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Are such seasons of quietude — of calm and holy anticipation — needful to be observed there — and shall we wonder that they are appointed unto us here? You will observe that to almost all things there are these parentheses. Nature very seldom does her work without a cessation, where all seems lost and dead. A winter always lies between the autumn sowing and the spring-time shooting. There are very few providences which happen to man without delays, which seem as if they had broken their courses. Promises seem very slow of foot in their travel. And it is generally long to our feelings — after the prayer has gone up — before the answer falls. Peace does not always come quickly — even to the strongest faith. And grace does not succeed to grace — nor to joy — in one unbroken series. Life is full of pause. And these prefaces of God's works — these introductions — these heraldings of the great approaches — these subduings of soul — these times to make ready: they are only the reflections of that which St. John saw passing within the veil: "There was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." Let us cultivate the heavenly power of "silence." Let us pray for the angelic gift of "silence." It is what we all want. There are many voices — in continuous stream — speaking in the world; some from within, some from without; voices in the sublime and in the lofty things around us; voices in very common things, and every little passing event; but you do not hear them. Why? There is not "silence" enough in the breast. Be more still. Listen for the whispers of God, and ice whether earth, and heaven, and your own heart also, do net talk sweetly to you all the day, and all the night, about spiritual things! I advise every one — who wishes to be a true worshipper, and to improve his communion with God — to exercise complete "silence." The spiritual life would often be much the better for more of a devout "silence." May it not be that there is, sometimes, more filial love and confidence in the prayer that does not speak, and cannot speak, than in any oral prayer? And there are some seasons which specially invite the piety of "silence." Such a time is those early days of deep sorrow: "I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth." Such a time is the waiting, before we begin some work that God has given us to defer Him — like the wilderness to Moses, or Elijah in Horeb. Such a time is the moment spent with God before we make an answer. Such a time is the few minutes before prayer; or before a service here; or before the Holy Communion. Such a time may be at the gates of glory. For it is a pleasant thing to pass the threshold of eternity "silently." Does not God — for this very reason — make His children go through — one after another — alone?

(J. Vaughan, M. A.)

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KJV: And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

WEB: When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.