A TRUCE TO SPEECH

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 137, 26 June 1937, Page 14

A TRUCE TO SPEECH

Five Year Plans have been the vogue of recent times, in Church as in State. Evidently they are no modern scheme The ancdent historian Plutarch reminds us that the philosopher Pythagoras enjoined upon the young a dve years* silence, his xeason being that a natural consequence of much learning is having much to say. Henc-o the advisability of what he called a "truce to speechi." The conviction seems to have firmly fastened itself upon the minds of meu that they can talk themaelves and other people into the Kiagdom of God. True, the truth must be proclaimed; fellowship is necessary; exchange of ideas and experiences is valuable. But when all that has been said, the most important f&ct still xemains to be stated, that spiritual things are spiritually percedved, and perception is not talk. Buskin forcibly reminds us that for every hundred people who can talk, there is only one who can think. For overy thousand who can think, there is only one who can see. Perhaps that is another reason wliy the way into the Kingdom is by a narrow path, and "few there be that find it." We remember that the word our Lord uees to describe the lot of those who follow the broad path that leads to deetruction also means "waste." If much of the time and energy that aro wasted upon talking over spiritual realities and the problem of life Were expended in communion with God; with absorbing the truth found in His Word; with developing tlie faculty of perception, the present ranks of impoverishod souls wpuld be consaderably thinned out. Men and women would find new accessions of peace and etrength that would give a new balance to their life, and enable- them to adjust themselves to the conditions and ciroumstances oi1 life that iinpose upon them burdens which often seem too heavy to be borne. Moses pleads before God, we remember, his lack of equipment for the task laid upou him of induoing Pharaoh to libefate his people. He has no gift of speech, no powers of persuasive oratory. Which was perhaps as weil for him and for his people. If he had, probably he would never have been chosen for that work, for his temptation might have been to rely upon his powers of utterance rather than upon his dntimacy with God in those loug silences wherein he learned the secret and the power of God. Possibly Saul of Tarsus was never so eloquent as in those early days when he vigorously assailed the Christian faith. A blinding light, three years in the solitudes of Arabda revealed to his soul Some thing concerning God, and taught him lessons of tolerance and sympathy that endless debate would never have brought to him. A truce to speech would be medicine to many a soul, an.l gi've God His long-sought opportunity. Less talk about the frailties and mistakes of our fellows; more reflectiou upon our own lives would develop a patience and generosi'ty %hat would bridge many a gulf and resolve much disoord into harttioxiy aud peace. "Swift to hear, «Jow to speak," as St-. Jaiuea instructs us, is oue of the last lessons we sce»u to learn, in our relations to God and man. For every idle word we must give an account in the judgment, our Lord warus us. Idle talk impovtrishes the soul by unfitting iit for thai exorcise aud attitude of heariug by which it is onriched aud illumiued. "Hushed be the noiee and the strife of the schools; Volume and pamphlet, sermon aud speech. The talk of the wise and the prattlo of fools — Let the Bon of Man teach."