And the four beasts... — Better, And the four living beings said, Amen (or, the Amen). And the elders (omit “four and twenty”) fell down and worshipped. The remaining words of this verse are wanting in some of the best MSS., and they spoil thegraphic force of the description. The “Amen” rises from universal nature; the Church of Christ falls down in silent adoration. Thought and feeling assert themselves above all language. There are times when silence is the most eloquent applause; there are times when it is also the most real worship. “Let thy prayers be without words, rather than thy words, without prayer” was a wise precept of an old divine. An English and an Italian poet have given expression to the same feeling of the weakness of words. “O speech!” sang Dante, when telling his final vision —
“How feeble and how faint art thou to give
Conception birth.”
— Parad. xxxiii.
Thomson takes refuge in silence from the overwhelming thoughts of the divine glory: —
“I lose
Myself in Him, in light ineffable.
Come, then, expressive silence, muse His praise.”
Here the inspired seer describes the chorus of praise as dying into a silence born of awe and gratefulness and love.