Silence Is Golden

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 23, 1879

"Silence Is Golden."

It is sweet, warm rain, in silence dropping, That sinks with refreshing power; Not the wind-born storm nor the rising torrent Which breaks the tender flower.

It is the keen, quick lightning, sharp and silent, That splinters, scratches and kills; Not the huge bellowing of the noisy thunder, Echoing among the hills.

It is the still, small voice, whose silent pleading Persuades the deepmost heart; Not the loud speech, the hoarse and vulgar jargon, The rude stentorian art.

The mightier forces in the world around us We never hear nor see; The shallow brooklet, pent among its eddies, Babbles unceasingly.

The stars march on in their eternal courses, Uttering no voice or sound; The rushing meteor flies—explodes in ether, Falls hissing to the ground.

The human soul whose grasp is widest, grandest Of things in heaven and earth, Discovers not its royal truths and treasures In noisy hours of mirth. —Sel.