A Cure for Impatience by D. H. Kress

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 27, 1909

A Cure for Impatience.

By D. H. Kress

By D. H. Kress, M.D.

We go to the doctor to be cured of rheumatism, and we resort to prayer to be cured of impatience. Nevertheless, that which is responsible for the one is frequently responsible for the other.

Rheumatism is caused by the circulation or deposit of irritants in muscles, or muscle sheaths. When the muscles are moved, friction is produced as they glide over each other; this sets up an inflammatory process and causes pain. When these pains appear, the patient consults a doctor. The doctor says, you had better abstain from the use of sugar, sweet puddings, pastry, etc., and eat in moderation soups, porridges, and other soft starchy foods. The physician recognizes that sweets and soft, starchy foods readily undergo fermentation, thus forming the irritants that are frequently responsible for rheumatism. He may also recommend the disuse of flesh foods on account of the uric acid and the large quantity of waste products they contain. Tea, he tells his patient, if he is an intelligent physician, you should entirely discard, because tea interferes with the process of digestion, and favors fermentation, then besides, it contains a poison very similar in character to uric acid.

If the patient follows out the directions given, in a short time the system will unload some of these irritants and rheumatism will probably be a thing of the past. He will ever after thank the physician for the kind advice and good counsel.

Causes of Impatience.

Impatience is caused by the same irritants which produce rheumatism. By their circulation through the blood they rasp the delicate brain and nerve cells, and the nerves are set on edge. The least noise irritates; everything appears to go wrong. All the sweetness of home life is destroyed. It is hard often for the person to believe that the trouble all exists within instead of without.

The sweetest music grates upon the nerves. Naturally the person becomes impatient, and says and does that which he would not do if in the right mind. He goes to the Lord in prayer, and pleads for the needed grace to be patient. I don't say that it is impossible for such a person to be kept patient, but he must be constantly on guard. It is possible for a person covered from head to foot with mosquitoes to receive grace to endure, but certainly it would be easier to attain his end, and life would be made more pleasant, by having the mosquitoes brushed off. In the same way it would be easier to be patient, by having the blood cleansed from these irritants.

The same good advice given by the physician to the rheumatic patient would be a help to the impatient patient, since both are due to the same causes. Very often the Lord answers the prayer of the impatient by pointing out the causes of impatience, and then calls upon them to remove the causes.

Human hands had to remove the stone from the grave of Lazarus before the words could be spoken, “Lazarus, come forth.” Man must cooperate with God and do all that human hands can do, then his prayers will be answered, and he will be able to testify, “Faithful is He that hath promised, who also will do it.”