| The Every Day of Life |
Chapter 4 |
Page 3 |
In all departments of life it is the quiet forces that affect most. The sunbeams fall all day long, silently, unheard by human ear; yet there is in them a wondrous energy and a great power for blessing and good. Gravitation is a silent force, with no rattle of machinery, no noise of engines, no clanking of chains, and yet it holds all the stars and worlds in their orbits and swings them through space with unvarying precision. The dew falls silently at night when we sleep, and yet it touches every plant and leaf and flower with new life and beauty. It is in the lightening, not in the thunder-peal, that the electric energy resides. Thus even in nature, strength lies in quietness and the mightiest energies work noiselessly.
The same is true also in moral and spiritual things. It is in the calm, quiet life that the truest strength is found. The power that is blessing the world these days comes from the purity, sweetness, and self-denial of gentle mother-love, from the voiceless influence of example in faithful fathers, from the patience and unselfishness of devoted sisters, from the tender beauty of innocent child-life in homes; above all, from the silent cross and the divine Spirit’s breathings of gentle stillness. The agencies that are doing the most to bless the world are the noiseless ones. Moral power seems to hide itself in silent ministries and to shun those that advertise themselves. “The kingdom of heaven cometh not with observation.”
If therefore we would be strong we must learn to be quiet. A noisy talker is always weak, lacking the royal power of control. Quietness in speech is a mark of self-mastery. It is in a Bible word, which says, “If any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect person, able to bridle the whole body also.” The tendency of the grace of Christ in the heart is to soften and refine the whole nature. It makes the very tones of the voice gentler. It curbs boisterousness into quietness. It represses angry feelings, and softens them into gentleness of love. It restrains and subdues resentment, teaching us to return kindness for unkindness, gentleness for rudeness, blessing for cursing, prayer for despiteful usage. “Love suffereth long and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked; beareth all things, believeth all things.”
Page 3