Page:Opening of the Connecticut Asylum Sermon 1817.djvu/9

 And these are the meditations of an immortal mind—looking through the grates of its prison-house upon objects, on which the rays of revelation shed no light, but all of which are obscured by the shadows of doubt, or shrouded in the darkest gloom of ignorance. And this mind may be set free, may be enabled to expatiate through the boundless fields of intellectual and moral research—may have the cheering doctrines of life and immortality, through Jesus Christ, unfolded to its view; may be led to understand who is the Author of its being; what are its duties to him; how its offences may be pardoned through the blood of the Saviour; how its affections may be purified through the influences of the Spirit; how it may at last gain the victory over death, and triumph over the horrors of the grave. Instead of having the scope of its vision terminated by the narrow horizon of human life, it stretches into the endless expanse of eternity;—instead of looking, with contracted gaze, at the little circle of visible objects, with which it is surrounded, it rises to the majestic contemplation of its own immortal existence, to the sublime conception of an infinite and supreme intelligence, and to the ineffable displays of his goodness in the wonders of redeeming love.

Behold these immortal minds!—Some of them are before you; the pledges, we trust, of multitudes who will be rescued from the thraldom of ignorance: pursue, in imagination, their future progress in time, and in eternity, and say, my hearers, whether I appreciate too highly the blessings, which we wish to be made the instruments of conferring upon the deaf and dumb?

For the means of anticipating these blessings, the deaf and dumb owe much to the liberality of generous individuals in our sister states; whose benevolence is only equalled by the expanded view which they take of the importance of concentrating, at present, the resources of the country in one establishment, that, by the extent of its means, the number of its pupils, and the qualifications of its instructers, it may enjoy the opportunity of maturing a uniform