p. 198 | SILENT FORCES by Alexander Clark

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · March 25, 1880

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 13

SILENT FORCES.

By Alexander Clark

WORKMEN in the stone quarries sometimes find a very hard kind of rock. They pick little grooves for the iron wedges, and then, with great sledge-hammers, drive and drive the wedges into the flinty rock. And yet, once in a while, they fail to divide the solid mass. The iron wedges and the sledges prove useless, and the workmen wonder at the stubborn rock.

But there is yet another way. The iron wedges are removed from the narrow grooves. Then little wooden wedges of a very hard fiber are selected. Now you begin to shake your heads and think, “Well, if iron wedges will not do, how is it possible for wooden wedges to be used successfully?” Just wait until we explain. The sharp, well-made wooden wedges are first put into water. They are then inserted in the grooves tightly while wet, and water is kept in the grooves, and no sledge is needed to drive them. They would break under the severe blows of the ponderous hammer. But the workmen just let the wet wedges alone. They will do what the driven iron failed to do. How so? The damp wood swells. The particles must have room to enlarge. And the granite hearts of the rock cannot withstand this silent influence. In a little while the solid rock parts from top to bottom, and the workmen’s will is accomplished.

It is so often in other things. What noise and visible effort fail to do, some quiet power, when applied, will surely achieve. Teachers may remember this fact in mechanics, and manage some very stubborn natures by the application of the silent forces. The iron and the sledge-hammers often fail. But tears, prayers, and a patient example never fail.—Alexander Clark.