PATIENCE | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 23, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 24.

PATIENCE.

ONE has said, "Patience is a beautiful grace to look at, but a desperately hard one to live." James says, "Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." So then, "desperately hard" though it may be, it surely is worth the effort, if to gain this grace is to be "perfect and entire, wanting nothing." We are told by the blessed Master, in whom this lovely grace, amid sorest provocation, was so luminous, that we are to hear "the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience." How seldom do we see fruit or flower brought forth in perfection the very day the root or seed is planted! Have patience, then, with yourself, discouraged friend. If the true seed is in the heart, nourish it, and patiently expect the fruit. "For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise."

Oh, that I might be patient! But how can I be, with all the worry and rush and nettling of these days! Ah! these are just the things that cause this charming grace to grow. They are intended for that purpose, though seemingly so adverse. "Knowing that tribulation worketh patience." Tribulation is "squeezing," or "harrowing;" and the little annoyances, the friction that "rubs the wrong way," are the elements in which patience may most thrive. Who ever became patient when everything went well? The most blessedly patient soul I know is one whose daily "squeezing and harrowing" have been exceptional.

Paul tells us to be "gentle unto all, apt to teach, patient." We are more "apt to teach," as a rule, than to be the other thing. "Why cannot those children remember what I tell them?" said a father in an irritated tone. It is well for parents to consider how many times they forget their Father's word to them, and how patient he has been through all the years.

How shall we gain this crowning grace? Not of ourselves alone, but through him who is able to strengthen us "with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness."—N. Y. Christian Advocate.