SERMON V. THE DEAF AND DUMB.


ST MARK VII. 32-37.

And they bring unto Jesus one that was deaf, and had an impediment in
his speech; and they beseech Him to put His hand upon him. And He
took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers into his ears,
and He spit, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, He
sighed, and said, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his
ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he
spake plain. . . . And they were beyond measure astonished, saying, He
hath done all things well: He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the
dumb to speak.

Our greatest living philologer has said, and said truly--"If wonder
arises from ignorance, it is from that conscious ignorance which, if we
look back at the history of most of our sciences, has been the mother of
all human knowledge. Till men began to wonder at the stratification of
rocks, and the fossilization of shells, there was no science of Geology.
Till they began to wonder at the words which were perpetually in their
mouths, there was no science of Language."

He might have added, that till men began to wonder at the organization of
their own bodies, there was no science of healing; that in proportion as
the common fact of health became mysterious and marvellous in their eyes,