安靜的力量

經文: 「你們要安靜，要知道我是上帝。」（詩四十六10，直譯）

        音樂譜中能不能漏去休止符呢？詩篇中能不能漏去「細拉」呢？如果不能的話，人生也不能漏去安靜。世上沒有一件東西能像「安靜」那樣摸著我們的心。

        只有在安靜的時候，我們纔能得到「上帝所賜出人意外的平安」（腓四7）；纔能得到「平靜安穩」（賽卅15）──得力的來源；纔能得到世界所不能給與，不能奪去的安息；纔能聽見上帝微小的聲音。

        在軸上旋轉得最快的車輪，它的中心有一個地方，是一無動靜的；照樣，在我們最忙碌的生活，我們的靈裡仍能頂安靜地與上帝單獨親近的。「耶和華在祂的聖殿中。全地的人，都當在他面前肅敬靜默。」（哈二20）──選

        慈愛的父阿，有時我們在無星之夜行走，四圍全是黑暗；前面既沒有星光，又沒有月光。慘澹的黑暗似乎永遠不會退去了。

        在這樣的沉寂中，祢柔和的微聲安慰了我們流血的心。我們聽見了祢微小的聲音，看見了祢煥發的慈容，我們的生命就新鮮得如同枯萎的花兒飲了雨露一般。──選 

The Power of Silence

Scripture: "Be still, and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10).

        Is there any note of music in all the chorus as mighty as the emphatic pause? Is there any word in all the Psalter more eloquent than that one word, Selah (Pause)? Is there anything more thrilling and awful than the hush that comes before the bursting of the tempest and the strange quiet that seems to fall upon all nature before some preternatural phenomenon or convulsion? Is there anything that can touch our hearts as the power of stillness?

        There is for the heart that will cease from itself, "the peace of God that passeth all understanding," a "quietness and confidence" which is the source of all strength, a sweet peace "which nothing can offend," a deep rest which the world can neither give nor take away. There is in the deepest center of the soul a chamber of peace where God dwells, and where, if we will only enter in and hush every other sound, we can hear His still, small voice.

        There is in the swiftest wheel that revolves upon its axis a place in the very center, where there is no movement at all; and so in the busiest life there may be a place where we dwell alone with God, in eternal stillness, There is only one way to know God. "Be still, and know." "God is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him." --Selected

        "All-loving Father, sometimes we have walked under starless skies that dripped darkness like drenching rain. We despaired of starshine or moonlight or sunrise. The sullen blackness gloomed above us as if it would last forever. And out of the dark there spoke no soothing voice to mend our broken hearts. We would gladly have welcomed some wild thunder peal to break the torturing stillness of that over-brooding night.

        "But Thy winsome whisper of eternal love spoke more sweetly to our bruised and bleeding souls than any winds that breathe across Aeolian harps. It was Thy 'still small voice' that spoke to us. We were listening and we heard. We looked and saw Thy face radiant with the light of love. And when we heard Thy voice and saw Thy face, new life came back to us as life comes back to withered blooms that drink the summer rain."