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Show DAY -OF SILENCE - By Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (Editor's Note: The Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, D. D., is pastor of Marble Collegiate Church, 5th Ave., N. Y. C. In a recent sermon I ventured the opinion that what this country needs is to practice the art of silence; that so many people talk too much and as a' result cannot hear themselves think. I threw out the suggestion that as we have become a land of setting aside days for observing this and for celebrating that, it might be well to add one" more a Day of Silence 24 hours during which there would be no newspapers published, no radio programs offered, no speeches made, no politicians saying anything, no remarks from any communists or any of the other "ists," and, yes, not even any sermons preached. This suggesion was made with tongue in cheek for I realized it must sound like a peculiar, even startling statement, state-ment, coming from a minister whose chief stock in trade is popularly considered to be "talk." To my gratified surprise the congregation did not laugh; and further, as the resul of publicity given by the press, letters have come from many people and from many places, most of them commenting favorably upon the idea of a Day of Silence. One man mildly chided me for confining confin-ing it to but one day he said it should be for a month. Beause of this favorable reaction, in the few words permitted to me in this newspaper, I would like to tell the readers thereof, one or two things said in that sermon: Even Jesus found it necessary at intervals to get away from the crush of life, to get away to a quiet place. On one occasion He said to His Apostles: "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while " (St Mark 6:31) But the multitude followed Him, we read, even as I the multitude of our responsibilities follows us today. Yet, out of the creative' silence of that desert place Christ renewed His strength and got enough resources to teed the multitude that pursued Him. "And when He had sent them away He departed into a mountain to pray," we learn in S. Mark 6:46. Regarding the wisdom of frequent periods of silence, we can learn much from our American Indians. At stated intervals those very wise original Americans would go out on the plains to sit alone for twenty-four hours. Here the Indian emptied his mind, so that he Great Spirit could give him some new and fresh idea. One of our greatest troubles today is that we talk too much. So great a din and hue do we raise that God cannot get a word in edgewise. Carlyle truly said: "In silence great things tashion themselves." The streams that turn the ma-ch.nery ma-ch.nery of the world take their rise in silent places. The sunshine sun-shine that brings brings the Sun makes no noise. The mechanism mecha-nism that turns the earth on its axis cannot be heard. Man a ks talks, talks, to no avail. Tor ideas do not find birth in talk but in thought. Yes. the more I think of it, the more convinced I am that real and lasting benefits would accrue to every man woman and child of this nation, if we could have national, Ways ot bilcnce and not at too great intervals. L |