A Cure for Impatience by D. H. Kress

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 11, 1902

A Cure for Impatience

By D. H. Kress

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 often responsible for the other.

Rheumatism is caused by the circulation or deposits of irritants, or foreign products, 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, jams, puddings, and food containing sugar. Also use in great moderation soups, porridges, and other soft, starchy foods. He recognizes that sweets and soft, starchy foods readily undergo fermentation, thus forming the acids and irritants that are largely responsible for this disease. He also recommends the disuse of flesh foods on account of the uric acid and the large quantity of waste or foreign products they contain. Tea, he tells his patient, if he is an up-to-date and intelligent physician, must be entirely discarded, because it makes dyspeptics, as it interferes with the process of digestion, and favors fermentation, then besides, it contains a poison very similar in character to uric acid, called theine.

The patient follows the directions given. In a short time the system unloads some of these irritants, and the pain ceases. He ever after thanks the physician for the kind advice and good counsel.

Impatience is due to the same irritants and foreign products which cause rheumatism. By their circulation through the brain, rasping the delicate brain and nerve cells, the nerves are set on edge. The least noise irritates; everything appears to go wrong; home is made very unpleasant by such an inmate. All the sweetness of home life is destroyed. It is hard often for the person to believe that the trouble all exists with himself. He feels that he is a terribly abused individual, a persecuted saint, of all men most miserable. No matter where he may be, he will feel abused. He would feel abused in heaven itself. The music of the harps would grate upon his nerves, and the angels’ voices would be thunder to him. He goes to the Lord in prayer, and pleads for the needed grace to be patient. I do not say that it is impossible for such a person to be kept patient, but he is on a constant tension, and must be constantly on guard. It is possible for a person covered from head to foot with mosquitoes to live, and receive grace to endure, but certainly life would be made more pleasant by having the mosquitoes brushed off. In the same way, life would be more pleasant, and it would be much easier to be patient if the blood were cleansed of these irritants.

The same good advice given to the rheumatic patient will be a help to the impatient patient; for that which is responsible for the one, is largely responsible for the other. Very frequently the Lord answers such prayers by pointing out the causes of impatience, and then calls upon us 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.” We must co-operate with nature, and do all that human hands can do, then our prayers will be answered, and we shall be able to testify, “Faithful is he that promised who also will do it.” We shall ask and receive.—Australasian Good Health.