The Silence

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIII, Issue 285, 17 November 1923, Page 12

The Silence

irrom a correspjndent). I read in an English paper that the IWo minues signee on Aunistice Day is a triumph lor the Quakers. Three . niuri s ago these sturdy Christians were roughly handled for their attendance at “silent meetings,” and today when the value of silence is recognised by ritualists, physedogists and the man in the street, it is titling that we should express our thanks to the pioneers who found in the stillness the strength and beauty which enabled them to present to a troubled world serene and happy faces. I say pioneers advisedly- Truths com? and go. and in each age or cen- ■ urc there is need for sturdy men to blaze the trail to the forgotten highways. Carlile says that “Silence is he element in which great things >hioii 'hemselves. at length to ?merge full formed into the daylight of if?.” Speaking generally, we Anglovxon people know but little of the science of silence. Jit is common to hear the remark that the silence at Armistice Day was so intense that it was a relief to hear a chair move; or, —that you could hear a pin drop. Such remarks show that the speakers have no idea of the value of silence. Unless we are taught something of the meaning of individual disciplined quiet, we cannot enter fully into the work of a corporate silence. What good can we do to the world of our present activity, or what help can we be to those who have passed-on if we spend this sacred time 111 waiting for a pin to drop or a •hair to squeak? Rightly used, silence is a time of so great an activity, or, as the result of such activity, a lifting of the consciousness to such a place that no trivial sounds are noticed. Does the lark, throbbing with music in the upper air, notice the individual noises of the earth crawlers? Uur lives are the poorer for the neglect of daily vis its to that land, whose portal is surrounded by a host of little demons v he take delight in distracting the wouldbe enterer. Some friends of mine live a hard life on rather an arid farm, and the wife has made a little oasis in their untidy garden which is a continual source of strength to them. The garden is untidy because the man is busy on the farm and the wife is busv in th ? house. In the centre of it happened to be an oak tree, and the space around was enclosed with a hedge, ard with the aid of water and a little manure the grass is kept fresh and green. It has become part of their religion to keep this cool, delightful "pot carefullv nurtur’d, and no cross word is allowed to lie spoken within its sacred precincts. Protected from th? winds and shaded from the sun ti provides a haven of rest to which th ? iaded worker can retire. The rest of the garden has to be left in the wi’d but there is concentrated the lit*Te time and strength available. Some of ns have even an nnt’dv ga -den in which to place an oasis, but would we not nil he better for som o such place within ourselves whereto we could retire from the heat and burden of the dav. Imagination is not foolishness. Go' 7 inr'erines a world and it is made; and God is our Father.