The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-01-10
PATIENCE A VIRTUE.
DR.. Talmage Says We Are All Sad
ly in Need of It.

We Should Exercise 1t in the Affairs
of Daily Life-Turns Discord In
to Harmony-Final Re-
ward of Patience.
ICopyriSht, 1900. by Louis Klopsch.l
Washington,
This discourse of DIR. Talmage is a
full-length portrait of virtue which
all admire, and the lessons taught are
very helpful. Text, Hebrews 1886:
we 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 any
other. Faith, hope and charity are all
abloom in hundreds of souls where yon
find one specimen of patience. Paul, the
author of the text, on conspicuous oc-
casion lost his patience with a CO.
worker, and from the way he urges this
virtue upon the Hebrews, upon the Co.
rinthians, upon the Thessalonians, up
on the Romans, upon the Colossians,
upon the young theological student
Timothy, conclude he was speaking
out OF his own need of more of this
excellence. And I only wonder that
Paul had any nerves left. Imprison-
ment, fagelletion, Mediterranean cy-
clone, arrest for treason and conspir-
acy, the wear and tear of preaching to
angry mobs, those at the door of n
theater 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 snap shot
OF himself when he describes his ap-
pearance and his sermonic delivery by
saying: "In bodily presence weak and
in speech contemplate" and refers to
his infiamed eyelids when speaking of
the ardent friendship of the Galatians
he says: eff it had been possible, ye
would have plucked out your own eyes
and have given them to me-"
We admire most that which we have
least OF. Those of us with unimpressive
visage most admire beauty; those of Us
with discoriant voices most extol mu-
sical cadence: those of us with stam-
mering speech most wonder at elo-
quence; those of us who get provoked
at tribes and are naturally irascible ap-
preciate in others the equipoise and the
calm endurance of patience. So Paul,
with hands tremulous with the agita-
tions 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
strengthened with all might to all pa
tience," and looks us all full in the
face as he makes the startling charge:
"Ye have need of patience"
Do not boast that you are placid and
optimistic and free from the spirit of
scold. If those who are unfortunate
could change lots with you they would
be just as sunshiny. It is not religion
that makes you so happy, but capacity
to digest your food in three hours and
enough coupons cut off to meet all your
expenses, and complimentary mention.
and capacity to leave your horses in a
stable because you need brisk walk
down the avenue. The recording angel
making pen out of some plume of q
bird of paradise is not getting ready to
write opposite your name anything an
plaudatory. All your sublime eauilib-
rum OF temperament is the result of
worldly success. But suppose things
nightly change with you, as they
sometimes do change. You begin to 90
downhill, and it is amazing how manv
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 yielded marvels
OF wealth, are eclipsed by mills with
newly-invented machinery, You get un-
DER the feet OF the bears of Wall street.
For the first time in your life you need
to borrow money, and no one is willing
to lend. Under the narrowing worri-
ment you get distressful feeling at the
base OF your brain. Insomnia and
nervous dyspepsia lay hold of YOU.
Your health goes down with your for
tune. Your circle of acquaintances nar-
rows, and where once you were on
pressed by the fact that you had not
time enough to return ohe-half of the
social calls made upon you, now the
card basket in your hallway is empty.
and your chief callers are your cred
itors and the family physician, who
comes to learn the effect of the last pre-
scription.
Now you understand how people can
become pessimistic and cynical and
despairful. You have reached that
stage yourself. Now you need some
thing that you have not. But know
of reinforcement that you can have
if you will accept it. Yonder comes
up the road or the sidewalk a mes
senger of God. Her attire is unpre-
tending. She has no wings, for she
is not an angel, but there is some
thing in her countenance that implies
rescue and deliverance. She comes
up the steps that once were popuIous
with the af1luent and into the hall
way where the tapestry is getting
faded and frayed, the place now all