'A time to keep silence
A time to keep silence
"There is a time to keep silence " Ecclesiastes 3:7
We get from our Master the lesson of silence under injury or wrong . That is what meekness is — not answering back, not contending for one's rights, not striving against injustice, not resisting insult — but quietly submitting and enduring.
Over and over we see Jesus bearing reproaches and injuries in sweet silence. He kept silent about Judas, while the treason was ripening.
He was silent on his trial — reviled, but not reviling in return. On his cross he spoke no word of bitterness or of complaint.
While the nails were being driven into his hands and feet, his only word was a prayer for those who were causing him such anguish.
It is hard to keep quiet when others say bitter or false things to us, or about us, or when we are suffering wrongfully.
But silence is always better than words in such experiences. If we speak at all, when smarting under a sense of personal injury — we are almost sure to say words we would better not have said.
Anger is a kind of temporary insanity . A furious man is a madman. We pity the dumb — but dumbness is safer and better than ungoverned speech which works havoc all about.
Surely it is "a time to keep silence", when we are under the pressure of any sense of wrong or injustice, for if we speak then our words will have a sting in them, and an hour later we shall be sure to regret that we spoke at all.