Speaker 1: Silentness. Be still. The crown of life is silentness. Give
thou a quiet hour to each long day. Too much
of time we spend in profitless and foolish talk. Too
little do we say, if thou wouldst gather words that
shall avail learning a wisdom worthy to express, leave for
a while thy chat and empty tale. Study the golden
speech of silentness, a l salmon. Be still, my soul,
rest Awhile from the feverish activities in which you lose yourself.
Be not afraid to be left alone with yourself for
one short hour. Ernest Crossley. In the words of a
wise man, there is great power, but his silence is
more powerful. Still. The greatest men teach us most effectively
when they are purposely silent. The silent attitude of the
great Man, noted perhaps by one or two of his disciples, only,
is recorded and preserved through the ages, while the obtrusive
words of the merely clever talker, heard perhaps by thousands
and at once popularized, are neglected and forgotten in at
most a few generations. The silence of Jesus, when asked
by Pilate, what is truth? Is the impressive, the awful
silence of profound wisdom. It is pregnant with humility and reproof,
and perpetually rebukes that shallowness, that illustrating the truth that
fools step in where angels fear to tread, would, in
terms of triteness, parcel out the universe, or think to
utter the be all and the end all of the
mystery of things. In some textual formula or theological platitude,
when plied with questions about Brahma God by the argumentative Brahmins,
Buddha remains silent. He taught them better than they knew.
And if by his silence he failed to satisfy the foolish,
he thereby profoundly instructed the wise. Why all this ceaseless
talk about God, with its accompaniment of intolerance, Let men
practice some measure of kindliness and good will, and thereby
acquaint themselves with the simple rudiments of wisdom. Why all
this speculative argument about the nature of God. Let us
first understand somewhat of ourselves. There is no greater mark
of folly and moral immaturity than a reverence. In presumption,
no greater manifestations of wisdom and moral maturity than reverence
and humility. Loutsa in his own life exemplified his teaching
that the wise man teaches without words. Disciples were attracted
to him by the power which ever accompanies a wise reserve,
living in comparatively obscurity and silence, not courting the ear
of men, and never going out to teach, men sought
him out and learned of his wisdom. The silent acts
of the great ones are beacons to the wise, illuminating
their pathway with no uncertain radiance. For he who would
attain to virtue and wisdom must learn not only when
to speak in what to say, but also when to
remain silent and what not to say. The right control
of the tongue is the beginning of wisdom. The right
control of the mind is a consummation of wisdom. By
curbing his tongue, a man gains possession of his mind,
And to have complete possession of one's mind is to
be the master of silence. The fool babbles, gossips, argues,
and bandy's words. He glories in the fact that he
has had the last word and has silenced his opponent.
He exults in his own folly, is ever on the
defensive and wastes his energies and unprofitable channels. He is
like a gardener who continues to dig and plant in
unproductive soil. The wise man avoids idle words, gossip, vain argument,
and self defense. He is content to appear defeated, rejoices
when he is defeated, knowing that having found and removed
another error in himself, he has thereby become wiser. Blest
is he who does not strive for the last word backward.
I see in my own days where I sweated through
fog with linguists and contenders. I have no mockings or arguments.
I witness and wait. Silence under provocation is the mark
of a cultured and sympathetic soul. The thoughtless and unkind
are stirred by every slight provocation, and will lose their
mental balance by even the appearance of a personal encroachment.
The self possession of Jesus is not a miracle. It
is the flower of culture, the diadem of which when
we read of Jesus that he answered never a word,
and of Buddha that he remains silent, we get a
glimpse of the vast power of silence, of the silent
majesty of true greatness. The silent man is the powerful man.
Every mechanic knows that before a force can be utilized
and definitely directed, it must be conserved and stored. And
the wise man is a spiritual mechanic who conserves the
energies of his mind, holds them in masterful obeyance, ready
at any moment to direct them with effective purpose to
the accomplishment of some necessary work. The true strength is
in silentness. It is well said that the dog that
barks does not bite. The grim and rarely broken silence
of the bulldog is the necessary adjunct to that powerfully
concentrated and effectual action for which the animal is known
and feared. This, of course, is a lower form of silentness,
but the principle is the same. The boaster fails, his
mind is diverted from the main purpose, and his energies
are frittered away upon self glorification. His forces are divided
between his task and the reward to himself, the greater
portion going to feed the lust of the reward. He
is like an unskillful general who loses the battle through
dividing his forces instead of concentrating them upon a point
or he is like a careless engineer who leaves open
the waste valve of his engine and allows the steam
to run down. The modest, silent, earnest man succeeds, freed
from vanity and avoiding the dissipation of self glorification. All
his powers are concentrated upon the successful performance of his task.
Even while the other man is talking about his powers,
he is already about his work, and so much nearer
than the other to its completion. It is a law
everywhere and always that energy distributed is subject unto energy conserved.
The noisy and boasting Charles will ever be thrown by
the quiet and modest Orlando. It is a law universally
applicable that quietness is strength. The business man who succeeds
never talks about his plans, methods, and affairs, and should
he turn giddy by success, begin to do this, he
will then commence to fail. The man of great moral
influence never talks about himself and his spiritual victories, for
should he do so, in that moment, his moral power
and influence would be gone, and like Samson, he would
be shorn of his strength. Success worldly or spiritual is
the willing servant of strong, steady, silent, unflinching purpose. The
most powerful disintegrating forces make no noise. The greatly overcoming
mind works silently. If you would be strong, useful, and
self reliant, learn the value and power of silentness. Do
not talk about yourself. The world instinctively knows that the
vain talker is weak and empty, and so it leaves
him to his own vanity. Do not talk about what
you are going to do, but do it, and let
your finished work speak for itself. Do not waste your
forces in criticizing and disparaging the work of others, but
set about to do your own work thoroughly and well.
The worst work, with earnestness and sweetness behind it, is
altogether better than barking at others. While you are disparaging
the work of others, you are neglecting your own. If
others are doing badly, help and instruct them by doing
better yourself. Neither abuse others nor account their abuse of
any weight. When attacked, remains silent. In this way, you
will conquer yourself, and will, without the use of words,
teach others. But the true silence is not merely a
silent tongue. It is a silent mind. To merely hold
one's tongue, and yet to carry about a disturbed and
rankling mind is no remedy for weakness, and no source
of power. Silentness. To be powerful must envelop the whole mind,
must permeate every chamber of the heart. It must be
the silence of peace. To this broad, deep, abiding, silentness,
a man attains only in the measure that he conquers himself.
While passions, temptations, and sorrows disturb the holier, profounder depths
of silence are yet to be sounded. Too smart under
the words and actions of others means that you are
yet weak, uncontrolled, and unpurified. So richer heart of the
disturbing influences of vanity and pride and selfishness, that no
petty spite can reach you, No slam or abuse disturb
your serene repose. As the storm wages ineffectually against a
well built house, while its occupant sits composed and happy
by his fireside within, so no evil can disturb or
harm him who is well fortified with wisdom, self governed,
and silent, he remains at peace within. To this great silence,
the self conquered man attains envy and calumny, and hate
and pain, and that unrests which men miscall delight, can
touch him not nor torture him. Again, there is no
commoner air amongst men than that of supposing that nothing
can be accomplished without much talking and much noise. The busy,
shallow talker regards the quiet thinker or silent doer as
a man wasted. He thinks silentness means doing nothing, and
that hurrying, bustling, and ceaseless talking means doing much. He
also can bound's popularity with power. But the thinker and
doer is the real effectual worker. His work is at
the root and core and substance of things, and as
nature silently, yet with hidden and wondrous alchemy, transmutes the
rude elements of earth and air into tender leaves, beautiful flowers,
delectable fruits, yes, into a myriad form of beauty. Even
so does the silent, purposeful worker transform the ways of
men and the face of the world by the might
and magic of his silently directed energy. He wastes no
time and force in tinkering with the ever changing and
artificial surface of things, but goes to the living, vital
center and works therefrom and thereon and in due season,
perhaps when his perishable form is withdrawn from the world,
the fruits of his obscure but imperishable labors come forth
to gladden the world. But the words of the talker perish.
The world reaps no harvest from the sowing of sound.
He who conserves his mental forces also conserves his physical forces.
The strongly, quiet, calm man lives to a greater age
and in possession of better health than the hurrying, noisy man.
Quiet subdued mental harmony is conducive to physical harmony and health.
The followers of George Fox are to day the healthiest,
longest lived, and most successful portion of the British community.
And they live quiet, unostentatious, purposeful lives, avoiding all worldly
excitements and unnecessary words. They are silent people, all their
meetings being conducted on the principle that silence is power.
Silentness is powerful because it is the outcome of self conquest.
And the more successfully a man governs himself, the more
silent he becomes. As he succeeds in living to to
a purpose and not to the pleasure of self. He
withdraws himself from the outer discords of the world and
reaches to the inward music of peace. And when he
speaks there is purpose and power behind his words, and
when he maintains silence, there is an equal or even
greater power therein. He does not utter that which is
followed by pain and tears, does not do that which
is productive of sorrow and remorse, but saying and doing
those things only which are ripe with thoughtfulness. His conscience
is quiet, in all his days are blessed.