Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1897-1902, 1901-02-15
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 on those who, by omission
OF the vocal organs, have had the gold
en- gates of speech bolted and barred.
Among those who have never spoken
word are the most gracious and
lovely anG talented souls that were
ever incarnated. The chaplains of the
asylums for the dumb can tell you en-
chanting stories of those who never
called the name of father or 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 the mouth.
What miracle of loveliness and
knowledge was Laura Bridgman of
New Hampshire, not only without fac
ulty of speech, but without hearing
and without sight. all these faculties
removed by sickness when years of
age, yet, becoming wonder at needle
work, at the piano, at the sewing ma
chine and an intelligent student 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
condition Of the deaf and 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
Great Benefactors.
and unsafe. But in the sixteenth CEN
fury came Pedro Ponce, the Spanish
monk, and in the seventeenth century
came John Pablo Bonet, another Span
ish monk, with dactylology, or the
finger alphabet, and in our own cOun-
fury we have had John Braidwood and
Drs. Mitchell and Ackerly and Peet and
Gallaudet, who have given to uncount-
ed 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. One Of
the most impressive audiences 1 ever
addressed was in the far west, an au-
dience Of about 600 persons, who had
never heard sound or spoken a word,
an interpreter standing beside me
while | addressed Them. | congratu-
lated that audience on two advantages
they had over the most of us-the one
that they escaped hearing a great
many disagreeable things and on the
other fact that they escaped saying
things they were sorry for afterward.
Yet after all the alleviations shack
led tongue is an appalling limitation.
But We are not this morning speaking
of congenial mutes. We mean those
who are born with all the faculties OF
vocalization and yet have been 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 OGI OF him."
Silence Sometimes a Cri.,e.
There has been apotheosiz. tion Of
silence. Someone has said silence is
golden, and sometimes the greatest
triumph is to keep your mouth shut.
But sometimes silence Is crime and
the direct result of the balefui Influ-
ence of the dumb devil OK our text.
There is hardly man or woman who
has not been present on some occa-
sion when the Christian religion be-
came target for raillery. Perhaps It