Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-02-13

III tuL "a iAhLG dtthut4SAA dkAf < ~ 49,
ga hearty speaking out on the right
side Of everything; text, Mark tx, -,
''Thoa dumb and deaf spirit, / charge
thee. come out tf him.
Here was case of great domestic an
guish. The son 81 the household was
posse ssed of an evil spirit. which, among
other things, paTalyzed HIS tongue and
made him sneecl less. When the inf'd-
ence vas on the patiept. he could not "
n wcrd-articula, ion was impossible. The
spirit that captured this member of the
hou sehold was dumb spirit-so called
by Christ--a spirit abroad to-day and as
lively and potent rs in New Testament
times let in all he realms of sermon
ology | Cannot find a discourse concern
ing this dumb devil which Christ charG-
ed np0n in my text. sa ling, Come out of
him
There has been much destructive super
stition abroad in the world concerning
possession rs evil spirits. Under the form
of belief il witchcraft this delusion swept
the continents Persons were supposed
to be possessed with some evil spirit,
which made them able to destroy others.
In the sixteenth century in Geneva l0oo
persons were burned to death as witches,
In one neghborhood of France 1000 per-
sons were burned. In two centuries 200,-
600 persons were slain as witches. so
mighty was the delusion that it included
among its victims some Of the greatest
intellects of all time. such as Chief JUS
tice Matthew Hale and Sir Edward Coke,
and such renowned ministers of religion
as Cotton Mather, one of whose books,
benjamin Franklin said, shaped his life
and Richard Baxter, aad Archbishop
Cranmer and Martin Luther: and among
writers and philosophers, ord Bacon.
That belief. which has become the laugh
ing stock of all sensible people, counted
its disciples among the wisest and best
people of Sweden, Germany. England,
France Spain and New England. But
while we reject witchcraft any man who
believes the Bible must believe that there
are diabolical agencies abroad in the
world. While there are ministering spir-
its to bless there are Internal spirits to
hinder, to poison and to destroy Christ
was speaking to a spiritual existence
when, standing before the afflicted one of
the text, he said, Thou dumb and deaf
spirit, come out of him."
Dumb and De If Spirit.
Against this dumb devil of the text l
put you on your guard Do not think that
this agent of evil has put his blight ON
those who, by omission of the vocal or
gans, 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 chap
lains of the asylums for the dumb can
tell you enchanting stories of those who
never called the name of father or moth
.t..I 81, a.1e-Nl ax-
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 win
dow of the eye, who never came forth
from the door of the mouth. What
rnir@cle of loneliness and knowledge was
Laura Bridgman of New Hampshire,
not only without faculty of speech, but
without hearing and without sight, all
these faculties removed by sickness when
years of age, yet, becoming a wonder
Mt needlework, at the piano, at the sew
in@ machine and an intelligent student
of the Scriptures aud confounding phi
losophers 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,
aud for centuries they were classed among
the idiotic and unsafe. But in the six
teenth century came Pedro Ponce, the
Spanish monk, and in the seventeenth
century came Juan Pablo Bonet, another
Spanish monk, with dachylology, or the
finger alphabet. and in our own century
we have had John Braidwood and Drs.
Mitchell and Ackerly and Peet and Gal
laudet, who have given to uncounted
thousands of those whose tongues were
forever silent the power to spell out on
the air by manual alphabet their
thoughts about this world and their
hopes for the next We rejoice in the
brilliant inventions in behalf of those
who were born dumb. But we are not
speaking of congenital mutes. We mean
those who are born with all the faculties
of vocalization and vet have beet struck
by the evil one mentioned in the text
the dumb devil to whom Christ called,
when he said. Thou dumb and deaf
spirit, charge thee, come out of him."
silence Sometimes a Crime.
There has been apotheoszat Of 81
lence. Some one has said silence is gold
en-, and sometimes the greatest triumph
Is to keelj EUuf mouth smut. but some
times silence is a crime and the direct
result of the baleful influence of the
dumb devil of our text. There is hardly
man or woman who has not been pres
ent on some occasion when the Christian
religion became a target for raillery.
Perhaps it was over in the store some
day when there was not much going on
and the clerks were in group. or il was
in the factory at the noon spell, or it
was out on the farm under the trees
while you We're resting. or it was in the
club room, or it was in Il social circle, or
it was in the street on the way homo
from business, or it was on some occa-
sion which you remember without my
describing it. Some one got the laugh on
the Bible and caricaturcd the profession
OF religion as hypocrisy. or made pun
out of something that Christ said. The
laugh started, and yol joined in, and not
one word Of protest did you utter. What
kept yoa silent? Modesty? No. Inca
pacity to answer? No. LACK Of oppor-
tunity? No. II was n blow on both your
lips by the wing Of the dumb devil If
GONE one should malign your 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 oTr Christian
religion which has done So much for you
and 50 much for the world that II VIII
take all eternity to celebrate it and yet
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