The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1903-03-13
SIN OF IMPATIENCE.
Human Failing Which Robs the Soul
of Victory and Blessing.
Spiritual Impotence as Distin-
Gpished from Impotence of the
FIesh-SermOn by the 'High-
way and Byway" Preacher.
5Copyright. 1903, by A. N. Kellogg News
paper Col

Chicago, March /, 1903.
Text-"For we have need of patience
that, after We have done the will of God,
We might receive the promise. Heb, 1885.
If faith is the golden-runged ladder
by which the soul climbs up to the
presence of God, patience is the gentle
and firing attendant who keeps
the soul waiting on the threshold of
Gods will until the blessing is re-
ceived. If unbelief is the mist which
shuts out the face of God from the
soul and blinds it to the only safe path
in Christ Jesus, impatienceis the spade
wherewith man digs the grave into
which are cast his peace of mind and
sometimes his hope of Heaven. Pa
thence is virtue of such glorious
beauty as to make God willing to be
called Il God of patience. 1mpatience
is vice which sputters and flashes in
the human heart and life and causes
more unhappiness and skaters more
nerves than any other one thing. AS
the emery put into the oil will soon
grind out the finest bearings and ruin
the most costly machinery, so impa-
tience injected into the machinery OF
home, social and business life will cut
the smooth surfaces and create dis
cord and trouble where harmony be-
fore prevailed. Patience is construc-
tive, but impatience is relentlessly de-
structive. Gods word declares that |
patience worketh experience, but the
impa tient man or woman or child with |
shut eyes and fingers pressed into the |
ears rushes madly into the face, of eX-
perience and never learns. Patience is
to the human life what the conserving
forces of nature are to the earth and
the universe. Patience prevents waste
fulness of energy and power; it guards
against destructive violence and disin
tegrating processes. Patience is the
safety valve that keeps the boiler of
human dynamics under safe pressure
and prevents the destructive explosion.
Patience is the great fywheel that
keeps the engine of the daily existence
running true and steady. Patience is
a sum in addition, and according to Pc
ter's formula adds to itself goodness
or Godlikeness. But in this on-rushing,
restless age the feverish hand of man
has woven into the fabric of his life
the unhappy word ''impatience." He
has chiseled the same word in the
archway which spans the entrance to
business and industrial life, and as he
moves about he exhaes an atmosphere
which is heavy with the deadly miasma ,
of impotence.
Scripture which speaks of God as
God of patience calls attention to the
patience of Jesus Christ, to the pa
tience of Job, and Paul refers to his
own patience. The prophets are held
up as examples of patience, and the
churches at Ephesus, 'fhyratira and
Philadelphia were commended for
their patience. Even the patience of
the Scriptures is declared. This last
is rather a peculiar expression, but is I,
full of deep spiritual meaning. 1t is !,
most natural to speak of the pa tience
of Jesus Christ, as we think of His
Is years at the carpenter bench and of :
His three years of faithful ministry
while I[e faced the accursed death
upon the cross. We do not consider c
it out of place for Paul to refer to his Il
own patience, as we follow him in his II
tedious and perilous missionary tours b
and see how in every place he first |
sought out the Jews and preached to I
them Jesus, despite their bitter hostil- v
ity and persecution. When James Is
speaks of the prophets as examples of l
patience we can but say amen as we
recall their long-suffering patience in 5
delivering the message of God to a |
Maynard and perverse nation. When %
Job is raised to the pinnacle of human g
attainment by the same inspired
writer and is held out as the great ex- n
emplar Of patience outside of Christ W
simple justice comedies him g
the place without argument. But fl
when God speaks Of the patience of a.
The Scriptures, the expression at once CO
challenges attention. What does it Il
mean? 1t means that Gods marvellous CT
secret of the redemption of man has 81
been gradually unfolded to the mind 81
Ind heart of man as fast as it was to
safe so to do. The first promise in ii
jenesis that the seed of the woman in
should bruise the serpent's head held til
within its simple phrase the germ 81
rom which was to spring the glori- 10
JUS plant of salvation. As the first de
amt blush of the dawning morn pc
one for the coming of the 10
'lorious sun, so this promise spread
rose tint over the horizon of mar w
which awakened in his heart the sa
Iope of coming light. And each W,