80 



THE REV. A. H. FTNTs ON 



as when " all the multitude kept silence " to hear Paul and 

 Barnabas (Acts xv, 12) or when " there was made a great silence " 

 in the hostile crowd at the foot of the castle-stairs (Acts xxi, 40). 

 This again deepens into the hush of awe and reverence, as in Hab. 

 ii, 20, " The Lord is in His Holy Temple ; let all the earth keep 

 silence before Him " ; in Isai. xli, 1, " Keep silence before Me, 0 

 islands " ; in Ps. Ixv, 1, " Praise is silent for Thee, 0 God, in 

 Zion " ; and in Eev. viii, 1, " There was silence in heaven." 



All these motives for keeping silence may be said to combine 

 in those silences of Scripture which are not due to the omission 

 of the unnecessary, but to reserve. Some things are left untold 

 which we might well desire to know, and might even deem to be 

 helpful. The Lord appeared to Simon on the Resurrection 

 day (St. Luke xxiv, 34), and to James at some later period 

 (1 Cor. XV. 7) ; what intense interest would attach to some 

 accoimt of those inter^dews, yet only the bare fact is mentioned 

 and no details are given. Must that not be because what then 

 passed was of too intimate and personal a nature to be made 

 public ? Is not that also the reason for our Lord's own silence 

 on the Cross during the three hours of darkness ? The thoughts 

 that then occupied Him, the conflict He then waged were 

 matters too sacred and too high to be divulged. AMiere was the 

 Master and what was He doing during the week that followed 

 the Resurrection, and in the interval between the appearance 

 to Thomas and that at the Sea of Tiberias ? 



There are, too, subjects concerning which we are expressly 

 told that knowledge is pui*posely withheld from us, as for 

 instance, " It is not for you to Imow times or seasons, which 

 the Father hath set within His own authority" (Acts i, 7). 

 So Daniel, when he would know the issue of these things, was 

 bidden to go his way, " for the words are shut up and sealed 

 till the time of the end " (Dan. xii, 9). St. Paul tells us of the 

 man who was " caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable 

 words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter " (2 Cor. xii, 4). 

 AMien the seven thunders had uttered their voices, St. John is 

 commanded to " Seal up those things which the seven thunders 

 uttered, and write them not " (Rev. x, 4). 



On some great subjects we have only been vouchsafed 

 very partial enlightenment, such as the being and activities of 

 angels, both of light and darkness ; the Kfe between death and 

 resurrection ; the nature of the resurrection body, and the 

 tremendous events which are to usher in the end of the age. There 



