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, L chart
u thee, come out of him."
q There has been apotheosi zation. OF
: lence. Some one has said silence Is. gol
= en-. and sometimes the greatest TRUMP
) is to keep your mouth shut. But som
g. times silence is a crime, and the dire
result of the baleful influence OF the dun
- devil of our text. There is hardly ms
10 or woman who has not been present
some occasion when the Christian rellgi'
r became target for raillery. Perhaps
lr was over in the store some day Wnen the
d was not much going on and the cier
were in a group, or 1t was IN the lac'o
at the noon spell, or 1T was OUT on y
H. farm under the trees while you were re-
ING. or it was in the clubroom. or IL W
in a social circle, OF it was in the street
ca the way home from business, or 1T was
In some occasion which you remember WI
&C. out my describing it. Some one got !
laugh on the Bible and caricatured t
profession Of religion as hypocrisy
made a pun out of something that Chr
- said. The laugh started, and you JON
in. and not one word of protest did y
utter. What kept you silent!- Modest
\ No Incapacity to answer! NO. AacH
81 opportunity? No. 1t was blow on 90
y your lips by the wing Of the dumb oeV
If some one should malign your rather
= mother or wife or husband or child, y
q INDIGNANT word or doubled up fist ma
resp0nse. And yet here is our Christi
@ reTrion. which has done so much for
. and so much for the world that 1t, VI
q take all eternity to celebrate 1t, and
q when il was attacked you did not so mu
@ IS saw: 'I differ. / object. / am sorry
G hear you say that. There is another, s.