Gold Nugget 172 - Time to Keep Silence

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      The truth of God and the sinful heart are uncongenial.  Men love the darkness and hate the light.  The truth forbidding all lust is actually through the corruption of our nature the occasion of stirring it up.  This, of course, is no reason for withholding it or suppressing our testimony to it.  But there are circumstances and moods in which this tendency attains its maximum of strength, and it will then be prudent to keep silence “even from good.”

      It is as “fishers of men” that we speak the truth, and we must justify our claim to the title by presenting the truth in the time and way in which it is most likely to tell.  If we “testify” at random, and uniformly, in all companies and on all occasions, we shall oftener harm than help the people whom we wish to serve. …

      There is such a thing as “casting pearls before the seine” to no better purpose than the prostitution of sacred things. … To force it on men when they are out of humour and will not give it a fair hearing is only to bring it into contempt – to lessen its dignity in the eyes of others, and diminish its change of winning their acceptance.  The truth is meant to sanctify and save, and we must be careful to do nothing that would place it at a disadvantage in the work. …

      There is room for judgment and discretion in timing and planning the work of winning souls.  The most acceptable service and the most useful we can give to God is our “reasonable service.”  … The characters of the “time to keep silence” deserve attention no less than those of the “time to speak,” and he has mastered both who rightly divides the Word of life.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Amos p. 94, Amos 5:13, (Edgar Henry)

See also:  Romans 7:7-9, Matthew 7:6

 

Gold Nugget 172

Time to Keep Silence

 

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