Amos 6

Hold Your Tongue!

Hold thy tongue. Amos 6:10 (AV).

I am sure you will think I have chosen a very rude text. It is a thing your mother doesn't like to hear you say, so I hope you won't go home and say to her,

“Oh, Mother, the minister told us to hold our tongue. He preached about it. So it must be all right to say it.” Well, the reason why the minister chose this text was not because he thought it was very polite, but because he knew you would remember it. (It's easy to remember a thing you should forget. Isn't it?) And if you remember the text, perhaps you will remember a little bit of the sermon too.

I don't need to explain the meaning of this text. You all know what it means only too well, and sometimes you haven't been at all pleased when you have been told to do it. And yet those who know how and when to hold their tongue have learned something very precious indeed.

Some of the older boys and girls can tell me who Socrates was. They know that he was a Greek philosopher and teacher. Well, one day a talkative young man came to Socrates to learn how to be an orator.

(An orator, you know, is one who speaks in public and has the power to sway vast audiences.) And what do you think Socrates said to this youth? He told him he would have to charge him double fees because he taught him two sciences how to speak, and how to hold his tongue.

Now, there are some people in the world who need to be taught how to speak, but there are a great many more people who need to be taught how to hold their tongue. And if all these people were silent the world would be a very much quieter, as well as a very much happier, place.

There is a proverb which says that “speech is silvern, but silence is golden,” and so I want to talk to you this morning about three of these golden silences.

1. The first golden silence is the discreet silence. Don't be a chatterbox. When people talk much it does not always mean that they are very wise. Don't go running about discussing other people's affairs. If anybody tells you a secret remember that a secret is sacred, and don't go telling it to the next boy or girl you meet. Remember that those who confide in you are trusting to your honor, and if you give away a secret you are giving away something that is not your own. You are doing something that is both mean and dishonorable.

Above all, don't chatter about the secrets of home. Don't tell every other boy and girl what is happening in your family circle. Long ago the white rose was chosen as the emblem of silence, and in the center of the roof of the ancient dining-halls a white rose used to be carved. Why do you think it was put there? It was to remind all those who dined under it that they were to regard as sacred anything that was said or done there, and that they were not to publish abroad what they saw and heard. There is always an invisible white rose over the center of your home, and it tells you that you are not to give away the secrets of home to the world.

2. The second golden silence is the charitable silence. Don't be a slanderer. If you hear another boy or girl being run down, don't join in. I don't know why it gives some people a particular pleasure to pick somebody else to bits, but it does. Well, don't help with the picking. If you can say any good about the victim, say it, but if you can't, then hold your tongue. I know it isn't always easy, especially if you don't like the person whose faults are being discussed; but remember that to speak ill of another in his absence is one of the meanest and shabbiest things, and it does an immense amount of harm in the world.

3. The third golden silence is the silence of self control. Don't be a spitfire.

There is a story told of how a missionary probably saved his life because he knew how to hold his tongue and keep his temper. That man was John Geddie, the first missionary to the New Hebrides. On one occasion the natives, armed with clubs and spears, appeared in front of his house and began pulling the cocoanuts off his trees. Geddie knew that this was a declaration of war. After waiting till the savages had cooled down a little he approached the ringleader of the affair, but the sight of the missionary so enraged this man that he poured forth a torrent of abuse. Geddie listened quietly. He saw that one word from him would enrage the savage still further and would probably cost him his life, so he remained silent. At last after half an hour the man stopped through sheer exhaustion, and Geddie retired master of the situation because he had kept his temper and held his tongue.

If anyone abuses you or says anything unjust or unkind about you, the very best thing you can do is just to hold your tongue. It isn't easy. A wise person has said that “when our house takes fire, the first impulse is to go after a bucket of water. But if temper takes fire the first impulse is to throw on more fuel.” When someone says something nasty to you, the first thing you want to do is to say something nasty back. That is just putting on more fuel. Don't you think it would be a good plan instead to go and look for a bucket of water to put out the fire? Shall I tell you the name of the best bucket? It is silence.

Remember that he who is silent is really the winner, because he has kept his temper. Remember that angry words said in haste are often bitterly regretted. And remember, too, that when you control your tongue and refrain from answering back, you are following in the footsteps of Jesus “who, when he was reviled, reviled not again.”