Due to a growth on one of my vocal chords, which has been removed by surgery, I have been forbidden to speak, even a single word, for at least five weeks. At this writing, three of the five weeks have already passed, and if all is well I hope to be completely recovered when this number of our Beacon Lights appears in print. The reason the Doctor forbade me to speak even a single word for this period of time he explained as follows: “An injured vocal cord,” he said “is just like a fractured limb. It will not heal if you keep on using it. We can put a splint or a cast on a fractured limb, but we cannot do that to your vocal cord, although sometimes we wish we could.”
At first I thought it would be humanly impossible for one who hath the ability to speak, not to utter even one single word for such a long period of time. With Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, it was different. He could not speak. I can speak, but may not. Barring a few slips, (eight or ten words in more than three weeks) I have strictly adhered to the Doctor’s orders.
One never realizes what a blessing the human voice is, until his tongue has been silenced. As we converse, and as we speak from day to day, how little do we realize what a wonderful gift of God the gift of speech is. One regret has come to me over and over again during the past few weeks, and that is that I so often misused this wonderful gift of God. How often I spoke, when I should have kept silent, but also how often I kept silence when I should have spoken. I may, by the grace of God look forward to a speedy recovery, but what if I should never be able to speak again, even as several whom I met at the hospital in Chicago, who had their vocal cords removed, among whom was also a young man in his twenties. Work while it is day, for the night cometh in which no man shall be able to work. It is my hope and prayer that if and when I may again be restored, I may use my voice more carefully in the master’s service. I would say to all of our young people: “Let the voices God has given joyful anthems to Him raise”.