Patience is that grace that enables us to bear calamities, afflictions, and oppositions with constancy and calmness of mind and with a ready submission to the will of God.

It is something to be “followed after” (1 Timothy 6:11). The teachings of truth, as also the temptations of the devil, constantly present before the mind’s eye, a path and inducements to walk in it. The path of patience is presented by truth and is to be followed.

By Paul (2 Corinthians 6:3–12), it is placed at the head of those graces that commend us to God and good men, in the midst of all the trials that have ever been the common lot of God’s children, or that ever will be incident to Christian life. See also 2 Thessalonians 1:3–6; 2 Timothy 3:8–13. While it preserves its possessor from offending by any departure from the path of duty marked out by the Lord (2 Corinthians 6:3), it does not always prevent people from becoming offended with us. Verse 12.

Its exercise is a condition of God’s favor, and of being preserved by Him in the hour of temptation. Hebrews 6:12; 10:36; James 1:3, 4; Revelation 3:10.

It is a link in that chain of graces upon which is suspended the Christian’s hope. Romans 5:3; 15:4; 2 Peter 1:6. It is preceded by love. 1 Timothy 6:11.

It is as impossible to secure and retain the noble grace of Christian patience without “righteousness, godliness, faith and love,” as it is for the smith to attach a fifth link to his chain, before he has put on the fourth one; and the devil will never assail us with “great wrath,” until this chain of graces is complete.

Almost all classes of community hold on to and admire some one of the links in this chain. Thus we have the “Moral Reform Society,” for the promotion of “virtue.” The “Temperance Society,” for the promotion of “temperance,” etc., etc. But alas! where is the society for the promotion of Christian patience? For the want of this link in the chain, the Christian’s hope is fallen in the dust, where it fails to attract the malicious eye of the enemy of God and man.

Patience is wrought in the “trial of our faith” (James 1:3). God has given us a rule of faith—the Bible—containing things to be believed, that when fully believed and practiced, will bring the tribulation necessary to work patience in the soul. Christian patience supposes tribulations—such as are peculiar to the Christian—tribulations occasioned by following Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:22–31. It cannot be possessed without tribulation—it is wrought by it. So says the sure word, and we are unsafe without a kind of patience thus wrought.

An anxiety for the wealth and honors of this world will destroy its exercise. 1 Timothy 3:3; 2 Timothy 2:24.

To gain eternal life, the exercise of patience must be continuous. Romans 2:7; 2 Timothy 2:9,10; 1 Corinthians 4:12–16.

It is a duty enjoined in waiting for the coming of the Lord. James 5:7, 8; Psalm 37:7; 40:1; 2 Thessalonians 3:5; etc.

We want it to bear with each others’ infirmities and with a scoffing world. 1 Thessalonians 5:14. All men like ourselves are poor fallible beings, possessing the same liability to err; and we should ever bear in mind that their opposition can affect our salvation in no other way, than by trying our patience. In such trials our eternal well-being is endangered; for if we yield to impatience, the chain is broken and our hope is lost; or become a mere creature of imagination. Those followers of Jesus, whose minds are naturally sensitive and easily affected by tribulations arising from sarcasm, falsehood, and misrepresentations will ever be safe in turning to the reasoning of the Apostle in Romans 8:31–39.

We should exercise patience toward our fellow men, because we are ever liable to be placed in circumstances where we may need it extended to us. Matthew 18:26.

Another reason for the exercise of patience is that God has not authorized us to ask any more lenity from Him, than we extend to our fellows. Matthew 6:12; 18:21, 22, 33.

True patience reaches to the end of the Christian’s pilgrimage (James 1:4; Revelation 13:10; 14:12), while the patience of the unstable and worldly-minded man wears out somewhere on his journey, but is more likely to be exhausted near the journey’s end. None tire at the beginning of a pilgrimage; few in the middle of it; but many give out near its end.

God has furnished us with an excellent rule for testing our patience, whether it be of the proper kind; for there is seldom a true bill without its counterfeit. 1 Peter 2:20–23 is a complete counterfeit detector in this line of graces. It must be a kind of patience wrought by tribulations, occasioned by following Christ, or His word, which is a transcript of Himself.

O how much has the Christian pilgrim to try his patience while passing through this “vale of tears!” “Looking for the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” “Behold,” says James, “the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain. Be ye also patient, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” The husbandman prepares his ground, sows his seed, fences his field, and watches the first appearance of the blade, and never once murmurs because the harvest is not ready at midsummer; and even though the harvest is a month later in ripening, than usual, he patiently waits until it is ready, when he thrusts in his sickle and returns, “rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

But we have a higher example in the patience of God toward our fallen race. After the world has slighted His grace, rejected His laws, and established laws, systems, and governments of their own; behold His patience, and mark well His tender love! “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

James 5:10. Moses, the meek, was also the patient servant of God. He exchanged the heirship of the Egyptian throne for a companionship with oppressed slaves; and while he appealed again and again to the haughty tyrant for the liberation of God’s people, he patiently waited till the “firstborn of Egypt” were slain; the host assembled; the pillar of fire appeared; then meekly pursued his course through the Sea, and the wilderness, till the promised land was stretched out before his view.

Joshua marshaled the “Sacred Hosts of God’s elect,” and, following His directions, marched seven times around the city of Jericho, and on the seventh day, when the patience of many would have failed, he accomplished as much as in the whole previous six days, and through his patient and unwearied application, possessed the land promised to his fathers.

Joseph, betrayed by his brethren, falsely and maliciously accused by Potiphar’s wife, patiently suffered the privations of a prison, till God plead his cause, elevated him to a seat above the throne of Egypt, and finally signalized him as another deliverer of His people.

Gideon, with his despised band of three hundred men, occupying a station claimed by thirty thousand, that God rejected, patiently pursued his course, and waited at the Midianite’s camp, with their simple armor of “pitchers and lamps,” till the swords of the enemies of the Lord were turned one against another, and he was left to share the conqueror’s spoils.

David, “because God was with him,” became an object of the wicked hatred of Saul, who bade his servants slay him. He slew the enemies of Saul “with a great slaughter;” yet, even this embittered his enemy, who again attempted to thrust him through with a dart. When the kingdom was within his reach, he fled away and sought seclusion in the society of Samuel. In vain did he appeal to his enemy, “what have I done?” he must be sacrificed to the demon of jealousy; and again he fled away—begged some bread, and the sword of Goliath, and took refuge in the cave of Adullam. This was the man of whom the damsels sung, “Saul hath slain his thousands, but David has slain his tens of thousands;” yet now, one heart alone could feel for him; “Jonathan fell upon his neck and wept.”

When they that would destroy him wrongfully were “more in number than the hairs of his head,” then he “restored that which he took not away.” His companions were the “discontented, and every one that was in debt.” Rewards of honor, fields, and vineyards were offered for his life, yet in no instance would he take revenge upon one that bore the name of an Israelite, but suffered in patience.

His forbearance caused even his proud enemy to weep with a loud voice and say, “Thou art more righteous than I;” when David held up the “skirt of his robe,” that he had cut off while he slept, and exclaimed, “The Lord judge between me and thee,” and again he fled into the wilderness of Engedi. When Saul had fallen upon the plains of Gilboa, David stood by his side, and with unaffected grief, cried, “How are the mighty fallen!”

Again, an aspirant for human honors, his own son (!) sat in the gate, and with fair speeches and enticing words stole away the hearts of the people from following after David. Meekly he yields the throne to the usurper, and when a just reward was visited upon the head of the rebel, in the room of joining the song of triumph, he clothed himself in sackcloth, and cried, “My son, Absalom, my son, my son!! would God I had died for thee.”

On no occasion does he trouble himself with a defense of his course or character; yet God raised him to honor, and turned the counsel of Ahithophel against him, into foolishness. Look at his last word, 2 Samuel 23:1-7.

Elijah is another example of patience. Seven times in prayer he bowed himself and patiently waited for rain upon the thirsty land, till he saw the “little cloud” arise. He preferred to lie down in the wilderness alone and receive his food from the wild ravens’ claws, rather than yield to the claims of wicked Ahab for a prophecy of peace, and prosperity for his corrupted kingdom, and tyrannical reign, when God had not spoken peace. As a reward of his patient sufferings, God sent his chariots, and bore him forever away from the scene of his trial.

Nehemiah and Ezra were special objects of hatred, when they had courage to rebuild the fallen walls of Jerusalem. Sanballat and Tobiah sneeringly said, “If so much as a fox go up on your wall, he will break it down.” But as the work was patiently prosecuted, they changed their tune, first to flattery, then to threats. The dignified, patient reply to their crafty efforts was, “I am doing a great work, and why should it cease for me to come down to you?”

Esther, raised from obscurity to the throne of Media and Persia, in patient silence wept and prayed, awaiting deliverance from the hand of God, for herself and people, against the deep laid and crafty designs of wicked Haman, and witnessed his overthrow.

Job. Ye have heard of the patience of Job. James 5:11. In the midst of affluence tribulations came. His “oxen were ploughing,” and his asses quietly “feeding beside them,” when the Sabeans fell upon them, carried them away, and slew his servants, and the fire from heaven consumed his flocks. His houses were rent by winds, and his children perished. His body was smitten with boils till he sat down in the dust and cried aloud with pain. He mourned alone; even his wife upbraided him for his constancy. His friends conspired against him, taking peculiar pains to prove him a bad man; yet “in all this he sinned not, nor charged God foolishly,” but looked forward to the day of retribution, and exclaimed, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”

Jeremiah went down to the potter’s house and foretold the evils to come upon Israel and Judah; then they conspired against him and said, “Come and let us smite him with the tongue.” God sent him again to prophesy against Israel and Judah, charging him to “diminish not a word.” Then they conspired against him, saying, “he is worthy to die.” He patiently submitted himself to them, was shut up in the court of the prison, afterwards was cast into a dungeon where he nearly perished with hunger; and in all this, not one bitter complaint for himself; but for his people he cried, “O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!”

Ezekiel patiently submitted to eat the “bitter roll,” and speak the words that God had given him, and “briers and thorns were with him.” At the end of his patient, and as usual with God’s servants, unpopular labors, he was presented with a view of the glorious City, and river of life.

Daniel and his brethren patiently suffered the privations of captivity from their Canaan home, and without a murmur submitted to the exactions of an unrighteous decree, and thus “stopped the mouths of lions, and quenched the violence of fire.”

The minor prophets all suffered privations in their turn, leaving their cause to God.

And what of all these? Why, if you will obey God, and be His, take them for an example of “suffering, affliction, and patience.”

The Jewish dispensation, with its scenes of suffering, passed away at that point of time when professed servants of God were conspiring the death of creation’s acknowledged Lord.

And now opens a fresh scene of tribulation, that loudly calls forth the exercise of this manly—this Godlike grace. I say, manly, because it is completely divested of that want of principle—that impatience, which seeks the destruction of its victim—a work the child of God never can, and never will attempt to do.

First on the list of patient sufferers under the gospel dispensation is, Who! Ah, Who!? Its Leader! No less than He that is now soon to appear, wearing the insignia of King of kings, and Lord of lords. See him in the midst of a mob [Matthew 26:50–56], betrayed by a professed disciple, yet no unkind word. They all abandoned Him to His enemies, yet no reproaches. “He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.” They spit in His face, and insulted Him on the cross, yet on the cross He prayed, “forgive.”

“Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye become wearied and faint in your minds.”