“All of this proves to us that what we see doesn’t depend upon our eyesight, but upon the mind which is back of the eyesight and which receives the impressions not only through the eyes but through the senses of hearing, tasting, smelling and feeling.  In fact, our eyes and our ears may be tightly closed—­we may be totally deaf and blind—­and still we may be able to ‘see’ things more clearly than we might with our eyesight and our hearing.

“We have all heard about Helen Keller, the deaf and blind girl.  I will draw an outline of her portrait. [Draw Fig. 124, with eye closed, complete.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 124]

“This young woman has been deprived of her eyesight and hearing ever since she was a young child, and yet her ability to learn, to comprehend, to understand, to really ‘see,’ is developed to such a high degree that she is advanced far beyond most well-educated people who possess all of their natural faculties.

“Helen Keller, now grown to womanhood, has written many wonderful things.  Here is one of them:  ’It does not matter where we are, so long as we have light in our hearts and make our dark ways ring with the music of burdens cheerfully borne and tasks bravely filled.  They say life is a closed book to me.  One critic doubted that I could feel the sun, and I believe he thought others felt it for me.  But if, indeed, I had so little share as that in the life of others, it would still be true that

      “’The least flower with brimming cup may stand
        And share its dewdrops with another near.’

“Truly, the eyes of Helen Keller are widely opened to the great truths and wonderful beauties around her—­[change lines of the eye slightly, completing Fig. 125]—­whereas, the eyes of many of us which are supposed to be wide open, are indeed closed to many of God’s blessings.  Many of us have eyes to see with, but we use them only to look with.  Helen Keller has seen more and done more without eyes than thousands who have perfect eyes, but have never learned to use them.

[Illustration:  Fig. 125]

“Helen Keller should be an inspiration to every girl here today.  Learn from her life the great principles of true living.

“Let us first ask the question, ’How did she reach the high place to which she has been able to attain?’ She must have had help.  Yes, she did have help.  It came chiefly through a dear friend, Miss Sullivan, who, through patient years, sent the light into the darkness which enveloped the poor deaf and blind girl.  And listen: 

“Never, during those years of patient endeavor, did Miss Sullivan allow Helen Keller to receive a wrong impression of things about her.

“Stop a moment and think what all that means!  Nothing came into the life of the girl but clear, certain truth.  The false, the unlovely, the hideous, the deceitful, the unreal, never came in to distort her view while she was a child, and so, when she later learned of the sadder side of life, through her extensive reading, she was well prepared to sympathize with those whose youth was not so well favored as her own.  Let us be careful in helping to shape the lives of the children, never to leave with them a wrong impression which may require a lifetime to remove from their minds.