Peacemaking Requires A Watchful And Charitable Silence

Rom 14:19  Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.

One of the first things that makes for social peace is a watchful and a charitable silence.

No man or woman can ever be a peacemaker who has not learned to put a bridle on his lips.

Every student of Christ must have observed the tremendous emphasis He puts on words.
 
Of every idle word, He tells us, in the day of judgment we are to give account.

And if you want to understand aright the passion and the depth of that, you will remember the beatitude, "Blessed are the peacemakers."

Think of the infinite harm that can be wrought by a malicious or a thoughtless tongue;

Think of the countless hearts it lacerates; think of the happy friendships which it chills.

And sometimes there is not even malice in it- only the foolish desire to be speaking...

For evil is wrought by want of thought as well as want of heart.

There is no more difficult task in life than to repeat exactly what someone else has said.

Alter the playful tone, you alter everything.

Subtract the smile, and you subtract the spirit.

And yet how often do we all repeat things that are almost incapable of repetition and so give pain that never was intended.

You can say good-bye in such a tone that it will carry the breaking of a heart.

You can say it in such a tone that it is a dismissal of contempt.

And yet how seldom do we think of tone, of voice, of eye, of smile, of personality when we pass on the word which we have heard.

There are times that call for all outspokenness.

No man ever denounced like Christ. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees." "Go, tell that fox."

All that I know, and yet the fact remains that as we move along life's common ways, one of the mightiest things that makes for social peace is a wise and charitable silence.

Not to believe everything we hear...

Not to repeat everything we hear...

Or else believing it to bury it unless we are called by conscience to proclaim it.

That is a thing that makes for social peace...
 
A thing within our power today...

And it may be along that silent road lies our "Blessed are the peacemakers."

~George H. Morrison~