From a restless tongue comes a sharp, raised, loud
voice. The Bible gives us an example of calm speech in the
conversation between God and the Prophet Elijah: "and a great
and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in
pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind;
and after the wind an earthquake, ... and after the earthquake
a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a
still small voice. .. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said,
"What are you doing here, Elijah?" (1 Kin. 19:11:13) , and this
was God's voice speaking to him.
The calm person speaks in a quiet voice like a passing breeze,
but the restless person speaks with a voice like a gusty wind.
There are preachers who, even in a sermon, preach with a high,
sharp voice and reprove the congregation harshly. What was
said about the public speakers of old applies to them, that they
'shook the columns of the pulpits' and had their listeners sitting
on the edge of their seats. Such methods of preaching tends to
upset the people instead of having spiritual effects.
The spiritual preacher convinces the congregation through calm
spiritual teaching and through the action of the Spirit in him and
in them, kindling them with God's love through the effectiveness
of the Spirit, and not the agitation of the bodily senses. Many
people are affected during the sermon by a preacher who
himself is over-excited. But after a while they
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lose this effect. On the other hand, calm spiritual persuasion
has a more permanent and has a greater effect within the soul.
Although a loud voice has to be used sometimes in the middle
of a crowd of people so that they can hear, there is no need at
all to use it in private conversations! The calm person does not
raise his voice when he is talking with others. He does not use
a voice that is louder than his listener requires. Thus in his
discussions there is no noisiness. Is it not sometimes the case
that when some people are holding a discussion, they raise their
vices and interrupt, so that those who hear think that they are
quarrelling?! Yes, to be sure, there are some people who shout
when they talk and shriek when they whisper. They talk rapidly
and their voices are noisy.
3.
Among the outward signs of a voice that lacks
calmness there is also the tendency to use hurtful, harsh
words. There may be a person, for example, whose speech is
harsh and difficult, whose words are bitter, hurtful, critical,
biting, and destructive. Whose words are expelled from his
mouth as if they were a shell from a rocket. He could express
the same opinion and intention with calm words.
4.
One of the aspects of calmness of the tongue is
calmness in conversation. The calm person discusses quietly
and in this way wins others over. Just as Saint Didimus the
Blind used to do when he debated with philosophers and
heathens with the utmost politeness, without attacking them.
His method was to win them, not crush or embarrass them.
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The restless speaker turns the conversation into a fight or a
quarrel in which the discussion gets heated and the atmosphere
tense and extremely electric.
You find a readiness to pounce and attack in his manner, and a
strong tendency to reply before he has heard the opinion in full.
He converses with you not to understand you or to arrive at the
truth with you, but in order to dumbfound you by his own
arguments and to defeat you and shatter your opinions and
expose your weakness. During the conversation he feels that he
has to ridicule you and your views and make you a laughing
stock, as if you are an enemy and he wants to get his revenge.
On the other hand, the person who discusses calmly, wins you
over as a friend during the conversation. He talks objectively,
with complete calmness, not interrupting during your speaking
or being too personal, and if you become too excited he calms
you down.
He may persuade you so that you come to agree on his opinion
without you feeling that you have gone away defeated. His
calmness does not in any way make you feel that you are
adversaries, but rather that you are two friends trying to arrive
at the truth together. In contrast to this is the highly-strung
speaker whose eyes redden during the discussion, whose voice
is raised and who gets exasperated raising objections irritably
and rudely. He may even use words which imply an insult.
People who are not calm are always interrupting each other
when they are discussing. There may be five in the discussion,
four talking at once with just one listening to the noise. None
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of them are prepared to listen any of the others. They all
interrupt each other, whereas if there were a hundred calm
people having a discussion it would be done in strict order, you
would not hear an outside voice.
Though many ideas wrestle with each other, there is only one
truth. Yet each person thinks that the truth is his personal view.
If there is calmness you can come together with people,
however different their views, in a conversation that is filled
with love.
tasbeha.org/content/hh_books/Calmness/index.html