Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1901-02-15
VOL. XIV. NO. Z. WHOLE NUMBER, 1894
thin EVIL OF SILENCE.
DR.. Talrnage Pleads For a More
Demonslrative Religion.
CASTING OUT THE DUMB SPIRIT.

CASTING OUT THE DUMB SPIRIT.
The Duty of Christians to Speak Out
Heartily on the Side of Righteous
ness and to Sing With Joyous
Hearts Gods Praise.
WASHINGTON, Feb 1O.-In this dis
course DI. Talmage calls for a more
demOnstratiye religion and a hearty
speaking out on the right side Of every
thing; text, Mark tx, %, Thou dumb
and deaf spirit, / charge thee, come out
of him
Here was a case of great domestic an
guish. The son Of the household was
possessed of an evil spirit which, among
other things, paralyzed his tongue and
made him speechless. When the infiu-
ence was on the patient, he could not say
wOrd-articulatOn was impossible.
The spirit that captured this member Of
the household was dumb spirit-sO
called by Christ-a spirit abroad today
aud as lively and potent as in New Tesla
ment times. Yet in all the realms Of
sermOnOlogy ! 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 super
stitiOn abroad in the world concerning
possession 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.
In the sixteenth century in Geneva LOO
persons were burned to death as witches.
In one ncighborhoOd 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
tce 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, and Archbishop
| Cranmer and Martin Luther; and, among
writer's and philosophers, Lord 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 diabolcal 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 Deaf Spirit.
Against this dumb devil of the text
put you on your guard DO not think that
this agent Of evil has put his blight OIL
those who, by omission Of the vocal or
gans, have had the golden gates of speech
bolte I'D barred Among those who
have never spoken word are the mos
gracious aV] lovely and talented soul'
that were ever incarnated. The chap
lains of the aSylums for the dumb car
tell you enchanting stories of those wh'
never called the name of father or moth
er or child, and many of the most devOu
and prayerful souls will never in thi
world speak the name of God or Christ.
Many a deaf mute have | seen with thu
angel of intelligence seated at the win
dow of the eye. who never came fOrti
from the door Of the mouth. What ;
miracle of luveliness and knowledge wa
Laura Bridgman of New Hampshire
not only without faculty Of speech, bu
p without hearing and without sight, al
these faculties removed by sickness whel
? years of age, yet, becoming a wOnde
at needlework, at the piano, at the sew
ing machine and an intelligent studen
Of the Scriptures and confOunding phi
: lOsOphers, who came from all parts o
the world to study the phenomenon
: Thanks to Christianity for what it ha
done for the ameiOratiOn of the cOnd
ton of the deaf and the dumb. Back i
the ages they were put to death as haV
ing no right with such paucity of equiv
ment to live, and for centuries they wer
: classed among the idiOtic and unsafe
5. But in the sixteenth century came Pedr
q Ponce, the Spanish monk, and in til
seventeenth century came Juan Pabl
, Bonet, another Spanish monk, with da,
S tylology, or the finger alphabet, an
l. in our own century we have had job
Braidwood and Drs. Mitchell and Acke
ly and Poet and Gallaudet, who haV
II given to uncounted thousands of thos
Il whose tongues were forever silent Il
= power to spell out on the air by a mai
world and their hopes for the next. "
u rejoice in the brilliant inventions in b
4 half of those who were born dumb. o.
of the most impressive audiences | ev
addressed was in the far west, an aud
ence of about 600 persons. who had ne
le er heard a sound or spoken . word,
ID interpreter standing beside me while
e addressed them. congratulated tn
=, Ia,
d over the most of us-the one that tn,
7 escaped hearing a great many disagree
d. BILE things and on the other fact tn
re- they escaped saying things they we
! sorry for afterward. Yet after all I
u alleviations a shackled tongue is an a
4 palling limitation. But we are not ii
ne morning speaking of congenital mute
q We mean those who are born with
the faculties of vocalization and yet ha
r. been struck by the evil one mentioned
ut the text-the dumb devil to whom Chr
e. called, when he said. Thou dumb a
ar deaf spirit, l charge thee, come out
!, him."
IL. silence Sometimes n Crime.
IS There has been apotheosization of
,st lence. Some one has said silence is 90
&c en-, and sometimes the greatest triumph
10 keep your mouth shut. But sometin
III silence is crime and the direct result
the baleful Influence of the dumb devil
ire our text. There is hardly a man or VIC
M an who has not been present ON some
" casion when the Christian religion
came a target for raillery. Perhaps it v
esS over in the store some day when tn
he was not much going on and the Gle
m, were in group, or it was in the fact
at the noon spell, or it was out on
farm under the trees while you were r,
. ing, or it was in the clubroOm, or it '
. in social circle, Or it was in the stI
on the way home from business, or it y
IL on some occasion which you remem
d without my describing it. Some one
the laugh on the Bible and caricatu
- the profession Of religion as hypocrisy
l. 800, 80 - -or,,sI,sr,cr ~