Topics Beginning with "Q"

437 -- QUIETNESS an Element of Strength

     "In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength" (Isa. 30:15). A weak horse, tugging at a heavy load, attempts to move it by jerks and plunges. A strong, well-trained one settles down to it, takes very short steps at first, gets under motion, and then moves off with it. Carlyle says it is "a fundamental mistake to call vehemence and rigidity strength. A man is not strong who takes convulsive fits; though six men can not hold him then. He that can walk under the heaviest weight without staggering, -- he is the strong man. A man who can not hold his peace till the time comes for speaking and acting, is no right man."

     In two ways we gain by quietness. First, we steadily accumulate strength; and then, when expenditure is really called for, we spend it to the best advantage. Many waste in fretful, ill-natured remarks an amount of nervous energy which, if saved, would carry them triumphantly through great trials.