I never try to think up something to say. I am quite content to be
silent, unless something comes into my mind and I am moved to say it, or
unless I sense that the meeting would like to hear a few living words.
In this latter case, I may search myself to see what may be found; and
by this searching I may set in motion the processes which discover
hidden messages.

I never go to the meeting with an "itch" to speak, though it sometimes
happens to me, as to others, that I am moved to speak before arriving at
the meeting house. Even so, I usually restrain the urge until we have
had at least a short period of silent waiting before God. One is vain
indeed if he thinks that his words are more important than this waiting.
If I have not been moved to speak before arriving, such an impulse, if
it comes at all, is likely to arise after I have been waiting a while.
It arises within my silence. An insight or understanding flashes into my
mind. A prayer or a pleading or a brief exhortation comes upon me. I
hold it in mind and look at it, and at myself. I examine it.

Is this a genuine moving that deserves expression in a meeting for
worship, or had I best curb and forget it? May it have some real meaning
for others, and is it suited to the condition of this meeting? Can I
phrase it clearly and simply? If it passes these tests, I regard it as
something to be said but I am not yet sure it should be said here and
now. To find out how urgent it is, I press it down and try to forget it.
If time passes and it does not take hold of me with increased strength,
I conclude that it is not to be spoken of at this time. If, on the other
hand, it will not be downed, if it rebounds and insists and will not
leave me alone, I give it expression.

If it turns out that the words were spoken more in my own will than in
the power, I feel that egotistical-I has done it, and that this
self-doing has set me apart from the other members of the meeting. I am
dissatisfied until again immersed in the life of the group. But if it
seems that I have been an instrument of the power, I have the feeling
that the power has done it and has, by this very act, joined those
assembled even closer. Having spoken, I feel at peace once again, warmed
and made glowing by the passage of a living current through me to my
fellows. With a heightened sense of fellowship with man and God, I
resume my silent practices.

I never speak if, in my sense of it, spoken words would break