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 “Let patience have her perfect work.”—James i. 4 
 
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 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 
 No. 265 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 

 
 Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year 1852, by 
 ALEXANDER W. Mirtcueuu, M.D. 
 
 In the office of the Clerk of the District Court for the 
 
 Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 Tue following meditations on Patience, 
 though once delivered in substance to a 
 Christian assembly, were written as a pas- 
 toral gift to an esteemed friend, who had 
 been more than two years confined to her 
 dwelling by a dangerous, lingering, and 
 sometimes exceedingly painful malady. May 
 the good Lord carry his truth with a bless- 
 
 ing to other chambers of trial! 
 
 (3) 
 

 
 ep 
 ipt 
 
 ea sty 
 
 helwan “ome 
 ¥ ; Hobe | ; 
 os 
 
FALIENCE, 
 
 Some words which are often in our 
 mouths are, nevertheless, but little un- 
 derstood ; and some virtues which we 
 are continually praising, are hardly 
 ever put in practice. This is as true of 
 patience as of any thing else. Every 
 man needs it, every man knows he 
 would be the better for it, yet every 
 man falls short of it. This, I suppose, 
 was one reason why the apostle James 
 teaches so emphatically concerning it, 
 
 “Let patience have her perfect work.” James i. 4. 
 
 It would seem that the “twelve 
 tribes scattered abroad,’ to whom this 
 apostle wrote, were in trials and need- 
 ed comfort. For the very first words 
 
 1™ (5) 
 
6 PATIENCE. 
 
 of his letter are as if he stood over 
 them and said, Be of good cheer! 
 “ My brethren,” says he, “count it all 
 joy, when ye fall into divers tempta- 
 tions,” 2%. ¢., trials. These troubles 
 tried their faith (v. 5,) and “ untried 
 faith is uncertain faith.” The result 
 of these trials of faith is patience. 
 The very word is derived from “ suf- 
 fering,”* and if there were no pain 
 there could be no patience. If then 
 patience is good, trials are good. And 
 the great caution to be observed under 
 such dispensations is, that we lose 
 not the fulness of the benefit; that we 
 content not ourselves with half the 
 mercy; that we stop not short of the 
 entire grace; for we may suffer and 
 yet not profit; therefore, says the in- 
 spired teacher, ‘“‘ Let patience have 
 her perfect work.” 
 
 *TIn Latin patientia, from patior. 
 
PATIENCE. ? 
 
 I. Patience is a certain temper of 
 mind under suffering. As we all are 
 appointed to suffer, and some of us 
 to suffer greatly and suffer long, we 
 should do well to learn more of this 
 heavenly art, concerning which so 
 much good is spoken in Scripture. 
 
 In its simplest form, patience is a 
 calm and unshaken state of mind, 
 strongly bearing up against a present 
 burden of distress. This may exist 
 without religion. A Stoic or a west- 
 ern savage may endure pain without 
 a murmur. Malefactors have stoutly 
 faced the torments of their penal death. 
 In respect to this, the natural tempera- 
 ment of human beings differs. Some 
 can naturally bear more than others. 
 They have more rigid fibre, or less 
 shrinking nerves, more robust health, 
 or smaller sensibility. The degree of 
 pain is to be measured, not by the 
 
8 PATIENCE. 
 
 force of the blow, but the power of 
 resistance. That which would crush 
 a reed shall leave no mark upon an 
 oak. When pain comes, however, it 
 is well if we have even natural means 
 of enduring it. But practice, disci- 
 pline, and exercise add vastly even to 
 this natural fortitude. Fresh soldiers 
 and new recruits quail and fly, but the 
 veteran has looked death in the face. 
 He who has endured once, can en- 
 dure again. Still more efficacious is 
 the operation of inward principle, add- 
 ing moral motives to the barely natural 
 power. Education has this for part of 
 its work, to teach the young to bear 
 some burdens, not to fall back at every 
 alarm, nor cry out at every pang. 
 Stern determination will help one to 
 sustain what might at first have seemed 
 intolerable. This is remarkably the 
 case in great and sudden pangs of an- 
 
PATIENCE. 9 
 
 guish, for which a resolved mind has 
 prepared itself. 
 
 Though pains of mind are worse than 
 pains of body, they also may be en- 
 dured by some with hardihood and 
 tranquillity, and this we call fortitude, 
 and in some circumstances patience. 
 By great skill and self-control in man- 
 aging the thoughts and detaching the 
 attention from distressing objects, some 
 are able, to a degree which at first 
 might seem impracticable, to keep up 
 quietude, self-possession, and even a 
 show of cheerfulness, under complicated 
 bereavements, mortifications, and griefs. | 
 All this may enter into the Christian’s 
 patience; but all this falls infinitely 
 short of its “ perfect work.” 
 
 Christian patience adds to this a 
 sweet, childlike resignation to God’s 
 holy will, in the affliction, whatever it 
 may be. All merely natural or phi- 
 
10 PATIENCE. 
 
 losophical patience is cold, gloomy, 
 sullen, and unprofitable. Though it 
 may refrain from tears, it cannot smile; 
 for it hath no faith, no love, no Sa- 
 viour, no covenant, no God! Chris- 
 tian patience “endures, as seeing Him 
 who is invisible ;” that is faith. Heb. 
 xi. 1. It looks up to the rod in the 
 hand of a chastening Father. Heb. 
 xii. 6. It considers One that endured 
 such contradiction against himself, and 
 arms itself with the same mind. 1 Pet. 
 iv. 1. It beholds every pang disposed 
 according to a covenant transaction. 
 1 Cor. ii. 22, 23. And it bows to 
 all, however distressing, as ordered by 
 the infinite wisdom, justice, and good- 
 ness. Lam. 11. 37—40. Therefore it 
 is, that the stoutest and hardest of 
 worldly sufferers falls so far below the 
 feeblest of Christ’s lambs, when laid 
 under heavy trials. Though pangs of 
 
PATIENCE. 1l 
 
 anguish must now and then extort a 
 sigh, tear, or groan, the child of God 
 still turns to him, when smitten, and 
 kisses the paternal hand. It is again 
 Jaith, believing that God doth it, and 
 that all he doth is wisest and is best. 
 It is submission, yielding the neck to 
 the yoke (Lam. iii. 27), bowing down 
 under the Omnipotent hand, (1 Pet. 
 v. 6), and prostrating itself beneath 
 the infinite and eternal will, (Gen. 
 xvii. 25.) It is resignation, giving 
 the whole matter into the best hands, 
 that He may undertake, (Isa. xxxvill. 
 14), and undoubtingly referring every 
 future event unto the God of the lilies 
 and the birds. Matt. vi. 26. It is 
 humility, owning itself little, and de- 
 pendent, and mean, and unworthy, 
 and therefore willing to suffer. And 
 it 1s penitence, bewailing sin, pleading 
 for mercy, wondering that it suffers so 
 
12 PATIENCE. 
 
 little, and remembering how light are 
 these pains compared with the agonies 
 of the lost, or the vicarious sorrows of 
 the Lord our righteousness. All this, 
 and much more, is present In every case 
 of truly sanctified Christian affliction; 
 and this sheds a light through the cur- 
 tains of evangelical sorrow, which is al- 
 together unknown to the most resolute 
 of stoical heroes. 
 
 There is a third consideration, not 
 to be omitted in our study of Christian 
 patience. The word, as said above, 
 implies suffering and endurance, but it 
 includes another idea. It has reference 
 to time. It is not barely willingness to 
 suffer, but willingness to suffer more. 
 Nature would not wait a moment; it 
 would be delivered now. Grace leaves 
 all to God, and says, “* My times are in 
 his hand!” Though the succour tarry, 
 patience can wait. Hab. ii. 38. What 
 
PATIENCE, BM 
 
 grace is this, thus added to faith and 
 love? Is it not Hope, the sister grace, — 
 that abideth? 1 Cor. xin. 13. Lean- 
 ing on her anchor, hope looks out from 
 her post of observation, casting the 
 eye over a waste of billows, and sweep- 
 ing that dim horizon where as yet no 
 sail twinkles along the distant line that 
 unites the sea and sky, but sure that 
 though weeping may endure for a 
 night, joy cometh in the morning. Psa. 
 xxx. 0. He that hath been with her 
 in six troubles, in the seventh will not 
 forsake her. Job v. 19. Here is a 
 blessed pillow for the languid aching 
 head, a cool refreshment for the throb- 
 bing temple. Here is a secret cordial 
 which has enabled many a child of sor- 
 row to bear the heavy load; when 
 tribulation worketh patience. Rom. v. 3. 
 This hope is more than empty conjec- 
 ture or vague expectation. It is firm; 
 
 2 
 
14 PATIENCE. 
 
 it is fixed. Its hold is above. It 
 seizes on words of promise and of cove- 
 nant. It is sustaining itself by the 
 arm of the mighty Saviour. Its spirit- 
 ual cable grapples that which is within 
 the veil (Heb. vi. 19), and hence it 
 maketh not ashamed. Rom. v. 5. 
 
 If it were God’s way to send on 
 his children only such trials as are 
 pungent, quick, and brief, however 
 severe, the test of patience would 
 be incomplete; but sometimes his rod 
 lies long, and the soul is made to 
 ery out, ‘“ Thine arrows stick fast in 
 me, and thy hand presseth me sore!” 
 Psa. xxxvill. 2. “ How long wilt thou 
 forget me, O Lord?” Psa. xii. 1. The 
 very working of the remedy depends 
 on this withholding of immediate cure. 
 Yet the believing child learns to think 
 and feel that God’s time is best, and is 
 assured that “ He doth not afflict will- 
 
PATIENCE. 15 
 
 ingly, nor grieve the children of men.” 
 Lam. i. 33. And hope opens the 
 window, and even though no dry land 
 as yet appears, welcomes the olive- 
 branch borne by the dove of promise. 
 Gen. vii. 10, 11. Deep may call unto 
 deep. Psa. xlu. 7. “ Yet the Lord will 
 command his loving-kindness in the 
 day-time, and in the night his song 
 shall be with me, and my prayer unto 
 the God of my life.” (verse 8.) “My 
 soul, wait thou only upon God!” Psa. 
 Ix. 5. Thus she cheers the night- 
 watches, and in the multitude of her 
 thoughts within her, God’s comforts 
 delight her soul. Psa. xciv. 19. The 
 experience of the psalmist is made for 
 such times of languishing. Many a 
 solitary one has renewed the strain of 
 David's pensive chord, and sung with 
 plaintive note, “I am shut up, and I 
 cannot come forth. Mine eye mourn- 
 
16 PATIENCE. 
 
 eth by reason of affliction. Lord, I 
 have called daily upon thee, I have 
 stretched out my hands unto thee.” 
 Psa. Ixxxvui. 8,9. The night wears 
 heavily away ; the stars in their courses 
 shine dimly; no streak of eastern dawn- 
 ing betokens day. Yet the hopeful 
 sufferer can say, “I wait for the Lord, 
 my soul doth wait, and in his word do 
 I hope; my soul waiteth for the Lord, 
 more than they that watch for the 
 morning; I say, more than they that 
 watch for the morning.” Psa. cxxx. 
 5, 6. And patience, not worn out 
 with waiting, turns on its pillow, and 
 breathes itself to God, saying, “ My 
 soul is even as a weaned child.” 
 Psa. @XXX1..2; 
 
 It would not be difficult to fill up the 
 whole tract with an account of those 
 different circumstances of a human 
 creature in which he must exercise 
 
PATIENCE. 17 
 
 this Christian virtue. But those to 
 whom such details would be applicable 
 are the very persons who need no 
 prompter; they know what their dis- 
 tresses are. It is much more import- 
 ant to observe, that there is no kind or 
 degree of suffering which our Heavenly 
 Father ordains, under which we may 
 not exercise patience, and, therefore, 
 as every human being is born to suffer, 
 there is not a single reader to whom 
 this lesson is not important, however 
 much he may think the contrary, in the 
 pride and self-sufficiency of youth, or 
 health, or fortune, or good spirits. And 
 though certain persons in our fastidious 
 generation grow intensely weary, when 
 time is bestowed in sustaining and com- 
 forting the broken-hearted—let such 
 know, that their time is coming, and 
 that even if now they have their “good 
 things,” and think their “mountain 
 
 as 
 
18 PATIENCE. 
 
 stands strong,” they shall yet live to 
 behold the day in which they must 
 have a stock and habit, yea a grace of 
 patience, or sink into extreme despond- 
 ency, if not despair. 
 
 In one view the suffering life of 
 many Christians, and those the best, is 
 hard to understand, for it seems at war 
 not only with God’s fatherly goodness, 
 but with his gracious covenant. (Read 
 Jer. xu. 12, and Psa. lxxii.) But we 
 must never lose our hold of two cardinal 
 pillars, the very Jachin and Boaz of 
 our temple: (1) that happiness in this 
 world is not the chief good; the affirm- 
 ing of which is the radical error of all 
 the common public economy, and much 
 of the philanthropy of the day; and (2) 
 that the education, or discipline, or 
 training, or perfecting of a soul is so 
 great and divine a work, that it is 
 worth a lifetime of distress; so that no 
 
PATIENCE. 19 
 
 redeemed saint will look back on the 
 longest sufferings of the present life as 
 more than the scarcely perceptible mo- 
 ment before an eternity of holy delight. 
 Angels look down and see poor sin- 
 wounded creatures fighting against 
 their chief medicine. As has been 
 said, God does not afflict nor grieve the 
 children of men “willingly,” arbitra- 
 rily, out of any love to see them suffer, 
 or any indifference to their sorrows; 
 but with a wise and definite end, which 
 will be revealed hereafter. The entire 
 process of Christian endurance, pain- 
 bearing, or patience, from beginning to 
 end, in all its connection of parts, is 
 more deeply interesting to one who 
 could read it, than any drama ever 
 enacted on the stage. So it will one 
 day appear, when not only the parti- 
 cular sufferer, but all the company of 
 God’s elect in heaven, shall look back 
 
20 PATIENCE, 
 
 and see many a mystery of providence 
 resolved. They will rise to higher ad- 
 miration of the divine plan, when they 
 shall be instructed why Joseph had his 
 youth oppressed by cruelty, exile and 
 imprisonment; why David was a per- 
 secuted fugitive, and a bereaved father ; 
 why the apostles were as sheep ap- 
 pointed to the slaughter; why the early 
 Christians were mowed down by the 
 sword; and why to this day they that 
 will live godly suffer persecution. They 
 will recall ten thousand cases, (for eter- 
 nity has neither limits nor weariness,) 
 in which some of the best of men have 
 lain under pangs, or in languishing 
 from sore diseases; or journeyed 
 through a valley of gloom and de- 
 pression; or been marks for arrows 
 from the bow of wicked fellow-creatures, 
 and more malignant demons; and why 
 others, with hearts sickened by hope 
 
 Cea 
 
PATIENCE. 21 
 
 deferred, waited years and almost life- 
 times without seeing the accomplish- 
 ment of their strongest desires. When 
 these several circles are complete, and 
 every covering removed, and God’s 
 light thrown on dark places of the spi- 
 ritual temple, it will appear, that this 
 very divine product, to wit, holy pa- 
 tience, has been as dear to the great 
 Architect of the Church, as is the cost- 
 liest sculpture to the most devoted 
 enthusiast in art. And therefore we 
 are exhorted not merely to have pa- 
 tience, but to let patience have her 
 perfect work. 
 
 Il. The perfect work of patience is 
 plainly nothing less than the full and 
 thorough carrying out of patience, with 
 unfaltering strength of soul, in every 
 kind and measure of trial, unto the very 
 end. Death closes all trials of the be- 
 lever; but until death he is to have 
 
A PATIENCE. 
 
 his armour on. There may be some 
 reality of true Christian patience, and 
 yet it may be very weak. We must 
 learn to bear up bravely, and with the 
 putting forth of a complete manful en- 
 ergy. Small encounters are useful to 
 the raw recruit; they exercise him in 
 the virtues which in process of time 
 make him a soldier. He that bearded 
 the lion and bear, afterwards accepted 
 the challenge of Goliath, though still a 
 ruddy youth. Could we look on daily 
 troubles, as exercises set us by the 
 Master, to fit us for the higher efforts 
 of patience, we should be saved much 
 repining and many groans. The great 
 duty is always the duty of the day, of 
 the hour, of this moment. If our 
 equanimity is destroyed by the trifles 
 of a life generally prosperous—what 
 can we expect of ourselves, in the 
 water-floods of tribulation which may 
 
PATIENCE. 23 
 
 yet rollin? Jer. xii. 5. Let us learn 
 to bear with a hard hand on the helm, 
 before the tempest arises. Under the 
 sense of God’s supreme governance and 
 paternal love, and in expectation of 
 reward and rest hereafter, let us bow 
 ourselves to the sovereign disposal; 
 bearing all that God sends, and Christ 
 our Mediator concurs in, with a yield- 
 ing, filial, believing soul. 
 
 Patience may be said to have its per- 
 fect work, when it withstands a great, 
 sudden and extraordinary affliction 
 without being shaken. Uncommon 
 faith is necessary for such an exercise 
 as this. Indeed who has not cause to 
 join in the prayer, Lead us not into 
 temptation! Strong Christians are the 
 persons to whom this forefront of the 
 battle is reserved; to them “it is gwen 
 in the behalf of Christ, not only to be- 
 lieve on him, but also to suffer for his 
 
24 PATIENCE. 
 
 sake.” Phil. i. 29. Itis Job, the “ per- 
 fect man,” who is carried through the 
 unexampled conflict. And the early 
 believers to whom James addressed the 
 words of the text, were exposed to evils 
 such as happily we know nothing of. 
 Yet they needed the exhortation. 
 Patience has its perfect work, when 
 it does not give way but holds out, 
 however long may be the trial. Even 
 weakness may sustain a momentary 
 attack, and pungent anguish may be 
 borne, if it be soon over. But to have 
 day after day of pain, and night after 
 night of fearful watching; to le down 
 heavy, yet hoping for no alleviation in 
 the morning; to be wounded again and 
 again, and find increasing years bring 
 new losses and deeper sorrows ;—this 
 has been the lot of some who were 
 God’s children, and concerning whom 
 it might well be said, that though the 
 
PATIENCE. 2a 
 
 outer man perished, the inner man was 
 renewed day by day. No man can 
 number the cases of hopeless disease, 
 tending incurably to certain and pain- 
 ful death, which occur in every age, 
 and that among true believers. Christ’s 
 confessors have, in more periods of the 
 church than one, spent large parts of 
 their best years in prison. Millions 
 have borne all the complicated ills of 
 poverty all their days. And those who 
 have survived to old age, have found it 
 often one long disease. All these have 
 had “need of patience,” and would not 
 have experienced its perfect work, if 
 they had fainted in the day of adver- 
 sity. I can never forget a Christian 
 woman, eminent for spiritual joys, who 
 was confined to her bed, with a wasting 
 and at times excruciating disease, for 
 about twenty years. Let not frivolous 
 or superficial professors flatter them- 
 3 
 
26 PATIENCE. 
 
 selves that those fair-weather graces 
 which they boast of now, will stand them 
 in stead when long storms begin to howl. 
 Unusual supports from the very hand 
 of the Spirit are necessary, against such 
 conjunctures; and which of us can be 
 certain that such shall not befall him- 
 self? 
 
 Patience has a perfect work, when it 
 grows to be an abiding habit of the soul. 
 This cannot be, except by repeated acts 
 of faith, submission and hope, reiterated 
 till they are like a second nature. Such 
 endurance rests on settled principle, 
 and is an eminent work of the Holy 
 Spirit. There are few more noble cha- 
 racters we can give of any, than when 
 we say of a believer, He is habitually 
 patient. The character is rare, but we 
 are invited to attain it. 
 
 Whether the words of the apostle be 
 considered asa command or an entreaty, 
 
PATIENCE. 27 
 
 they equally imply that there was some | 
 effort to be put forth. Let patience 
 have her perfect work. “Place your- 
 selves in the posture of being thoroughly 
 and imperturbably constant even to the 
 close of your mortal struggle.” This 
 enjoins the forbearance of whatever is 
 contrary to the meek and patient spirit, 
 and the acquisition, preservation and 
 increase of every good gift which is 
 favourable to it; for instance, humility, 
 sense of sin, godly sorrow and shame, 
 thirst for holiness, faith, hope, courage, 
 love and joy. Indeed patience has its 
 perfect work, only where all sister 
 graces are carried forward with sym- 
 metrical increase; and whenever one 
 of these is nourished into new strength, 
 it contributes so much to the solid habit 
 of Christian patience. 
 
 III. Let us consider some of the mo- 
 ties to let patience have her perfect 
 work. 
 
28 PATIENCE. 
 
 1. This is a virtue which is needed 
 every day. Some excellencies of the 
 soul are called out only by great emer- 
 gencies, but the world in which we live 
 is so beset with vexations that there is 
 not a day, there is scarcely an hour, in 
 which we are not called to be patient. 
 The little events of domestic life, con- 
 nected with ordinary labour and ser- 
 vice, give the cumbered and troubled 
 Martha as keen anguish as is felt by 
 the general of an army or the ruler of 
 a state, from defeats and revolutions. 
 The inward grace required must not be 
 measured by the apparent magnitude 
 of the burden, but the strength of the 
 sustainer. Spirits above perhaps look 
 down on princes contending about the 
 crown of an empire, with as much con- 
 tempt as we bestow on infants fighting 
 for a straw. But trials are not all 
 equal. Sometimes, as we have seen, 
 
PATIENCE. 29 
 
 vehement surges of affliction break in; 
 and we know not on what day this 
 may occur; hence we must be ready 
 every day. All the days of our life we 
 are going over one and the same course 
 of Christian duty, viz., submitting our 
 own selfish will to the will of God. 
 
 2. Iherease of patience is increase of 
 happiness. Though present happiness 
 is not the great object of life, it is one 
 of the effects of religion, to which we 
 cannot be indifferent. And what is 
 very remarkable, there is not a single 
 religious act, which does not increase 
 our happiness. Properly understood, 
 the whole moral law, whether at Sinai 
 or the mount of the Beatitudes, utters 
 this one commandment, BE HAPPY! 
 What is thus true of holiness in general 
 is eminently true of this mode of it in 
 particular. Pain almost ceases to be 
 pain, to a mind that fully yields itself 
 
 3 * 
 
30 PATIENCE. 
 
 ’ 
 
 to God. That this is true in a much 
 higher sense than ordinary Christians 
 suppose, is apparent in the case of the 
 martyrs; (Heb. xi. 52—49,) and we 
 have known instances in common life 
 where the most horrible maladies, al- 
 most unmanning mere spectators, have 
 been borne with equanimity and even 
 cheerfulness, by disciples of Christ. 
 Patience disarms affliction. If the pa- 
 tience were perfect, the suffermg would 
 be annihilated, as to its effect on hap- 
 piness. The reason why true Christians 
 sometimes endure great distresses before 
 entire relief comes, 1s not that patience 
 is an insufficient antidote, but that they 
 have not patience enough. And here 
 ubserve a striking difference between 
 the stoical hardness of a worldly mind, 
 and the sacred endowment which we 
 are endeavouring to recommend. A stout 
 hearted unbeliever will now and then 
 
go 
 PATIENCE. 31 
 
 appear absolutely unshrinking under 
 trials, such as bodily pains, calumny, 
 loss of children, hatred and enmity of 
 fellow-creatures; but his shield is m- 
 sensibility. He has made the surface 
 callous. And in so doing he has stopped 
 up the avenues as well of pleasure as 
 of pain. He has diminished his sorrows 
 without increasing his joys. Now ob- 
 serve how opposite the case of Christ’s 
 disciple. He suffers too, and triumphs 
 in suffering, but not by insensibility. 
 He feels the wound. The thrill of a 
 poignant infliction runs through his 
 quick and sentient nerve to the centre 
 of feeling, as nimbly as in the most in- 
 consolable and maddened unbeliever. 
 He is not stupefied; he is not seared ; 
 his temperament of genuine humanity 
 is all alive to grief; but it is also alive 
 to joy. And that joy God pours in, so 
 that he glories in tribulation also. e- 
 
32 PATIENCE. 
 
 ligion, which has made his susceptibili- 
 ties more tender, opens new access for 
 refined pleasures. For loss, he finds 
 indemnity ; and for pain and woe, a 
 spiritual. faith and hope, love and joy, 
 which overcome and absorb them. 
 Patience in such an advanced expe- 
 rience 1s no longer unfeeling acquies- 
 cence, but a swallowing up of man’s 
 will in the will of God. What abun- 
 dant reason have we, in this valley of 
 tears and tombs, to strive that patience 
 may have her perfect work ! 
 
 3. Obedience to the requisition of the 
 text conduces to true greatness of cha- 
 racter. Religion, properly understood, 
 is nothing else than a restitution begun, 
 of humanity to its perfect condition. 
 
 To be without religion is to be cur- 
 tailed of the dimensions of man’s 
 character. Every state of mind and 
 heart which religion commands is just 
 
PATIENCE. 33 
 
 so far a return to spiritual health. No 
 human soul can be truly great while 
 ignorant of God, alienated from God, 
 opposed to God, slavishly in dread of 
 God, and out of communion with God. 
 Each grace of the Holy Spirit tends to 
 lift man up towards the ideal of hu- 
 manity. The trials of life bring all 
 men into a certain conflict with ad- 
 verse circumstances, producing pain. 
 In this conflict many are conquered. 
 But the Christian combatant finds every 
 trial an occasion for bringing out latent 
 reserves of a strength derived from 
 Christ his Head. When he suffers 
 therefore sharply and long, he is only 
 like a soldier going from one battle to 
 another, and waxing hardier and more 
 courageous after each success. Hear 
 how Paul, long tried in this athletic 
 effort, expresses this Christian magna- 
 nimity, (1 Cor. ix. 25,) “I therefore 
 
34 PATIENCE. 
 
 run, not as uncertaily ; so fight I, not 
 as one that beateth the air.” And 
 “ Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold 
 on eternal life.” There is reason to be- 
 lieve, that no great Christian character 
 can be developed without some severe 
 discipline, that is, without patience, in 
 its large and scriptural sense. 
 
 4. Confirmed patience tends to use- 
 Julness in the Church. The very 
 reverse 1s often thought by the sufferer 
 himself, especially if his trial throws 
 him into solitude, poverty, contempt of 
 brethren, weakness of body, pains of 
 old age, or separation from friends. In 
 the chamber of melancholy seclusion 
 how many a soul has mourned that all 
 opportunity of doing any thing for 
 Christ was cut off. But this is a short- 
 sighted and defective conclusion. When 
 God’s infinitely wise and holy will is 
 done, then the great end of our creation, 
 
PATIENCE. 35 
 
 and our redemption, and our sanctifica- 
 tion is accomplished, so far as we are 
 concerned; whether it be by doing or 
 by suffering. If it were possible for a 
 perfectly sinless angel to be perpetually 
 bathed in sorrow by the will of God, 
 the pure spirit would accept the coming 
 trial with a yielding bliss. And when 
 the perfectly sinless Jesus, who was 
 “very man, sank in griefs which sur- 
 pass comprehension, he was accomplish- 
 ing the purposes of the Godhead, and 
 said, “‘ Not my will, but thine be done.” 
 Now by sending trials and educing the 
 grace of patience in repeated acts, God 
 fits the soul for labours incalculably be- 
 yond every thing it could have effected 
 without this education. And _ these 
 very pains, and the conduct of a be- 
 hever under them, becoming visible to 
 bystanders and fellow-servants, as well 
 as to the ungodly themselves, go up as 
 
36 PATIENCE. 
 
 a costly odour, to magnify the grace of 
 the gospel. So that no sermons ever 
 preached so loudly as the transient view 
 of a suffering saint has sometimes done, 
 when in the fiery heart of the hot fur- 
 nace, he has been seen unhurt, with 
 one like unto the Son of God. (Dan. 
 ui. 25.) In both ways, therefore, by 
 preparing for action, and by exhibiting 
 the glory of grace, patience tends to 
 benefit the Church. 
 
 5. Finally. Putience when duly sus- 
 tained leads to a great reward. Not in 
 the sense of the Papists, who strike a 
 commercial balance between pains and 
 recompense, and set off so much trouble 
 in this life against so much merited 
 blessing in the life to come. But in 
 perfect consistency with our belief that 
 after all is done we are unprofitable 
 servants, that all heavenly good is 
 merited by our Saviour, and not by us, 
 
PATIENCE. 37 
 
 and that a man may suffer pain here 
 which shall be swallowed up in greater 
 pains hereafter, we maintain and teach, 
 that in the case of true believers, the 
 gracious deportment of the soul under 
 earthly affliction carries it forward to 
 higher happiness than it would other- 
 wise have reached. “For our light 
 affliction, which is but for a moment, 
 worketh for us a far more exceeding 
 and eternal weight of glory.” By the 
 work of God’s Spirit, the soul that suffers 
 receives greater capacity for eventual 
 joy. Whoso bears God’s burdens in a 
 godly manner is made holier, and more 
 fit and able to take in the surpassing 
 blessedness of rest. And then our 
 heavenly Father, who seeth not as man 
 seeth, does not measure our obedience 
 on a physical scale, by the amount and 
 number of sensible acts, as if he reckoned 
 up so many deeds outwardly done, so 
 
38 PATIENCE. 
 
 many palpable effects produced, so many 
 words spoken ; but by the quality of the 
 inward affection and will, which may 
 be heavenward and holy, and infinitely 
 pleasing to God, in a poor creature 
 locked in a dungeon, or motionless on 
 a bed of illness. Where the soul pleases 
 God, there the great work of life is ac- 
 complished; in an apostolic discourse 
 or miracle, in a gift of charity, in a 
 resistance of temptation, or In agony on 
 a CYoss. 
 
 Patience, heavenly patience, under 
 what God inflicts, is more pleasing to 
 him than thousands of rams, and ten 
 thousands of rivers of oil; which is of 
 itself the all-comprehensive motive to 
 pious submission and endurance. But 
 what is pleasing to God, as the fruit of 
 his Holy Spirit, God will graciously 
 reward. “I know thy works,” saith 
 he to Ephesus, “and thy labour and 
 
PATIENCE. 39 
 
 thy patience.” “I know thy works,” 
 saith he to Thyatira, “and charity, and 
 service, and faith, and thy patience.” 
 ‘“ Because,” saith he to Philadelphia, 
 “thou hast kept the word of my pa- 
 tience, I also will keep thee.” “ Be- 
 hold,” saith he to Smyrna, “the devil 
 shall cast some of you into prison, that 
 ye may be tried, and ye shall have tri- 
 bulation ten days. Be thou faithful 
 unto death, and I will give thee a crown 
 of life!’ May I not add with renewed 
 emphasis the exhortation of our apostle, 
 though it struck strangely on the ear 
 at first, “‘ My brethren, count it all joy, 
 when ye fall into divers temptations ; 
 knowing this that the trying of your 
 faith worketh patience.” O my bro- 
 ther—my sister—more patience will 
 make us more like Christ. What are 
 our sufferings to his! Meditate, step 
 by step, on the degrees of his humilia- 
 
40 PATIENCE. 
 
 tion, accompanying Him whom your 
 souls love, from point to point of his 
 unexampled sorrows; and thus will 
 you find sin grow more intolerable, 
 and suffering more light. 
 
 THE END. 
 

 

 
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