PATIENCE by E. Macomber

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 11, 1862

PATIENCE.

By E. Macomber

"For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." Heb. x, 36.

Surely we need patience, dear brethren, in this day of trouble and perplexity. We are surrounded with temptations. The Devil himself lies in wait to deceive us. He has great power to attract our attention from the duties that devolve upon us. He puts God's children to great trouble, as he finds opportunity, and has been doing so ever since the days of our first parents. He has never failed to try all saints, from the first to this time, and will until the last servant of God is sealed. So we have need of patience as the apostle has said.

We are not left without example. We are referred to Job, the worthy saint of olden times. In all the sore troubles that he passed through, he through patience maintained his integrity, and died in full faith of one day seeing God in his flesh, and that he should stand upon the earth, and praise God with all the saints in light.

And that day is close upon us. It is soon to burst upon the heads of a gainsaying world, and find the great mass of mankind as in the days of Noah, in darkness, woe and despair. But the saints of God, from righteous Abel down to the last servant of God that will be sealed, will delight in the works of God in that great day of the overturning of the powers of darkness.

The saints of God have manifested a great degree of patience all the way through, and have endured affliction with the glorious prospect before them of gaining the promised inheritance that God our heavenly Father has promised unto such as prove faithful to the end. Those worthy saints endured sore trials and many afflictions, that they might attain unto eternal life and be among the regenerated in the new creation.

I often think, Could Moses, Job, and Daniel have lived in this day, they would count all troubles and trials that we have to endure, joy. We live in a grand and awful time, while the jots and tittles are being fulfilled, and the saints are being tried, and the servants of God are being sealed. The child of God beholds the hand of the Almighty arranging the nations for the final conflict. He bows humbly before him, feeling himself nothing. He beholds Jehovah, making ready through Jesus Christ our Lord, to restore all things spoken of by the holy prophets, and with patience he waits until all things are ready, knowing this, that the trying of his faith worketh patience. Also knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Dear brethren, God is for us. He is sifting out the wheat. The testimony to the church is good. Let us desire the gifts of the Spirit. Let us not despise prophesyings, but prove all things, and hold fast the good. God has promised good concerning Israel. Victory, victory will turn on Zion's side. The blessed Redeemer will come and put down all the enemies of righteousness. The saints shall possess the kingdom and dominion under the whole heavens. The time is close upon us; let us hold on whereunto we have attained, and press forward. The Lord will help.

E. MACOMBEER. Newport, R. I.