Some words which are often in our
mouths are, nevertheless, but little understood;
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 needed
comfort. For the very first words
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 temptations,"
i. e., trials. These troubles
tried their faith (v. 3,) and "untried
faith is uncertain faith." The result
of these trials of faith is patience.
The very word is derived from "suffering,"[1]
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 inspired
teacher, "Let patience have
her perfect work."
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 western
savage may endure pain without
a murmur. Malefactors have stoutly
faced the torments of their penal death.
In respect to this, the natural temperament
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
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, discipline,
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 endure
again. Still more efficacious is
the operation of inward principle, adding
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 anguish,
for which a resolved mind has
prepared itself.
Though pains of mind are worse than
pains of body, they also may be endured
by some with hardihood and
tranquillity, and this we call fortitude,
and in some circumstances patience.
By great skill and self-control in managing
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 philosophical
patience is cold, gloomy,
sullen, and unprofitable. Though it
may refrain from tears, it cannot smile;
for it hath no faith, no love, no Saviour,
no covenant, no God! Christian
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. iii. 22, 23. And it bows to
all, however distressing, as ordered by
the infinite wisdom, justice, and goodness.
Lam. iii. 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
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
faith, 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.
xviii. 25.) It is resignation, giving
the whole matter into the best hands,
that He may undertake, (Isa. xxxviii.
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 dependent,
and mean, and unworthy,
and therefore willing to suffer. And
it is penitence, bewailing sin, pleading
for mercy, wondering that it suffers so
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 curtains
of evangelical sorrow, which is altogether
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. 3. What
grace is this, thus added to faith and
love? Is it not HOPE, the sister grace,
that abideth? 1 Cor. xiii. 13. Leaning
on her anchor, hope looks out from
her post of observation, casting the
eye over a waste of billows, and sweeping
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. 5. 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 throbbing
temple. Here is a secret cordial
which has enabled many a child of sorrow
to bear the heavy load; when
tribulation worketh patience. Rom. v. 3.
This hope is more than empty conjecture
or vague expectation. It is firm;
it is fixed. Its hold is above. It
seizes on words of promise and of covenant.
It is sustaining itself by the
arm of the mighty Saviour. Its spiritual
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
cry out, "Thine arrows stick fast in
me, and thy hand presseth me sore!"
Psa. xxxviii. 2. "How long wilt thou
forget me, Lord?" Psa. xiii. 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 willingly,
nor grieve the children of men."
Lam. iii. 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. viii. 10, 11. Deep may call unto
deep. Psa. xlii. 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.
lxii. 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 mourneth
by reason of affliction. Lord, I
have called daily upon thee, I have
stretched out my hands unto thee."
Psa. lxxxviii. 8, 9. The night wears
heavily away; the stars in their courses
shine dimly; no streak of eastern dawning
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. cxxxi. 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
this Christian virtue. But those to
whom such details would be applicable
are the very persons who need no
prompter; they know what their distresses
are. It is much more important
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 comforting
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
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 despondency,
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. xii. 12, and Psa. lxxiii.) 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 affirming
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
redeemed saint will look back on the
longest sufferings of the present life as
more than the scarcely perceptible moment
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," arbitrarily,
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 particular
sufferer, but all the company of
God's elect in heaven, shall look back
and see many a mystery of providence
resolved. They will rise to higher admiration
of the divine plan, when they
shall be instructed why Joseph had his
youth oppressed by cruelty, exile and
imprisonment; why David was a persecuted
fugitive, and a bereaved father;
why the apostles were as sheep appointed
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 eternity
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 depression;
or been marks for arrows
from the bow of wicked fellow-creatures,
and more malignant demons; and why
others, with hearts sickened by hope
deferred, waited years and almost lifetimes
without seeing the accomplishment
of their strongest desires. When
these several circles are complete, and
every covering removed, and God's
light thrown on dark places of the spiritual
temple, it will appear, that this
very divine product, to wit, holy patience,
has been as dear to the great
Architect of the Church, as is the costliest
sculpture to the most devoted
enthusiast in art. And therefore we
are exhorted not merely to have patience,
but to let patience have her
perfect work.
II. 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 believer;
but until death he is to have
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 energy.
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
yet roll in? 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 yielding,
filial, believing soul.
Patience may be said to have its perfect
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 given
in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe
on him, but also to suffer for his
sake." Phil. i. 29. It is Job, the "perfect
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 lie 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
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 painful
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 adversity.
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 themselves
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 himself?
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 characters
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 as a command or an entreaty,
they equally imply that there was some
effort to be put forth. Let patience
have her perfect work. "Place yourselves
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 symmetrical
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 motives
to let patience have her perfect
work.
1. This is a virtue which is needed
every day. Some excellencies of the
soul are called out only by great emergencies,
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, connected
with ordinary labour and service,
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 contempt
as we bestow on infants fighting
for a straw. But trials are not all
equal. Sometimes, as we have seen,
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. Increase 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
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. 32-49,) and we
have known instances in common life
where the most horrible maladies, almost
unmanning mere spectators, have
been borne with equanimity and even
cheerfulness, by disciples of Christ.
Patience disarms affliction. If the patience
were perfect, the suffering would
be annihilated, as to its effect on happiness.
The reason why true Christians
sometimes endure great distresses before
entire relief comes, is not that patience
is an insufficient antidote, but that they
have not patience enough. And here
observe 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
appear absolutely unshrinking under
trials, such as bodily pains, calumny,
loss of children, hatred and enmity of
fellow-creatures; but his shield is insensibility.
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 observe
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 inconsolable
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. Religion,
which has made his susceptibilities
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 experience
is no longer unfeeling acquiescence,
but a swallowing up of man's
will in the will of God. What abundant
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 character.
Religion, properly understood,
is nothing else than a restitution begun,
of humanity to its perfect condition.
To be without religion is to be curtailed
of the dimensions of man's
character. Every state of mind and
heart which religion commands is just
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 humanity.
The trials of life bring all
men into a certain conflict with adverse
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 magnanimity,
(1 Cor. ix. 25,) "I therefore
run, not as uncertainly; 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 believe,
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 usefulness
in the Church. The very
reverse is 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,
and our redemption, and our sanctification
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 surpass
comprehension, he was accomplishing
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 beyond
every thing it could have effected
without this education. And these
very pains, and the conduct of a believer
under them, becoming visible to
bystanders and fellow-servants, as well
as to the ungodly themselves, go up as
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 furnace,
he has been seen unhurt, with
one like unto the Son of God. (Dan.
iii. 25.) In both ways, therefore, by
preparing for action, and by exhibiting
the glory of grace, patience tends to
benefit the Church.
5. Finally. Patience when duly sustained
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,
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 believer, the
gracious deportment of the soul under
earthly affliction carries it forward to
higher happiness than it would otherwise
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
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 accomplished;
in an apostolic discourse
or miracle, in a gift of charity, in a
resistance of temptation, or in agony on
a cross.
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
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 patience,
I also will keep thee." "Behold,"
saith he to Smyrna, "the devil
shall cast some of you into prison, that
ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation
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 brother—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 humiliation,
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.