IKNEEL at my window and say to my heart, "What doest thou?" "Nothing," comes the answer, "nothing but keeping still".

Drink in the stillness of the mild winter's afternoon. See the stillness of the trees black against the sky: see the quietude of the gray-green fields sloping up to the wood. The very movement of the sheep on the hill-side is of a quietness that makes for silence. The gentle stillness is not silence, there are sounds all round; the movement of the soft wind in the grass, the rustle of the ivy on the old plane trees, the chatter of the birds on their way to rest, the winter song of the robin that speaks of spring at hand! All this is not silence though it but emphasizes the still quietness of the winter's day. It is January and there is a touch of spring in the air, the quietness of a waiting time. The fullness of the ruddy glow on the bud branches of the lime trees, the undergrass is green with the mildness of the season, the mosses are fresh as they have not been sodden by a heavy fall of snow, the snowdrops are coming out, and in some places the aconites are glowing golden in the grass: these all silently and softly speak of love and of life.

The silence speaks of love, and the touch of spring speaks of love, but it is in the stillness we find the clue to the thoughts the quiet gray day brings.

Thoughts of the beauty of stillness.

Thoughts of the silence that Maeterlinck sings.

Wells of silence found in the depths of one's own nature from whence spring, and can only spring, all the rich fruition of the coming year.

Out of great noise may come great cleansing, out of great silence comes great creation. Down in the depths of the earth from the silence of the dust rises the essence of life.

Deep wells of silence are at the " bottom," the root, from thence come the most wonderful happenings. Great love, great stillness. Great thoughts, great silence—life springs so silently, spring comes so quietly. There is the sound of spring in the air because the silence of life is a sound—a perception of life, of movement, makes a sound in the mind.

It is the peace of a great silence that makes its life; without absolute peace can be no real silence. Peace is only found in love without fear, and lov\. without fear is life: the best life here or the life hereafter. The silence of soul we find in those who are without fear is surely a most beautiful thing, and their stillness is surely that of great growth, of life at its truest and best.

Security of heart, soul, or mind makes for great strength, strength makes for silence. Without security how noisily we are tossed about. Love flees before drifting, noise—distracting thoughts and ways; and without love must come fear, must come unquiet moods, unquiet ways. But with deep, strong, silent hearts we find true strong life-giving, love-keeping men and women, who in the silence of great love await the oncoming spring.