special celebrations of the
Holy Communion are held for their benefit. To the ordinary attendants,
including even such as have little need of an interpreter to explain the
subject or to help them to follow the services in church, the committee
report, "these services and lectures are profitable." "I have felt it a
great privilege to attend the services," said one, "which have been a
great comfort and benefit to me, and I hope I shall remember what I have
heard" (it is to be presumed, by "heard," the writer means what he saw:
his language is conventional). "After I left school I felt so lost I
could not hear what was said in churches, and now I am very happy in
attending them." In another way, also, the religious condition of these
afflicted ones is kept in view. The Society employs missionaries engaged
in house-to-house visitation. By these missionary agents, acting in
concert with the parochial clergy, a personal acquaintance is maintained
with the deaf and dumb scattered over London, and a most marked
improvement in their character, conduct, and intelligence is the result
of the supervision exercised. The society is also engaged in promoting
the erection of a church for the deaf and dumb. For this purpose 550_l._
have already been subscribed. In the Old Kent Road there is a Deaf and
Dumb Asylum, and in other parts of the metropolis there are societies for
their special benefit. Of course no mere outsider can give an account of
a service with the deaf and dumb. It is easy to realize songs without
words, but not so easy to realize public prayer and preaching in which no
audible sound is heard, in which the service is conducted as it were by
pantomime. As much as possible the rubric is observed, the deaf and dumb
obey the instructions of the Prayer-book, and stand where standing is
prescribed, and "sign" the response to the Lord's Prayer, Creed,
Confession, &c. As to the sermon, all that can be said is that it comes
up to the Demosthenic standard for eloquence--action, action, action.
Among the deaf and dumb the best preacher must be the best actor. Not
merely are the fingers in constant requisition, but every part of the
preacher's face, as much as possible, is speaking all the time, either in
the way of exhortation or entreaty. Great use, as we may imagine, is
also made of the arms, and the body sways backward and forward as if to
lend expression to such ideas as it may be the design of the teacher to
conv