{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_45564/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_45564","id":"gutenberg_45564","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45564","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Patience -- Religious aspects -- Christianity"],"text":"Transcriber's Notes:\n\n  Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.\n\n  Small uppercase have been replaced with regular uppercase.\n\n  Blank pages have been eliminated.\n\n  Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the\n  original.\n\n\n\n\n  PATIENCE.\n\n\n  BY\n\n  JAMES W. ALEXANDER, D. D.\n\n\n  \"Let patience have her perfect work.\"--James i. 4.\n\n\n  PHILADELPHIA:\n  PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION,\n  No. 265 CHESTNUT STREET.\n\n\n\n\n  Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year 1852, by\n\n  ALEXANDER W. MITCHELL, M. D.\n\n  In the office of the Clerk of the District Court for the\n  Eastern District of Pennsylvania.\n\n\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT.\n\n\nThe following meditations on Patience, though once delivered in\nsubstance to a Christian assembly, were written as a pastoral gift to an\nesteemed friend, who had been more than two years confined to her\ndwelling by a dangerous, lingering, and sometimes exceedingly painful\nmalady. May the good Lord carry his truth with a blessing to other\nchambers of trial!\n\n\n\n\nPATIENCE.\n\n\nSome words which are often in our mouths are, nevertheless, but little\nunderstood; and some virtues which we are continually praising, are\nhardly ever put in practice. This is as true of patience as of any thing\nelse. Every man needs it, every man knows he would be the better for it,\nyet every man falls short of it. This, I suppose, was one reason why the\napostle James teaches so emphatically concerning it,\n\n     \"Let patience have her perfect work.\" James i. 4.\n\nIt would seem that the \"twelve tribes scattered abroad,\" to whom this\napostle wrote, were in trials and needed comfort. For the very first\nwords of his letter are as if he stood over them and said, _Be of good\ncheer!_ \"My brethren,\" says he, \"count it all joy, when ye fall into\ndivers temptations,\" _i. e._, _trials_. These troubles tried their faith\n(v. 3,) and \"untried faith is uncertain faith.\" The result of these\ntrials of faith is _patience_. The very word is derived from\n\"suffering,\"[1] and if there were no pain there could be no patience. If\nthen patience is good, trials are good. And the great caution to be\nobserved under such dispensations is, that we lose not the fulness of\nthe benefit; that we content not ourselves with half the mercy; that we\nstop not short of the entire grace; for we may suffer and yet not\nprofit; therefore, says the inspired teacher, \"Let patience have her\n_perfect work_.\"\n\n     [1] In Latin _patientia_, from _patior_.\n\nI. _Patience_ is a certain temper of mind under suffering. As we all are\nappointed to suffer, and some of us to suffer greatly and suffer long,\nwe should do well to learn more of this heavenly art, concerning which\nso much good is spoken in Scripture.\n\nIn its simplest form, patience is a calm and unshaken state of mind,\nstrongly bearing up against a present burden of distress. This may exist\nwithout religion. A Stoic or a western savage may endure pain without a\nmurmur. Malefactors have stoutly faced the torments of their penal\ndeath. In respect to this, the natural temperament of human beings\ndiffers. Some can naturally bear more than others. They have more rigid\nfibre, or less shrinking nerves, more robust health, or smaller\nsensibility. The degree of pain is to be measured, not by the force of\nthe blow, but the power of resistance. That which would crush a reed\nshall leave no mark upon an oak. When pain comes, however, it is well if\nwe have even natural means of enduring it. But practice, discipline, and\nexercise add vastly even to this natural fortitude. Fresh soldiers and\nnew recruits quail and fly, but the veteran has looked death in the\nface. He who has endured once, can endure again. Still more efficacious\nis the operation of inward principle, adding moral motives to the barely\nnatural power. Education has this for part of its work, to teach the\nyoung to bear some burdens, not to fall back at every alarm, nor cry out\nat every pang. Stern determination will help one to sustain what might\nat first have seemed intolerable. This is remarkably the case in great\nand sudden pangs of anguish, for which a resolved mind has prepared\nitself.\n\nThough pains of mind are worse than pains of body, they also may be\nendured by some with hardihood and tranquillity, and this we call\nfortitude, and in some circumstances patience. By great skill and\nself-control in managing the thoughts and detaching the attention from\ndistressing objects, some are able, to a degree which at first might\nseem impracticable, to keep up quietude, self-possession, and even a\nshow of cheerfulness, under complicated bereavements, mortifications,\nand griefs. All this may enter into the Christian's patience; but all\nthis falls infinitely short of its \"perfect work.\"\n\n_Christian patience_ adds to this a sweet, childlike resignation to\nGod's holy will, in the affliction, whatever it may be. All merely\nnatural or philosophical patience is cold, gloomy, sullen, and\nunprofitable. Though it may refrain from tears, it cannot smile; for it\nhath no faith, no love, no Saviour, no covenant, no God! Christian\npatience \"endures, as seeing Him who is invisible;\" that is faith. Heb.\nxi. 1. It looks up to the rod in the hand of a chastening Father. Heb.\nxii. 6. It considers One that endured such contradiction against\nhimself, and arms itself with the same mind. 1 Pet. iv. 1. It beholds\nevery pang disposed according to a covenant transaction. 1 Cor. iii. 22,\n23. And it bows to all, however distressing, as ordered by the infinite\nwisdom, justice, and goodness. Lam. iii. 37-40. Therefore it is, that\nthe stoutest and hardest of worldly sufferers falls so far below the\nfeeblest of Christ's lambs, when laid under heavy trials. Though pangs\nof anguish must now and then extort a sigh, tear, or groan, the child\nof God still turns to him, when smitten, and kisses the paternal hand.\nIt is again _faith_, believing that God doth it, and that all he doth is\nwisest and is best. It is _submission_, yielding the neck to the yoke\n(Lam. iii. 27), bowing down under the Omnipotent hand, (1 Pet. v. 6),\nand prostrating itself beneath the infinite and eternal will, (Gen.\nxviii. 25.) It is _resignation_, giving the whole matter into the best\nhands, that He may undertake, (Isa. xxxviii. 14), and undoubtingly\nreferring every future event unto the God of the lilies and the birds.\nMatt. vi. 26. It is _humility_, owning itself little, and dependent, and\nmean, and unworthy, and therefore willing to suffer. And it is\n_penitence_, bewailing sin, pleading for mercy, wondering that it\nsuffers so little, and remembering how light are these pains compared\nwith the agonies of the lost, or the vicarious sorrows of the Lord our\nrighteousness. All this, and much more, is present in every case of\ntruly sanctified Christian affliction; and this sheds a light through\nthe curtains of evangelical sorrow, which is altogether unknown to the\nmost resolute of stoical heroes.\n\nThere is a third consideration, not to be omitted in our study of\nChristian patience. The word, as said above, implies _suffering_ and\n_endurance_, but it includes another idea. It has reference to _time_.\nIt is not barely willingness to _suffer_, but willingness to suffer\n_more_. Nature would not wait a moment; it would be delivered _now_.\nGrace leaves all to God, and says, \"My times are in his hand!\" Though\nthe succour tarry, patience can wait. Hab. ii. 3. What grace is this,\nthus added to faith and love? Is it not HOPE, the sister grace, that\nabideth? 1 Cor. xiii. 13. Leaning on her anchor, hope looks out from her\npost of observation, casting the eye over a waste of billows, and\nsweeping that dim horizon where as yet no sail twinkles along the\ndistant line that unites the sea and sky, but sure that though weeping\nmay endure for a night, joy cometh in the morning. Psa. xxx. 5. He that\nhath been with her in six troubles, in the seventh will not forsake her.\nJob v. 19. Here is a blessed pillow for the languid aching head, a cool\nrefreshment for the throbbing temple. Here is a secret cordial which has\nenabled many a child of sorrow to bear the heavy load; when tribulation\nworketh _patience_. Rom. v. 3. This hope is more than empty conjecture\nor vague expectation. It is firm; it is fixed. Its hold is above. It\nseizes on words of promise and of covenant. It is sustaining itself by\nthe arm of the mighty Saviour. Its spiritual cable grapples that which\nis within the veil (Heb. vi. 19), and hence it maketh not ashamed. Rom.\nv. 5.\n\nIf it were God's way to send on his children only such trials as are\npungent, quick, and brief, however severe, the test of patience would be\nincomplete; but sometimes his rod lies long, and the soul is made to cry\nout, \"Thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore!\"\nPsa. xxxviii. 2. \"How long wilt thou forget me, Lord?\" Psa. xiii. 1. The\nvery working of the remedy depends on this withholding of immediate\ncure. Yet the believing child learns to think and feel that God's time\nis best, and is assured that \"He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve\nthe children of men.\" Lam. iii. 33. And hope opens the window, and even\nthough no dry land as yet appears, welcomes the olive branch borne by\nthe dove of promise. Gen. viii. 10, 11. Deep may call unto deep. Psa.\nxlii. 7. \"Yet the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the day-time,\nand in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God\nof my life.\" (verse 8.) \"My soul, wait thou only upon God!\" Psa. lxii.\n5. Thus she cheers the night-watches, and in the multitude of her\nthoughts within her, God's comforts delight her soul. Psa. xciv. 19. The\nexperience of the psalmist is made for such times of languishing. Many a\nsolitary one has renewed the strain of David's pensive chord, and sung\nwith plaintive note, \"I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. Mine eye\nmourneth by reason of affliction. Lord, I have called daily upon thee,\nI have stretched out my hands unto thee.\" Psa. lxxxviii. 8, 9. The night\nwears heavily away; the stars in their courses shine dimly; no streak of\neastern dawning betokens day. Yet the hopeful sufferer can say, \"I wait\nfor the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope; my soul\nwaiteth for the Lord, more than they that watch for the morning; I say,\nmore than they that watch for the morning.\" Psa. cxxx. 5, 6. And\npatience, not worn out with waiting, turns on its pillow, and breathes\nitself to God, saying, \"My soul is even as a weaned child.\" Psa. cxxxi.\n2.\n\nIt would not be difficult to fill up the whole tract with an account of\nthose different circumstances of a human creature in which he must\nexercise this Christian virtue. But those to whom such details would be\napplicable are the very persons who need no prompter; they know what\ntheir distresses are. It is much more important to observe, that there\nis no kind or degree of suffering which our Heavenly Father ordains,\nunder which we may not exercise patience, and, therefore, as every human\nbeing is born to suffer, there is not a single reader to whom this\nlesson is not important, however much he may think the contrary, in the\npride and self-sufficiency of youth, or health, or fortune, or good\nspirits. And though certain persons in our fastidious generation grow\nintensely weary, when time is bestowed in sustaining and comforting the\nbroken-hearted--let such know, that _their_ time is coming, and that\neven if now they have their \"good things,\" and think their \"mountain\nstands strong,\" they shall yet live to behold the day in which they must\nhave a stock and habit, yea a _grace_ of patience, or sink into extreme\ndespondency, if not despair.\n\nIn one view the suffering life of many Christians, and those the best,\nis hard to understand, for it seems at war not only with God's fatherly\ngoodness, but with his gracious covenant. (Read Jer. xii. 12, and Psa.\nlxxiii.) But we must never lose our hold of two cardinal pillars, the\nvery Jachin and Boaz of our temple: (1) that happiness in this world is\nnot the chief good; the affirming of which is the radical error of all\nthe common public economy, and much of the philanthropy of the day; and\n(2) that the education, or discipline, or training, or perfecting of a\nsoul is so great and divine a work, that it is worth a lifetime of\ndistress; so that no redeemed saint will look back on the longest\nsufferings of the present life as more than the scarcely perceptible\nmoment before an eternity of holy delight. Angels look down and see poor\nsin-wounded creatures fighting against their chief medicine. As has been\nsaid, God does not afflict nor grieve the children of men \"willingly,\"\narbitrarily, out of any love to see them suffer, or any indifference to\ntheir sorrows; but with a wise and definite end, which will be revealed\nhereafter. The entire process of Christian endurance, pain-bearing, or\npatience, from beginning to end, in all its connection of parts, is more\ndeeply interesting to one who could read it, than any drama ever enacted\non the stage. So it will one day appear, when not only the particular\nsufferer, but all the company of God's elect in heaven, shall look back\nand see many a mystery of providence resolved. They will rise to higher\nadmiration of the divine plan, when they shall be instructed why Joseph\nhad his youth oppressed by cruelty, exile and imprisonment; why David\nwas a persecuted fugitive, and a bereaved father; why the apostles were\nas sheep appointed to the slaughter; why the early Christians were mowed\ndown by the sword; and why to this day they that will live godly suffer\npersecution. They will recall ten thousand cases, (for eternity has\nneither limits nor weariness,) in which some of the best of men have\nlain under pangs, or in languishing from sore diseases; or journeyed\nthrough a valley of gloom and depression; or been marks for arrows from\nthe bow of wicked fellow-creatures, and more malignant demons; and why\nothers, with hearts sickened by hope deferred, waited years and almost\nlifetimes without seeing the accomplishment of their strongest desires.\nWhen these several circles are complete, and every covering removed, and\nGod's light thrown on dark places of the spiritual temple, it will\nappear, that this very divine product, to wit, _holy patience_, has been\nas dear to the great Architect of the Church, as is the costliest\nsculpture to the most devoted enthusiast in art. And therefore we are\nexhorted not merely to have patience, but to let patience have her\n_perfect work_.\n\nII. The _perfect work_ of patience is plainly nothing less than the full\nand thorough carrying out of patience, with unfaltering strength of\nsoul, in every kind and measure of trial, unto the very end. Death\ncloses all trials of the believer; but until death he is to have his\narmour on. There may be some reality of true Christian patience, and yet\nit may be very weak. We must learn to bear up bravely, and with the\nputting forth of a complete manful energy. Small encounters are useful\nto the raw recruit; they exercise him in the virtues which in process of\ntime make him a soldier. He that bearded the lion and bear, afterwards\naccepted the challenge of Goliath, though still a ruddy youth. Could we\nlook on daily troubles, as exercises set us by the Master, to fit us for\nthe higher efforts of patience, we should be saved much repining and\nmany groans. The great duty is always the duty of the day, of the hour,\nof this moment. If our equanimity is destroyed by the trifles of a life\ngenerally prosperous--what can we expect of ourselves, in the\nwater-floods of tribulation which may yet roll in? Jer. xii. 5. Let us\nlearn to bear with a hard hand on the helm, before the tempest arises.\nUnder the sense of God's supreme governance and paternal love, and in\nexpectation of reward and rest hereafter, let us bow ourselves to the\nsovereign disposal; bearing all that God sends, and Christ our Mediator\nconcurs in, with a yielding, filial, believing soul.\n\nPatience may be said to have its perfect work, when it withstands a\ngreat, sudden and extraordinary affliction without being shaken.\nUncommon faith is necessary for such an exercise as this. Indeed who has\nnot cause to join in the prayer, _Lead us not into temptation!_ Strong\nChristians are the persons to whom this forefront of the battle is\nreserved; to them \"it is _given_ in the behalf of Christ, not only to\nbelieve on him, but also to suffer for his sake.\" Phil. i. 29. It is\n_Job_, the \"perfect man,\" who is carried through the unexampled\nconflict. And the early believers to whom James addressed the words of\nthe text, were exposed to evils such as happily we know nothing of. Yet\nthey needed the exhortation.\n\nPatience has its perfect work, when it does not give way but holds out,\nhowever long may be the trial. Even weakness may sustain a momentary\nattack, and pungent anguish may be borne, if it be soon over. But to\nhave day after day of pain, and night after night of fearful watching;\nto lie down heavy, yet hoping for no alleviation in the morning; to be\nwounded again and again, and find increasing years bring new losses and\ndeeper sorrows;--this has been the lot of some who were God's children,\nand concerning whom it might well be said, that though the outer man\nperished, the inner man was renewed day by day. No man can number the\ncases of hopeless disease, tending incurably to certain and painful\ndeath, which occur in every age, and that among true believers. Christ's\nconfessors have, in more periods of the church than one, spent large\nparts of their best years in prison. Millions have borne all the\ncomplicated ills of poverty all their days. And those who have survived\nto old age, have found it often one long disease. All these have had\n\"need of patience,\" and would not have experienced its perfect work, if\nthey had fainted in the day of adversity. I can never forget a Christian\nwoman, eminent for spiritual joys, who was confined to her bed, with a\nwasting and at times excruciating disease, for about twenty years. Let\nnot frivolous or superficial professors flatter themselves that those\nfair-weather graces which they boast of now, will stand them in stead\nwhen long storms begin to howl. Unusual supports from the very hand of\nthe Spirit are necessary, against such conjunctures; and which of us can\nbe certain that such shall not befall himself?\n\nPatience has a _perfect work_, when it grows to be an _abiding habit of\nthe soul_. This cannot be, except by repeated acts of faith, submission\nand hope, reiterated till they are like a second nature. Such endurance\nrests on settled principle, and is an eminent work of the Holy Spirit.\nThere are few more noble characters we can give of any, than when we say\nof a believer, _He is habitually patient_. The character is rare, but we\nare invited to attain it.\n\nWhether the words of the apostle be considered as a command or an\nentreaty, they equally imply that there was some effort to be put\nforth. Let patience have her perfect work. \"Place yourselves in the\nposture of being thoroughly and imperturbably constant even to the close\nof your mortal struggle.\" This enjoins the forbearance of whatever is\ncontrary to the meek and patient spirit, and the acquisition,\npreservation and increase of every good gift which is favourable to it;\nfor instance, humility, sense of sin, godly sorrow and shame, thirst for\nholiness, faith, hope, courage, love and joy. Indeed patience has its\nperfect work, only where all sister graces are carried forward with\nsymmetrical increase; and whenever one of these is nourished into new\nstrength, it contributes so much to the solid habit of Christian\npatience.\n\nIII. Let us consider some of the _motives_ to let patience have her\nperfect work.\n\n1. _This is a virtue which is needed every day._ Some excellencies of\nthe soul are called out only by great emergencies, but the world in\nwhich we live is so beset with vexations that there is not a day, there\nis scarcely an hour, in which we are not called to be patient. The\nlittle events of domestic life, connected with ordinary labour and\nservice, give the cumbered and troubled Martha as keen anguish as is\nfelt by the general of an army or the ruler of a state, from defeats and\nrevolutions. The inward grace required must not be measured by the\napparent magnitude of the burden, but the strength of the sustainer.\nSpirits above perhaps look down on princes contending about the crown of\nan empire, with as much contempt as we bestow on infants fighting for a\nstraw. But trials are not all equal. Sometimes, as we have seen,\nvehement surges of affliction break in; and we know not on what day this\nmay occur; hence we must be ready every day. All the days of our life we\nare going over one and the same course of Christian duty, viz.,\nsubmitting our own selfish will to the will of God.\n\n2. _Increase of patience is increase of happiness._ Though present\nhappiness is not the great object of life, it is one of the effects of\nreligion, to which we cannot be indifferent. And what is very\nremarkable, there is not a single religious act, which does not increase\nour happiness. Properly understood, the whole moral law, whether at\nSinai or the mount of the Beatitudes, utters this one commandment, BE\nHAPPY! What is thus true of holiness in general is eminently true of\nthis mode of it in particular. Pain almost ceases to be pain, to a mind\nthat fully yields itself to God. That this is true in a much higher\nsense than ordinary Christians suppose, is apparent in the case of the\nmartyrs; (Heb. xi. 32-49,) and we have known instances in common life\nwhere the most horrible maladies, almost unmanning mere spectators, have\nbeen borne with equanimity and even cheerfulness, by disciples of\nChrist. Patience disarms affliction. If the patience were perfect, the\nsuffering would be annihilated, as to its effect on happiness. The\nreason why true Christians sometimes endure great distresses before\nentire relief comes, is not that patience is an insufficient antidote,\nbut that they have not patience enough. And here observe a striking\ndifference between the stoical hardness of a worldly mind, and the\nsacred endowment which we are endeavouring to recommend. A stout hearted\nunbeliever will now and then appear absolutely unshrinking under\ntrials, such as bodily pains, calumny, loss of children, hatred and\nenmity of fellow-creatures; but his shield is _insensibility_. He has\nmade the surface callous. And in so doing he has stopped up the avenues\nas well of pleasure as of pain. He has diminished his sorrows without\nincreasing his joys. Now observe how opposite the case of Christ's\ndisciple. He suffers too, and triumphs in suffering, but not by\ninsensibility. He feels the wound. The thrill of a poignant infliction\nruns through his quick and sentient nerve to the centre of feeling, as\nnimbly as in the most inconsolable and maddened unbeliever. He is not\nstupefied; he is not seared; his temperament of genuine humanity is all\nalive to grief; but it is also alive to joy. And that joy God pours in,\nso that he glories in tribulation also. _Religion_, which has made his\nsusceptibilities more tender, opens new access for refined pleasures.\nFor loss, he finds indemnity; and for pain and woe, a spiritual faith\nand hope, love and joy, which overcome and absorb them. Patience in such\nan advanced experience is no longer unfeeling acquiescence, but a\nswallowing up of man's will in the will of God. What abundant reason\nhave we, in this valley of tears and tombs, to strive that patience may\nhave her perfect work!\n\n3. _Obedience to the requisition of the text conduces to true greatness\nof character._ Religion, properly understood, is nothing else than a\nrestitution begun, of humanity to its perfect condition.\n\nTo be without religion is to be curtailed of the dimensions of man's\ncharacter. Every state of mind and heart which religion commands is\njust so far a return to spiritual health. No human soul can be truly\ngreat while ignorant of God, alienated from God, opposed to God,\nslavishly in dread of God, and out of communion with God. Each grace of\nthe Holy Spirit tends to lift man up towards the ideal of humanity. The\ntrials of life bring all men into a certain conflict with adverse\ncircumstances, producing pain. In this conflict many are conquered. But\nthe Christian combatant finds every trial an occasion for bringing out\nlatent reserves of a strength derived from Christ his Head. When he\nsuffers therefore sharply and long, he is only like a soldier going from\none battle to another, and waxing hardier and more courageous after each\nsuccess. Hear how Paul, long tried in this athletic effort, expresses\nthis Christian magnanimity, (1 Cor. ix. 25,) \"I therefore run, not as\nuncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air.\" And \"Fight\nthe good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.\" There is reason to\nbelieve, that no great Christian character can be developed without some\nsevere discipline, that is, without patience, in its large and\nscriptural sense.\n\n4. _Confirmed patience tends to usefulness in the Church._ The very\nreverse is often thought by the sufferer himself, especially if his\ntrial throws him into solitude, poverty, contempt of brethren, weakness\nof body, pains of old age, or separation from friends. In the chamber of\nmelancholy seclusion how many a soul has mourned that all opportunity of\ndoing any thing for Christ was cut off. But this is a short-sighted and\ndefective conclusion. When God's infinitely wise and holy will is done,\nthen the great end of our creation, and our redemption, and our\nsanctification is accomplished, so far as we are concerned; whether it\nbe by doing or by suffering. If it were possible for a perfectly sinless\nangel to be perpetually bathed in sorrow by the will of God, the pure\nspirit would accept the coming trial with a yielding bliss. And when the\nperfectly sinless Jesus, who was \"very man,\" sank in griefs which\nsurpass comprehension, he was accomplishing the purposes of the Godhead,\nand said, \"Not my will, but thine be done.\" Now by sending trials and\neducing the grace of patience in repeated acts, God fits the soul for\nlabours incalculably beyond every thing it could have effected without\nthis education. And these very pains, and the conduct of a believer\nunder them, becoming visible to bystanders and fellow-servants, as well\nas to the ungodly themselves, go up as a costly odour, to magnify the\ngrace of the gospel. So that no sermons ever preached so loudly as the\ntransient view of a suffering saint has sometimes done, when in the\nfiery heart of the hot furnace, he has been seen unhurt, with one like\nunto the Son of God. (Dan. iii. 25.) In both ways, therefore, by\npreparing for action, and by exhibiting the glory of grace, patience\ntends to benefit the Church.\n\n5. Finally. _Patience when duly sustained leads to a great reward._ Not\nin the sense of the Papists, who strike a commercial balance between\npains and recompense, and set off so much trouble in this life against\nso much merited blessing in the life to come. But in perfect consistency\nwith our belief that after all is done we are unprofitable servants,\nthat all heavenly good is merited by our Saviour, and not by us, and\nthat a man may suffer pain here which shall be swallowed up in greater\npains hereafter, we maintain and teach, that in the case of true\nbeliever, the gracious deportment of the soul under earthly affliction\ncarries it forward to higher happiness than it would otherwise have\nreached. \"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh\nfor us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.\" By the work of\nGod's Spirit, the soul that suffers receives greater capacity for\neventual joy. Whoso bears God's burdens in a godly manner is made\nholier, and more fit and able to take in the surpassing blessedness of\nrest. And then our heavenly Father, who seeth not as man seeth, does not\nmeasure our obedience on a physical scale, by the amount and number of\nsensible acts, as if he reckoned up so many deeds outwardly done, so\nmany palpable effects produced, so many words spoken; but by the quality\nof the inward affection and will, which may be heavenward and holy, and\ninfinitely pleasing to God, in a poor creature locked in a dungeon, or\nmotionless on a bed of illness. Where the soul _pleases God_, there the\ngreat work of life is accomplished; in an apostolic discourse or\nmiracle, in a gift of charity, in a resistance of temptation, or in\nagony on a cross.\n\nPatience, heavenly patience, under what God inflicts, is more pleasing\nto him than thousands of rams, and ten thousands of rivers of oil; which\nis of itself the all-comprehensive motive to pious submission and\nendurance. But what is pleasing to God, as the fruit of his Holy Spirit,\nGod will graciously reward. \"I know thy works,\" saith he to Ephesus,\n\"and thy labour and thy patience.\" \"I know thy works,\" saith he to\nThyatira, \"and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience.\"\n\"Because,\" saith he to Philadelphia, \"thou hast kept the word of my\npatience, I also will keep thee.\" \"Behold,\" saith he to Smyrna, \"the\ndevil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye\nshall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will\ngive thee a crown of life!\" May I not add with renewed emphasis the\nexhortation of our apostle, though it struck strangely on the ear at\nfirst, \"My brethren, count it all joy, when ye fall into divers\ntemptations; knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh\npatience.\" O my brother--my sister--more patience will make us more like\nChrist. What are our sufferings to his! Meditate, step by step, on the\ndegrees of his humiliation, accompanying Him whom your souls love, from\npoint to point of his unexampled sorrows; and thus will you find sin\ngrow more intolerable, and suffering more light.\n\n\nTHE END.","title":"Patience","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":5207}