The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1901-02-15
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE sYTHE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject Speak For the eRieht-Diabolioai
Agencies Aetiye-silencs IL Not Cold
en- While There Are Evils - BE Ready
when Christianity f. Assailed.
fcopyriyht islI

fcopyriyh, 1871.
WASHINGTON, ID. C.-In this discourse
DIR. Talmage calls for a more demonstra-
tive religion and hearty speaking out
on the right slde Of everything; text,
Marx tx, %, Thou dumb and deaf spirit,
j charge thee, come out OF hlm
Here vas a case OF great domestic an
guish. The son OF the household was pos
sessed Of an evil spirit, which among other
things paralyzed his tongue and made him
speeches. When the influence was on
the patient he could not saw A word-ar-
ticulation was impossible. The spirit that
captured this member OF the household
was a dumb sprit-so called by Christ--a
spirit abroad to-day and as lively and po-
tent ~ in New Testament times. Yet, in
all the realms OF seTmonolOgy ! cannot
find discourse concerning this devil
which Christ charged upon IN my text,
saving, Come out OF him.
There has been much destructive super
stition abroad in the world concerning
possession Of evil spirits. Under the form
OF belief in witchcraft this delusion swept
the continents. Persons were supposed 10
be possessed with some evil spirit which
made them able to destroy others. In the
sixteenth century IN Geneva 1900 persons
were burned TO death az witches Under
one Judge, IN Lorraine, 900 persons were
burned 10 death as witches. In one neigh
borhoOd of France 1000 persons were
burned. In two centuries 100000 persons
were slain az witches. So mighty was the
delusion that IL included among It's vic
tins some of the greatest intellects of 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 life-and Richard Baxter
and Archbishop Cranmer and Martin
LHyher and among writers and phlloso-
pliers Lord Bacon. That belief which has
become the laughing stock OF all sensible
people counted It's disciples among the
wisest and best people of Sweden, Ger
many, England, France, Spain and New
England. But while we reject witchcraft
any man who believes the Bible must be-
heve that there are diaboical agencies
abroad in the world While there are
ministering spirits TO bless there are in.
fernal spirits to hinder, TO poison and to
destroy. Christ was speaking 10 a spirit
ual existence when standing before the
afflicted one Of the text He said, Thou
dumb and deaf spirit come ont of him"
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 or
gans have had the golden gates of speech
bolted and barred. Among those who
have never spoken a word are the most
=
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 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 a deaf mute have seen with the
angel of intelligence seated at the window
of the eye who never came forth from the
Innr pf tha month What v,,iranlo -
loveliness 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 a wonder at needlework. 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 phe-
nomenon. Thanks to Christianity for
what it has done for the amehoration 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, md )r centuries they
were classed among the idiotic and unsafe
But in the sixteenth century came Pedro
Ponce, the Spanish monk, and in the sew
enteenth century came Juan Pablo Bonet,
another Spanish monk, with dactylologv
or the finger alphabet and in our own
century we have had John Braidwood and
Drs. Mitchell and Ackerly and Peet ard
Gallaudet, who have given TO uncounted
thousands of those whose tongues were
forever silent the power 10 smell out on
the air by a 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
ever addressed was in the Far West. an
audience of about 600 persons. who had
never heard a sound or spoken a word. an
Interpreter standing beside me while
iH1Sressed them. | congratulated that au-
dlence 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 after
ward.
Yet after all the allevations of a
shackled 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 vocahzation
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 out of him
There has been apotheosization of 81.
en-, and sometimes the greatest triumph
is to keep your mouth shut. But some.
times silence is a crime. and the direct
result of the balcful influence OF the dumb
devil of our text There is hardly man
or woman who has not been present on
some occasion when the Christian religion
became a target for raillerv. Perhaps u
was over in the store some day when there
was not much going on and the clerks
were in group. or 1t was in he factory
at the noon spell or II was out on the
farm under the trees while you were rest
ing or IL was in the clubroom. or IL was
IN a social circle, or II wa IN the street on
the way home from business, or IL was on
some occasion which you remember with
out my describing II. Some one got the
laugh on the Bible and caricatured the
profession of religion as hypocrisy or
made n pun out of something that Christ
said. The laugh started. and YOU Joined
in, and not one word of protest did YOU
utter. What KEEP YOU SILENT Modestyg
No. lnCapacitv TO answer No Lack Of
opportunity? No. IL was a blow on both
your lps by the wing of the dumb devil
II some one should malicn your father or
mother or wife or husband or child. YOU
would flush VI quick and either with an
indignant word or doubled up fist make
response. And vet here is our Christian
religion. which has done so much for YOU
ana so muCn TOT the world tnat IL VIII
take all eternity TO celebrate II. and yet
when II was attacked YOU did not so much
rs saw: Il differ. | object. | am sorry to
hear YOU saw that. There is another side
TO this" You Christian people ought in
such times as these go armed. not with
earthly weanons but with the sword OF
the Spirit You ought to have four or five
questions with which YOU could confound
any man who attacks Christianity A man
ntnptN old fgIltna ma how hF
said to the skeptic Did you ever read
the history of Joseph IN the Bibles!
nNns |" sail the man "it ~ a hne sfnrr