9. What then? Ought we to be dumb? Certainly not. For: “there is a time to keep silence and a time to speak.” Eccles. iii. 7. If, then, we are to give account for an idle word, let us take care that we do not have to give it also for an idle silence. For there is also an active silence, such as Susanna’s was, who did more by keeping silence than if she had spoken. For in keeping silence before men she spoke to God, and found no greater proof of her chastity than silence. Her conscience spoke where no word was heard, and she sought no judgment for herself at the hands of men, for she had the witness of the Lord. She therefore desired to be acquitted by Him, Who she knew could not be deceived in any way. Sus. v. 35. Yea, the Lord Himself in the Gospel worked out in silence the salvation of men. S. Matt. xxvi. 63. David rightly therefore enjoined on himself not constant silence, but watchfulness.