DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON
SUNDAY'S DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject : Speak For the Rlcht— Diabolic*]
Agencies Active—Silence la Not Cold"
en lVhlle There Are Evils Be Ready
IVlien Christianity is Assailed.
[Copyright 1901.1
WASHINGTON, 1). C. —ln this discourse
Dr. Talmage calls for a more demonstra
tive religion and a hearty speaking out
on the right side of everything; text,
Mark ix, 25, "Thou dumb and deaf spirit,
1 charge thee, come out of him."
Here was 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
speechless. When the influence was on
the patient he could not say a word —ar-
ticulation was impossible. The spirit that
captured this member of the household
was a dumb spirit—so called by Christ—a
spirit abroad to-day and as lively and po
tent as in New Testament times. Yet, in
all the realms of sermonoJogy I cannot
find a 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 to
be possessed with some evil spirit which
made them able to destroy others. In the
sixteenth century in Geneva 1500 persons
were burned to death as witches. Under
one judge, in Lorraine. 900 persons were
burned to death as witches. In one neigh
borhood of France 1000 persons were
burned. In two centuries 200.000 persons
were slain as witches. So mighty was the
delusion that it included among its vic
tims 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
Luther, and among writers and philoso
phers Lord Bacon. That belief which has
become the laughing stock of all sensible
people counted its 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
lieve that there are diabolical 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 to a spirit
ual existence when standing before the
afflicted one of the text He said. "Thou
dumb and deaf spirit, come oui of him."
Against this dumb devil of the text I
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 hive had the golden gates of speech
bolted and barred. Among those who
have never spoken a word are the most
cracic is and lovely and talented souls
that were ever incarnated. The chaplains
of the asylums for the dumb can tell yon
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 I seen with the
engel of intelligence seated at the window
of the eye. who never came forth from the
door of the mouth. What a miracle of
loveliness and knowledge was Laura Bridg
man. of New Hampshire, not oi.ly 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 Tiiano, at the sewing machine and an
intelligent student of the Scriptures and
confounding philosophers who came from
all parts of the world to studv the phe
nomenon. 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, and for centuries they
were classed among the idiotic and unsafe.
But in the sixteenth century came Pedro
Ponce, the Spanish monk, and in the sev
enteenth century came Juan Pablo Bonet.
another Spanish monk, with dactylologv.
or the finger alphabet, and in our own
icenturv we have had John Braidwood and
Drs. Mitchell and Ackerlv and Peet and
Gallaudet, who have given to uncounted
thousands of those whose tongues were
forever silent the power to spell out on
the air by a manual alphabet their
thouzhts about this world and their hopes
for the next. We rejoice in the brilliant
inventions in behalf of those who were
borti dumb.
One of the most impressive audiences I
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 I
addressed them. I congratulated that au
dience on two advantages they had over
the most of u.;—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 alleviations of a
jhackled tongue is an appalling limitation,
out we are not this morning speaking of
'ongenial mutes. We mean those who are
'jorn with all the faculties of vocalization
ind yet have been struck by the evil one
•nentioned in the text—the dumb devil
to whom Christ called when He said.
'Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge
:hee, come out of him."
There has been apoth?osizat;on of si
ence. Some one has said silence is gold
n, and sometimes the greatest triumph
s to keep your mouth siiut. But some
imes silence is a crime, and the direct
e»ult of the baleful influence of the dumb
levil of our text. There is hardly a man
>r woman who has not been present on
ome occasion when the Christian religion
lecaine u target for raillery. Perhaps it
vas over in the store some dav when there
■vus not much going on and the clerks
vere in a group, or it was in the factory
it the noon spell, or it was out on the
arm under the tries while you were resi
ns, or it was in the clubroom. or it was
n a social circle, or it w is in the street on
he way home from business, or it was on
ome occasion which you remember with
■uf my describing it. Some one got the
augh on the Bible and caricatured the
>rofe*aion of religion as hypocrisv or
n&rte a nun out of something that Christ
aid The laugh started, and vou joined
n. and not one word of protest did you
tier. What kept you silent? Modes'tv*
»<| Incapacity to answer'' \o. Lack of
pportunitjr? No. It was a blow on both
our lips by the wing of the d umh devil. I
112 some one should malign your father or
.miner or wife or husband "r dnld. you
t'ouid flush up quick and either with an
ndigmmt word or doubled up list make
capons# A |,( l >e< here is our ' hristian
el Won. which has done to much for you
nd soi much for the world that it will
ike all eternity to ctle'.rat.- it.and vet
hen it was attacked you did not so much
s 1 differ 1 object. I ani sorry to
cur you sav that. There i» another aide
j this." You Christian people ought in
uch tunes as these go armed, not with
irthly weapons, but nith the sword of
lie Spirit You ought to have four or tiw i
uesltons with whi'li viu ould coufound
•iv man who attacks Christianity A man
ibety years old was telling me how to
ut to flight 4 scoffer Mv aged friend
■id to the skeptic, • |lid )ou *»er read
n« history of Joseph in the Hible* '
• «s." «aid the man."it la a line stun j
»d as interesting i atory aa I aver read
Well, now," said luv old friend, '"»ui>
»e that account of .losaph stopped half
*»'•" "Oh," aaid the man "then It
l,4<b ttal b. UltuUUlitiS. ' "WW liu*
said my friend, "we have in this world
only half of everything,, and do you not
think that when we near the last half
things may be consistent and that then
we mav find that God was right?"
Oh, "friends, better load up with a few
interrogation points. You cannot afford to
be silent when God and the Bible and the
things of eternity are assailed. Your si
lence gives consent to the bombardment
of vour Father's house. You allow a slur
to be cast on your mother's dying pillow.
In behalf of the Christ, who for you went
through the agonies of assassination on
the rocky bluff back of Jerusalem, you
dared not face a sickly joke. Better load
up with a few questions, so that next time
you will be ready. Say to the scoffer,
"My dear sir, will you tell me what makes
the difference between the conditions of
woman in China and the United States?
What do vou think of the sermon on the
mount? flow do you like the golden rule
laid down in the Scriptures? Are you in
favor of the Ten Commandments? In
your large and extensive reading have you
come across a lovelier character than Jesus
Christ? Will vou please to name the
triu-nphant deatnbeds of infidels and athe
ists ."
"How do you account for the fact that
among the out-and-out believers in Chris
tianity were such persons as Benjamin
Franklin, John Ruskin, Thomas Carlyle,
Babington Macaulav William I'enn, Wal
ter Scott, Charles Ringsley. Horace Bush
nell, James A. Garfield. Robert E. Lee,
Stonewall Jackson. Admiral Foote, Ad
m ral Farrapit, Ulysses S. Grant, John
Milton, William Siiakespeare, Chief Jus
tice Marshall. John Adams, Daniel Webs
ter, George Washington? How do you
account for their fondness for the Chris
tian religion?
"Among the innumerable colleges and
universities of the earth will you name me
three started by infidels and now sup
ported by infidels? Down in your heart
are you really happy in the position you
occupy antagonistic to the Christian reli
gion .'
Go at him with a few such nnestions,
and he wiil get so red in the face as to
suggest apoplexy, and he will look at his
I watch and say he has an engagement and
must go. You will put him in a sweat
that will beat a Turkish bath. You will
put him on a rout compared with which
our troops at Bull Run made no time at
all.
Arm yourself, not with argumente, but
interrogation points, and I promise you
victory. Shall such a man as you, shall
such a woman as you. surrender to one of
the meanest spirits that ever smoked up
from the pit—the dumb devil spoken of in
the text?
But then there are occasions when this
particular spirit thrt Christ exorcised
when He said, "I charge thee to come out
of him" takes people by the wholesale.
In the most responsive religipus audience
have you noticed how many people never
sing at all? They have a book, and they
have a voice, and they know how to read.
They know many of the tunes and yet are
silent while the great raptures of music
pass by. Among those who sing not one
out of a huhdred sings loud enough to
hear hi 9 own voice. They hum it. They
give a sort of religious grunt. They make
the lips go, but it is inaudible. With
a voice strong enough to stop a street car
one block away, all they can afford in the
praise of God is about half a whisper.
With enough sopranos, enough altos,
enough bassos to make a small heaven be- I
tween the four walls, they let the oppor- i
tunity go by unimproved." The volume of !
voice tnat ascends from thi largest au
dience that ever assembled ought to Vie
multiplied two thousandfold. But the
minister rises and gives out the hymn, the
organ begins, the choir or preceptor leads,
the audience are standing so that the
lungs may have full expansion, and a
mighty harmony is about to ascend when
the evil spirit spoken of in my text—the
dumb devil—spreads hi 3 two "wings over
the lins of one-half the audience, and the
otuer wing over the lips of the other half
of the audience, and the voices roll back
into the throats from which they started,
and only here and there anything 19
heard, and nine-tenths of the holv power
is destroyed, and the dumb devil, as he
flies awav, say 3, "I could not keep Isaac
Watts from writing that hymn, and I
could not keep Lowell Mason from com
posing the tune to which it is set. but I
smote into silence or half silence the lips
from which it would have spread abroad
to bless neighborhoods ana cities and
then mount the wide open heavens." Give
the long meter doxology the full support
of Chr3tcndom and those four lines would
take the whole earth for God.
This is the way I account for the fact
that the stupidest places on earth are
some prayer meetings. I do not 6ee how
a man keeps any grace if he regularly at
tends them. Thtv are spiritual refrigera
tors. Religion kept 011 ice. How many of
us have lost occasions of usefulness!
In a sculptor s studio stood a figure of
the god Opportunity. The sculptor had
made the hair fall down over the face of
the statue so as to completely cover it,
and there were wings to the feet. When
asked why he so represented Opportunity
the sculptor answered, "The face of the
statue is thus covered up because we do
not recognize Opportunity when it comes,
and the wings 01 the feet show that Op
portunity is swiftly gone."
But do not let the world deride the
( church because of all this, for the dumb
devil is just as conspicuous in the world,
i he great political parties assemble at the
proper time to lnuld platforms for the
candidates to stand on. A committee of
each party is appointed to make the plat
form. After proper deliberation the com
mittees come iri with a ringing report,
"whereas ' and "whereas" and "whereas."
l'ronunciamentos all shaped with the one
idea of getting the most votes. All ex
pression in regurd to the great moral evils
tne country ignored. No expression in
behalf 01 temperate living, for that would
lose the vote of the liquor traffic. No ex
pression in regard to the universal attempt
at the demolition of the Lord's day. No
recognition of God in the history of na
tions, for that would lose the vote of
atheists. But "whereas" and "whereas"
and 'whereas " Nine eheeis will be given
for the p.atiorm. The dumb devil of the
text puts one wing over the one platform
and the other wing over the other plat
form. I hone great conventions ar*- opened
w > P. ra )'* r by their chaplains. It thev
avoided platitudes and told the honest
'•/it "J prayers they would say:
<• Lord, we want to be postmasters and
consuis anu foreign ministers and United
States district attorneys. For that we are
here and tor that we will strive till the
< lection next November. Give us office or
we die. Forever and ever. Amen "
The world, to say the least, is no bet
ter than the church on this subject of si
lence at the wrong tune. In other words,
it it not time for Christianity to become
pronounced and aggressive as never be
fore.' lake sides for God and sobriety
and righteousness.
11. V A T follow Him; if
final, then follow him." Have vou oppor
tunity of rebuking a sin? Ileluikv it.
Have you a chance to cheer a disheartened
soul ( liver it Have you a useful word
tospeak' fireak it
He our and out, up and down for right
eousness It you, »h.|. 1. aHoal on the
I acitic Oeean of (Jod's mercy, hang out
vour colors iront the mastheadr s*how vour
passport if vou have on* Ifci not smug
gle your soul into the harbor of heave"
Sueak out for Cod' Close up the chapter
ot lost opportunities, and open a new
■ hapter. Before you <r t to the do 4 ron
voui way out shake hands with some one.
and ask nim lo join you on the road to
Ilea sell Do not drive Up to heaven in a
-Wo wheeled sulky with rootu only for
one. and that yourself, but «et the big
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