We are most of us far more likely to err on the side of over-caution than of over-zeal: we are generally far more disposed to remember the “time to be silent” than the “time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7). It is a lesson, however, which ought to stir up a spirit of self-inquiry in all our hearts. Do we ourselves never check our friends from giving us good advice, by being morose and irritable? Have we never obliged others to hold their peace and say nothing, by being proud and contemptuous of their advice? Have we never turned against our kind advisers, and silenced them by our violence and passion.

J. C. Ryle
Matthew, Crossway Classic Commentaries (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1993), 49.

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