Deaf and Dumb Preachers - Glenn Conjurske
Deaf and Dumb Preachers
Isaiah 56:10 calls the blind and ignorant watchmen “dumb dogs,” that “cannot bark.” Nearly thirty years ago, I heard J. Vernon McGee comment on this, that in these “dumb dogs” we find the origin of the D.D. degree. This is doubtless more often true than not, but I have a more edifying theme to present to my readers. I speak not of the spiritually deaf and dumb, but of those who are literally so. The God who ordinarily chooses the weak and the foolish and the base and the despised has sometimes chosen even the impotent. The God who ordinarily chooses the improbable sometimes chooses the impossible. The God of Gideon’s army, the God of Samson’s jawbone, the God of David’s sling, the God of the unlearned and ignorant apostles, has sometimes chosen even the deaf and dumb to preach the gospel of Christ—and to preach it effectively, too.
A quarter century’s reading has put in my way a few examples of this, and I pass them on to my readers.
Elder William Creath and myself have been on a long tour, in the midst of these great revivals. … Elder Creath baptized one on this tour who had never spoken a word in his life, being born deaf and dumb: yet Jesus spoke to his soul. He was a noted gamester, and was at his cards; when suddenly he threw them down, arose from the table, and withdrew. His companions went to see what he was about, and found him on his knees, evidently praying to the Lord. Many will doubtless ask how he could tell his experience. Ah! brother, it would have moved an infidel, to see him by signs give such striking representations of Christ.” We heartily wish the writer had given more detail, but such as he gives is precious enough. We note at any rate that the testimony of the dumb man was very moving.
“There is one Isaac Oliver here, whose history, could I write it intelligibly to you, would be very entertaining. He has been deaf and dumb from his birth, and yet I have the utmost reason to believe he is truly gracious, and also acquainted with most of the doctrines, and many of the historical facts of the Bible. I have seen him represent the crucifixion of Christ in such significant signs, that I could not but understand them. Those that live in the house with him can hold conversation with him very readily. There is so much of the devout ardour of his soul discovered at times, as is really affecting, and I have seen him converse in signs about the love and sufferings of Christ, till he has been transported into earnestness, and dissolved in tears.” Again, we are sorry the writer gives no description of the effect of this preaching. We might guess, however, that his devout ardor of soul and his accompanying tears would be of greater effect than articulate words could be without them.
Charlotte Elizabeth raised and taught a deaf and dumb boy. He could not speak at all, but communicated entirely by signs. She gives the following precious account of his preaching. (The reader should note that the deaf boy is referred to in this account as both Jack and John B——–.)
His sublime idea of the ‘red hand‘ was ever present. He had told me some years before that when he had lain a good while in the grave, God would call aloud, ‘Jack!’ and he would start, and say, ‘Yes, me Jack.’ Then he would rise, and see multitudes standing together, and God sitting on a cloud with a very large book in his hand—he called it a ‘Bible book’—and would beckon him to stand before him while he opened the book, and looked at the top of the pages, till he came to the name of John B——–. In that page he told me, God has written all his ‘bads,’ every sin he had ever done; and the page was full. So God would look, and strive to read it, and hold it to the sun for light, but it was all ‘No, no, nothing, none.’ I asked him in some alarm if he had done no bad? He said yes, much bads; but when he first prayed to Jesus Christ he had taken the book out of God’s hand, found that page, and pulling from his palm something which he described as filling up the hole made by the nail, had allowed the wound to bleed a little, passing his hand down the page so that, as he beautifully said, God could see none of Jack’s bads, only Jesus Christ’s blood. Nothing being thus found against him, God would shut the book, and there he would remain standing before him, till the Lord Jesus came, and saying to God, ‘MY Jack,’ would put his arm around him, draw him aside, and bid him stand with the angels till the rest were judged.
All this he told me with the placid but animated look of one who is relating a delightful fact: I stood amazed, for rarely had the plan of a sinner’s ransom, appropriation, and justification been so perspicuously set forth in a pulpit as here it was by a poor deaf and dumb peasant boy, whose broken language was eked out by signs. He often told it to others, always making himself understood, and often have I seen the tears starting from a rough man’s eye as he followed the glowing representation.”
David Marks relates the following:
Having retired from the assembly a small distance, I heard a very singular sound in the barn where they were convened, that excited anxiety and alarm. I returned in haste; and on entering the meeting, saw a young man standing before the assembly in a flood of tears; who, by signs and gestures, was attempting to describe the joys of heaven, and the horrors of hell. The sound of his voice was inarticulate, but varied with his signs to express happiness and misery. The whole assembly was deeply affected; to my astonishment, I found that this young man, though deaf and dumb, had opened his mouth to persuade the wicked from the way to hell. He had lately experienced a hope in God, and related his experience by signs; showing his fears of punishment by looking at the fire, and then pointing downward; and his views of heaven, by touching things that were bright, or of the color of gold, and pointing upward. He desired and received baptism, and became a faithful member of the church. The exercises of the meeting appeared to interest him, as much as anyone; and, though he could neither hear words, nor articulate them, yet he had sounds peculiar to exhortation, prayer, and singing, accompanied by suitable gestures. I understood his public exercises had been blessed to the conversion of several. This was loud preaching, and many said, ‘If the Lord hath opened the mouth of the dumb, it is time for us, who have the use of speech, to confess Christ with the mouth unto salvation.’