Silence the best answer to many an argument.
"Speech is silvern," it has been said; "but silence is golden." "Answer not a fool according to his folly," says the wise king (Proverbs 26:4)—an injunction no doubt balanced to some extent by the counter-phrase, "Answer a fool according to his folly"—which immediately follows (Proverbs 26:5). into universal rule can be given. "There is a time to speak, and a time to keep silence" (Ecclesiastes 3:7); and the wisdom of the wise is shown in few things more strikingly than in their faculty of discerning the right time for each. But the tendency to err is on the side of speech, and the practical want with most men is to know when they should refrain from uttering the words which rush so readily to their lips; and keep silence, "though it be pain and grief to them" (Psalms 39:2, Prayer-book version). A few suggestions on this point may be serviceable.
I. SILENCE IS TO BE PREFERRED TO SPEECH WHEN THE "FOOL" IS ALONE, AND IS EVIDENTLY AWARE OF THE WORTHLESSNESS OF HIS OWN ARGUMENTS. Great numbers of persons argue merely for the sake of arguing, having no care for truth, and no belief in the validity of their own reasonings. It is a waste of time to argue with such; they have no real convictions, no seriousness; and it is impossible to impress them, however clearly we prove them to be in the wrong.
II. SILENCE IS TO RE PREFERRED TO SPEECH WHEN WE HAVE REASON TO BELIEVE THAT SPEECH ON OUR PART WILL ONLY DRAW FORTH IMPIETY AND BLASPHEMY FROM OUR OPPONENTS. The principle here is that involved in our Lord's injunction: "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine" (Matthew 7:6). The truth is desecrated by being put before persons wholly unfit for it, as avowed infidels and blasphemers. They are provoked by opposition to further sins, which are an offence to God, injurious to themselves, and shocking to others.
III. SILENCE IS TO BE PREFERRED TO SPEECH WHEN WE FEEL OURSELVES ILL EQUIPPED FOR CONTROVERSY, AND KNOW THE GAINSAYER TO BE WELL EQUIPPED. It is difficult to estimate the injury done to the cause of truth by well-meaning persons, of little natural ability and less acquired learning, who attempt to answer the attacks of well-read and clever sceptics. The best cause may be not only injured, but lost, so far as the immediate occasion goes, by the unskilfulness of its advocates. Ordinary unlearned persons should decline to argue with educated unbelievers, and refer them to those skilled defenders of the truth, who have never been lacking in any age, and who are numerous in the present. In a court of justice a man is regarded as a fool who pleads his cause in person against a professional lawyer. He should equally decline to plead the cause of religion against a professional impugner of it.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON