Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-12-20
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: Lack of ofPatience-Faith, Hope and
Charity Bloom in Many Hearts Where
the Grace of Patience Is Wanting-Pity
Rather Than Condemn the Erring.

subject: Lack of fPatience-Fafth, Hope and
Charity Bloom in Many Hearts Where
the Grace of Patience Is Wanting-Pity
Rather Than Condemn the Erring.
Copyright 1900,
WASHINGTON, D. C.-This discourse of
DR.. Talmage is a full length portrait of a
virtue which all admire, and the lessons
taught are very helpful; text, Hebrews x.
36, aye have need Of patience"
Yes, we are in awful need of it. Some
of us have little of it, and some of us
have none at all. There is less of this
grace in the world than of almost "
other. Faith, hope. and charity are all
abloom in hundreds of souls where you
find one specimen of patience. Paul, the
author of the text, on conspicuous occa-
sion lost his patience with a coworker,
and from the way he urges this virtue
upon the Hebrews, upon the Corinthians,
upon the Thessalonians, upon the Ro-
mans, upon the Colossians, upon the
young theological student, Timothy, I
conclude he was speaking out of his own
need of more of this excellence. And l
Imprisonment, fagellation, Mediterranean
cyclone, arrest for treason and conspir-
acy, the wear and tear of preaching to
angry mobs, those at the door of a thea
tire and those ON the rocks of Mars hill,
left him emaciated and invalid and with
broken voice and sore eyes and nerves a
Jangle. He gives us n snap shot of him
self when he describes his appearance and
his sermonic delivery by saying, I'm bodily
presence weak and in speech contempti-
ble," and refers to his inhamed eyelids
when, speaking of the ardent friendship of
the Galatians he says, "1f it had been
possible, we would have plucked out your
own eyes and have given them to me-"
We all admire most that which we have
e e A..
tisage most admire beauty; those of us
with discordant voice most extol musical
cadence; those of us with stammering
speech most wonder at eloquence; those
of us who get provoked at trifies and are
naturally irascible appreciate in others the
equopoise and the calm endurance of pa
tience. So Paul, with hands tremulous
with the agtations OF a lifetime, writes of
the God of patience" and of ministers
of God in much patience" and of patience
of hope" and tells them to follow after
patience" and wants them to run with
patience" and speaks of those Strength
ened with all might to all patience, and
looks us all full in the face as he makes
the startling charge, "Ye have need of
patience"
The recording angel, making a pen out
of some plume of a bird of paradise, is not
getting ready to write opposite your name
anything appaudatory. All your sublime
equilibrium of temperament is the result
of worldly success. But suppose things
nightly change with you, as they some
times do change. You begin to go down
hill, and it is amazing how many there are
to help you down when you begin to go in
that direction. A great investment fails.
The Colorado silver mine ceases to yield.
You get land poor; your mills, that yield
ed marvels of wealth, are eclips I'd by
mills with newly invented machinery; you
get under the feet of the bears of Wall
street For the first time in your life you
need to borrow money, and no one is will
ing to lend. Under the narrowing worri-
ment you get a distressful feeling at the
base OF your brain. Insomnia and nervous
dyspepsia lay hold of you. Your health
goes down with your fortune; your circle
of acquaintances narrows, and where once
you were oppressed by the fact that you
had not time enough to return one-half of
the social calls made upon you now the
card basket in your hallway is empty, and
your chief callers are your creditors and
the family physician, who comes to learn
the effect of the last prescription. Now
you understand how people can become
pessimistic and cynical and despairful.
You have reached that stage yourself.
Now you need something that you have
not. But / know of enforcement that
you can have if you will accept it. Yon-
der comes up the road or the sidewalk
messenger of God. Her attire is unpre-
tending. She has no wings, for she is not
an angel but there is something in her
countenance that implies rescue and deliv-
erance. She comes up the steps that once
were populous with the afuent and into
the hallway where the tapestry is getting
faded and frayed, the place now all empty
of worldly admirers. l viii tell you her
name if you would like to know it. Paul
4. L.. H.. l.
She is not brilliant, but strong. There is
a deep quiethood in her manner and
frmness in her tread, and in her hand is
scroll revealing her mission. She comes
from heaven. She was born in the throne
room of the King. This is Patience. 'Ye
have need of patience"
First, patience with the faults of others.
No one keeps the len Commandments
equally WELL Ones temperament decides
which commandments he shall come near
est to keeping. If we break some of the
commandments ourselves, why be SO hard
on those who break Others of the ten? Ii
you and l run against one verse of the
twentieth chapter of Exodus, why should
we so severely excoriate those who run
against another verse of the same chap
ter? Until we are perfect ourselves we
ought to be lenient with our neighbours
imperfections. Yet it is often the case
that the man most vulnerable is the most
hypercritical. Perhaps he is profane and
yet has no tolerance for theft, when pro-
family is worse than theft, for, while the
latter is robbery of man, the former is
robbery of God. Perhaps he is given to
defamation and detraction and yet feels
himself better than some one who is
guilty of manslaughter, not realizing that
the assassination of character is the worst
kind of assassination. The laver for wash
ing in the ancient tabernacle was at its
side FURNISHED like looking glass, so that
those that approached that laver might
see their need of washing, and if by the
gospel looking glass we discovered our own
need of moral cleansing we would be more
economic of denunciation. The most of
those who go wrong are the victims of cur
cumstances, and if you and l had been
rocked in the same iniquitous cradle, and
been all our lives surrounded by the same
baleful influences we would probably have
done just as badly, perhaps worse.
We also have need of patience with slow
results of Christian work. We want to
see our attempts to do good Immediately
successful. The world is improving, but