THE ART OF SILENCE

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 30, 1880

THE ART OF SILENCE.

A CONTEMPORARY says that the art of all others which most needs cultivation is the art of good speaking. We differ. The art of all others which most needs cultivation is the art of silence. There is nothing like the man, or woman, that can keep the month shut. Not that people should always keep the tongue still (it is made for use), but there are times when silence is the best and most effective reply. When a boor speaks roughly, or uncivilly to you, when you are asked an impertinent question, when a sneer is conveyed under cover of an inquiry for information, or when, having appealed to you on a question of taste, your opinion is met with ridicule,—the best answer in these, or like exigencies, is a masterful silence.

Silence bespeaks reserve power, conscious strength, dignity, self-command; and nothing is at times so effective as the silence which springs from contempt. The man or woman who can endure reproach silently, or can keep silent when occasion calls for it, possesses something of that quality we call greatness. So the Master was silent before inquisitive Pilate: “He opened not his mouth;” and amid scoffing, and jeers, and taunts, he kept silence, only broken on the cross to bestow benediction and blessing. There is a time to be silent, as well as to talk, and he does well who keeps closed lips before the babbling of the empty soul. Cultivate the habit of silence, and do not defer it till the time comes when the lips shall nevermore speak, and the busy tongue shall be stilled forever.—Christian at Work.