The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-04-24

ouoI OFoi 1uo leuCos uOWeNeT, LuluSS
wear different aspect. The grass
and weeds are knee deep. On the
rickety, implanted veranda, sits our
lazy man drowsily smoking his loud
smelling, unfragrant pipe, patient
ly" waiting for the winters frost and
snow to freeze the grass and weeds to
death and then bury them out of
sight. The lazy man is not the pa
tient man.
Patience needs, likewise, to be dis
tinguished from procrastination, THE
habit of putting things off until some
other time. OF all bad habits, this is
one of the easiest to contract. The
industrious as we'll as the slothful
are its victims. The lazy man will
postpone duty that should be done
Immediately because he has no liking
for it, while the busy man will plead
too much else to do. 1t is not pa
thence that postpones the duties of
the present. Waiting to perform the
duties of the hour until circumstances
find us in the humor for them, is pro-
crastination, not patience.
Separated in this manner from
laziness and procrastination, patience
may be defined to be the power that
makes us wait: LIST. For the right
time to do duty. End. For the re-
ward of our efforts, and for what the
future has in store for us; and 3rd.
Tha makes us endure with resignation
the experiences that fall to our lot.
In enumerating some of the many
blessings patience imparts, we as
sumed it entered largely into active
life. This is not the kind of patience
we think most about. The common
thought of patience is that it consists
in waiting for something. The kind
of patience we know most about, is
the kind we use in the duties of every
day life. 1t is the moving bodies that
cause friction, and patience is like the
oil that makes the machinery run
smoothly. or like the water that keeps
heated bearings cool enough to make
their multiplied revolutions. Again,
it is the grace that enables us in
every crisis 'to hold on and hold
out" l venture to predict. if one
could be patient in the active part of
life he would be self controlled
enough to wait without complaint for
the things that only time can bring
| him.
The second kind of patience con-
sists in waiting for what the future
has in store for us, such us the re-
ward of our labors, waiting for dis
tant day or the attainment of charac-
ter. Fretting is sign of the absence
of patience. The reason people grow
homesick is because they have not
enough patience to span the time
that lies between the parting and the
meeting. Patience makes time fly,
but impotence makes it crawl at
snail's pace.
The third kind of patience is the
kind that makes US endure. 1t keeps
us sweet tempered in the severest
storms of life. There are people who
have weathered the fiercest gales
that ever blew across earthly path
way, and drank to the dregs the bit
terest cup of human experience; yet
they seem to have always lived in the
sunshine and drank from none but
the cup of sweetest joy. They are
like the mighty oak, the secret of
whose strength lies in outriding the
storms, or, like the sensitive plant,
that bows its head under the rough
touch of human hands, but which
soon raises itself fresher than ever.
The lack of this patience makes
the bereaved perpetual mourner
and imparts, as the result of trial,
complaint instead of peace, and sor-
row instead of joy. The patience
that enables US to endure hardships,
loss, misfortune, adversely, bereave-
ment and sorrow, is the patience OF
hope. Disciplining ourselves to en-
dure, we learn the object of patience,
and look up to the Father who rights
all wrongs, who doeth all things we'll,
and in whose grasp all destinies are
securely held.
But if the virtue of the Unwritten
Beatitude is to work out in us this
high character and impart its bless
ing, it must have right objects to
work for. 1t can easily be handi-
capped and perverted, and instead OF
yielding us blessings. it will serve to
increase our harvest of misery. A
man may be patient amid poverty
and misfortune because he thinks in
heaven he will change his rags for
silks and his matched cottage and
pillow for mansion and a finely
liveried span, while aristocrats of
earth act as his footmen and servants.