THE STILL SMALL VOICE 
grinding up the rocks everywhere — pulverizing the 
granite, the limestone, the sandstone, the basalt, 
between the upper and nether millstones of air and 
water to make the soil, but we hear no sound and 
mark no change; only in geologic time are the results 
recorded. In still waters we get the rich deposits 
that add to the fat of the land, and in peaceful, un- 
troubled times is humanity enriched, and the foun- 
dations are laid upon which the permanent institu- 
tions of a nation are built. 
We all know what can be said in favor of turmoil, 
agitation, war; we all know, as Goethe said, that a 
man comes to know himself, not in thought, but in 
action; and the same is true of a nation. Equally do 
we know the value of repose, and the slow, silent 
activities both in the soul of man and in the proc- 
esses of nature. The most potent and beneficent 
forces are stillest. The strength of a sentence is not 
in its adjectives, but in its verbs and nouns, and the 
strength of men and of nations is in their calm, sane, 
meditative moments. In a time of noise and hurry 
and materialism like ours, the gospel of the still 
small voice is always seasonable. 
