PATIENCE | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 15, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 36.

PATIENCE.

PATIENCE is a characteristic of soul strength. In this life of excitement and haste, patience, in the majority of men, is a dormant power. This is especially true in regard to Americans. They live more for the present and the near future, and unless the evident fruit of their labors soon appears, they become impatient, and with the petulance of a child exclaim: "It is no use, I won't try any more." But this surface sixty-miles-an-hour life is detrimental to the higher development of man. And patience cannot necessarily be in harmony with it. A man who is accustomed to behold the results of an undertaking shortly after he has exerted himself in its performance, usually performs work of no lasting importance. Those who sow deep will not reap so soon as those who sow on the surface. And it is the man whose noble spirit leads him to work for eternity, who cultivates his patience most assiduously; men, whose noble impulses lead them to work for the future benefit of their fellows, must expect misunderstanding and disappointment to glare upon them in the walks of life. Such people can afford to wait in patience the return of the future years. So the nobler the work, the more this patience. And, in fact, the world jeers yet respects and fears, in its deeper feelings, the men of patience. They have been the world's best friends; those whom their contemporaries killed or persecuted, but whom succeeding generations appreciated and blessed. He, whom the world once despised and rejected, while dwelling

upon the earth, suffered all things with divine patience; for with almighty foresight he knew that his good labor would not be in vain. So when individuals strive for the right they can in patience wait for the time when well-earned rewards and just appreciation will be theirs.

—Selected.