Working among the Silent

Working Among the Silent.

The old home missionary was a 1·omantic figure. The1·e was something truly heroic about his ventu1·ing into unknown and untried regions, carrying the good news of the Gospel to places where it bac1 never been heard. Ile was a pioneer in the fullest sense and often had most exciting experiences.

But the old kind of home missionary passed away with the settling of the country. Our home missionaries of to-day, while still finding t11eir fores :filled with rich experiences, have more or less circumscribed areas in which they work, and there is but little "roughing it" in the daily routine of most of them.

However, there is one missionary who still gets bis good share of traveling in our day. 1'bis is the missionary working among the deaf. The Lutheran Missouri Synod has nineteen ministers thus employed in this country and Canada. One of these mi sionaries has a field extending from Duluth, Minn., to Calgary, .Alberta, Canada, a distance of •over a thousand miles. Another one of these mis:Sionaries serves people in Washington, D. C., Ohio, 'Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia. Another, to mention only one more, preaches in Missouri, .Kansas, and Oklahoma.

Most people do not realize that there are about 80,000 deaf-mutes in our country. In a city of a hundred thousand persons you would probably find about sixty to seventy deaf-mutes. In 0l!r larger industrial centers there are hundreds of people unable to hear and speak. These hundreds and thousands derive no benefit from the many ordinary church services held every Sunday for men and women able to hear. The sermons and hymns which may inspire you who can hear, bring no instruction and solace to those who sit in unending deepest silence. . Here the missionary to the deaf-mutes step~ in

to help. He travels from city to city, holds services,

and ministers to the deaf wherever he finds them. There is something singularly touching about these silent services. Though not a word is spoken by the preacher, you can see the play of emotion on the faces of his "hear~rs," - rather, spectators. Though not a sound is heard, yet these deaf-mutes ~'sing" our hymns in the sign-language.

The coming of the missionary is always quite an e,vent in the lives of the silent men and -women to whose wants he ministers. Many of them will come for miles to attend the services. These services also give the deaf-mutes an opportunity to satisfy their social wants, which can only partially be satisfied by their association with those who hear. In a measure the deaf, though surrounded by men a.nd women, live in a wol'ld of their own; they are isolated though living among thousands of their fellow-men. For this reason they welcome the opportunity to meet with their own kind and come many miles both to. these services and to the small social gatherings which often take place after the services.

It may seem strange to some of our readers, but yet it is true, that many of the deaf, though living in this so-called Clnistian country, have never heard of Christ, their Red~emer. Deaf children, just because they are deaf, are· not taken to church

Chapel and Parsonage -of Deaf-Mute Congregation at Minneapolis, Minn.

as hearing children ue, .and even if they were, they would there and in an ordinary religious instruction period ha,•e no opportunity to receive Christian instruction. Then, too, the parents are not in a position to impart this knowledge to them. The result can only be great or total ignorance of the life-giving truth of the Gospel. Our missionaries to the deaf tell us that they are often the first to bring the tidings of the world's redemption through Christ to the members pf their missions.

It seems strange that parents of deaf children · should not try to lea-rn the sign-language in order that they might converse with their ehildren; but experience shows that ·very few parents take that trouble. In many instances the deaf child has no one to associate with in or out of the home, except in those rare instances when it meets other deaf children. Our missionaries do a good work in urg-

ing parents of deaf children to send their children to schools where they may learn the sign-language and in encouraging parents also to learn it.

Upon the whole, deaf children are as bright as other children. Just because they cannot hear, other senses, such as the senses of sight and touch, are very highly developed. This fact makes deaf people very desirable workmen where acute and delicate touch or sharp sight is required. Because they cannot hear, deaf people are probably more careful than others, and for this reason there are fewer accidents among them than there are among hearregularly. But for all that, the work among the deaf is by no means in vain. Our workers amongthem find that, once they get a deaf person interested in church, he becomes very regular and loyal .. Particularly do the deaf seem to appreciate it that our ,vorkers, while hearing persons themselves, have· taken the trouble to learn their language to bring· them the Gospel-message.

When the writer was a boy, he learned the sign-• alphabet, though he never gained great proficiency· in it, owing to the fact that the only deaf person who. had lived in our neighborhood moved away,. which left him no one to "talk'' with. Talking by means of the alphabet is a very laborious task. If our missionaries to the deaf were to communicate their Gospel-message to their spectators by spellingout the words with the sign-alphabet, the message would have to be very short, and even at that their ''hearers" . would soon grow tired.

Instead of this slow spelling out of words the· missionaries use a sign-language which originated in France about the middle of the eighteenth century and was brought to this country early in the last century by a certain Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet. By means of this language the missionary to the deaf can communicate his message of salvation quite rapidly to his ''hearers." They use no articles and prepositions in this sign-language, and even tense is very often not indicated. "I shall write a letter to mother this afternoon," would be stated thus in

Chapel of Deaf-Mute Congregation at Milwaukee, Wis.

, the sign-language, "I write letter mother afternoon.'"

AJid if the deaf-mute should impart this information after writing the letter to his mother, he would use the same signs. This "speaking" of the deaf by means of signs and pictures representing persons, objects, and actions, when translated .into ordinary speech, sounds singularly abrupt.

ing people. Speaking of the cleverness of deafmutes, let us not forget that among them are to be found graduates of higher schools. Some of them become expert stenographers, others do fine work with the pen and brush, and still others become expert mechanics. In our !fOuth we knew a deafmute who had charge of the most delicate machine in a large sliop in Indianapolis.

Because most deaf grow up without church associations, it is quite hard for .them to acquire the churchgoing habit in later life. From the testimony of our missionaries we draw the conclusion that probably no more than one out of ten deaf in our larger cities can be persuaded to att~nd church

Bible-passages, as a rule, cannot be quoted to the deaf just as they are written. John 3, 16 would probably be made to read thus: "God loved world, gave Son, only one, all believe, not perish, have life never-ending." So also the Bible-stories must be told in the language of signs and pictures. The face and hands and actions of the whole body must help to form much of this sign-language.

The "singing" of a deaf-mute congregation is bound to make a deep impression on any person who "listens in." The pastor repeats the song in the sign-language, and the deaf-mutes follow each line of _ the hymn by making the same signs. The deaf greatly enjoy "singing," as can plainly be seen by the intentness with which they follow the pastor in his ''lining out'' of the hymns.