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Patience

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Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Sep 2, 1875

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 1, No. 43.

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Patience.

By Earnest Christian

BE patient toward all men. The cold hammer fashions the hot iron. He who would govern others, must first learn to govern himself. Passion is blind. Cool, deliberate, and at the same time energetic action, makes itself felt in every department of life.
Be patient toward your brethren. Some good men are slow to see into things. They want to do right, but it takes them a good while to determine what is required of them. Every member of the body of Christ is not an eye. To get out of patience with these dull ones will not help either them or you. Give them time, and they will do their duty. We all have our infirmities. Let us bear with each other.
Be patient toward sinners. Think how long God bore with you. We should bear with wicked men while God bears with them. Our patience under provocation may be the very means which the Spirit will use to strike them under conviction. But if we get out of patience with them, they can have no confidence in our religion. They will say they are as well off as we are, and so they will harden themselves in sin.
To be patient you must have patience. The stream cannot flow if the fountain is dry. The fruit will not grow without the tree. Resolutions alone, against impatience, will not answer. You must pray as well as resolve. Ask God, not merely to help you in your outward conduct, but to give you the inward grace. Unless you get that, you will fail as you have failed before. Be determined on victory in this respect. No matter how much money a man may make by day, he will never grow rich if he is robbed of all at night. Impatience is the thief that steals your grace, and leaves you weak and faint, notwithstanding God has blessed you with the outpouring of the Spirit. The soul never permanently grows in grace, unless it is hedged about with patience. Remember that peace, and gentleness, and long-suffering, are as truly fruits of the Spirit as love and joy.
—Earnest Christian.