Annotated and Abridged Artifact
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Sermon, On The Duties And Advantages Of Affording Instruction To The Deaf And Dumb
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| 13 | Who are the heathen? I direct your observation nearer home. I point you to thousands within your own country, and villages, and towns, and cities, who have grown up, in this favored land, without any correct knowledge of the God who made them; of the Saviour who died to redeem all who trust in Him; of the Spirit which is given to sanctify the of the Book of Eternal Life, which unfold to us all that can alarm our fears or animate our hopes with regard to a future world. -- These are some of the heathen. [1 »] | |
| 21 | Do you enquire if the Deaf and Dumb truly deserve to be ranked among the heathen? With regard to their vices they surely do not; for a kind Providence, who always tempers the wind to the shorn lambs of the flock, has given to the condition of these unfortunates many benefits. Possessing indeed the general traits of our common fallen nature, and subject to the same irregular propensities and desires which mark the depraved character of man, they have, nevertheless, been defended, by the very imprisonment of their minds, against much of the contagion of bad example; against the scandal, the abuse, the falsehood, the profanity, and the blasphemy, which their ears cannot hear nor their tongues utter. Cruel is that hand which would lead them into the paths of sin; base, beyond description, that wretch who would seduce them, by his guileful arts, into the haunts of guilt and ruin. Thus, they have been kept, by the restraining grace of God, from much of the evil that is in the world. [2 »] | |
Annotations
1. Within the United States, “this favored land,” missionary efforts included the revivals, both urban and rural, of the Second Great Awakening. Social reformers of all sorts, modeling themselves on the evangelists, would seek to “convert” Americans to new ways of thinking and behaving.
2. During the Second Great Awakening, people with disabilities were frequently viewed as somehow purer -- and often childlike and dependent -- through their afflictions.
