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The beauty, power, and scope of the language of signs, and its inestimable value to the deaf-mute, are nowhere so distinctly seen as in the worship and other services of the Sabbath. We are free to express the belief, that in producing an immediate and strong impression; and in stirring the emotions of the human soul, this language, perfected as it now is by science and skill has vastly more power than any oral language ever constructed by human ingenuity; and for this reason: -- it has more direct access to the heart. The ideas suggested by the sounds of words, or by their written characters, are generally associated with them by a law which is entirely arbitrary. There is usually no connection whatever between the sound of a word and its meaning. Even in the small class of words in which the sound seems to give some clue to the signification of the word, the association is rather from a habit of thought than from any real similarity. A word which, to a cultivated mind comes clustering with beautiful images, and wakes up in his soul thoughts of the spiritual and true, brings no such treasures to the mind of an illiterate man, although he may have a correct understanding of its common import. The case is widely different in signs. This difference is readily seen in the large class which are used to express emotion. The head bowing in adoration, the eye sparkling with joy, the countenance beaming with hope, the arms clasping to the heart the object of affection, the hands lifted in wonder or extended in desire, the whole person shrinking in fear, is language that can reach the seats of feeling in the soul, either in savage or in civilized life, far more directly than any combination of words or sounds of the human voice. The events in the life of our Saviour, his meekness under the taunts of his enemies, and his agony in the garden and upon the cross, when depicted in simple and graphic signs by the hand of a master, call up emotions that words labor in vain to excite. Many signs that are not strictly natural are so nearly so that they express the ideas for which they are used with a charm which words can never convey. But although many of the signs used in an ordinary religious service are conventional, or natural signs so modified as not to be recognized by a person who is unacquainted with the language, it must be recollected that even these are well understood by the greater part of a deaf-mute audience. And there is something exceedingly striking and impressive in the use of this language in a religious service. The mind seems to come into more direct communion with God, and to deal with the realities rather than with the symbols and images of truth.

We have spoken of the deplorable ignorance of deaf-mutes of moral truth previous to instruction. We had designed to present some facts with regard to the number of this class of persons in our country, of a suitable age to receive instruction, who are living, and will probably be left to die, in this ignorance; but our limits will allow only an allusion to the subject. It is a sad fact that there are many such eases in this Christian land, and even in the most enlightened and favored parts of it. Instances have occurred where children within ten miles of the institution have been utterly denied the precious boon of education, although every obstacle had been removed, excepting the simple unwillingness of the parents. Indeed, since institutions for the deaf and dumb have been established in this country, the difficulty of bringing these persons within the reach of instruction has not been so much to obtain the pecuniary means for defraying the entire expense, as to induce their friends to part with them for this purpose! In some cases this unwillingness arises from the excessive tenderness which clings the more closely to the child on account of his misfortune. In others, it arises from ignorance of his present destitution. Persons of limited education are not apt to appreciate the value of a good education to their children, and least of all to realize the deep darkness that veils the mind of the uneducated deaf-mute. But in other cases still, and these unhappily are not few, it must be distinctly said that this unwillingness arises from a motive far more dishonorable to human nature than those just mentioned: the desire of the child's assistance, and a preference of this to its own present and eternal good. It not unfrequently happens that when this reason does not entirely keep a child from the institution, it materially shortens the time of his stay, so as sadly to affect his usefulness and happiness, and, the degree in which he is restored to society. How contemptible such a motive is, how cruel its operation upon the child, and the weight of responsibility it must roll upon the parent who acts under its influence, we need not say.

Upon no class of society has the humane and Christ-like spirit, which at the present day is going forth to relieve every form of human suffering, shone more kindly than upon the deaf-mute. Of all the children of misfortune, his case has, till a somewhat recent period, been the most pitiable. But he is no longer doomed to so cheerless and hopeless a destiny. The liberality of most of the States of the Union, and the active benevolence of individuals, make the want of pecuniary means no obstacle in the way of bestowing upon every deaf-mute of suitable age in our country a good education. It remains for his family friends, and for those who feel an interest in his welfare to see that no other obstacle shall deprive him of a blessing so indispensable to his well-being as an immortal and accountable creature of God.