The Tupelo journal., 1903-03-13
SIN OF IMPATIENCE.
Human Failing Which Robs the Soul
of Victory and Blessing.
Spiritual Impatience as Distin-
guished from Impatience OF the
FIesh-SermOn by the "High-
way and Byway' Preacher.
Copyright, 1908, by A. N. Kellogg News
paper Col

Copyright, 1908, by A. N. Kellogg News
paper Col
Chicago, March /. 1903.
Text.-"For We nave need of patience,
that, after ye have done the will of God.
We might receive the promise."-Heb 1896.
If faith is the golden-runged ladder
by which the soul climbs up to the
presence of God, patience is the gentle
and never-tiring 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 ChristJesus, Impotence is the spade
wherewith man digs the grave into
which are cast his peace of mind and
sometimes his hope of Heaven. Pa
thence is a virtue of such glorious
beauty as to make God willing to be
called a God of patience. lmpatience
is a vice which sputters and flashes in
the human heart and life and causes
more unhappiness and skaters more
nerves than any other n thing. AS
the emery put into the oil will soon
grind out the finest bearings and ruin
the most costly machinery, so impa-
thence 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 impotence is relentlessly de-
structive. GODS word declares hat
-.4..a, xxar1,o+I avna,;arna h1If tho
impatient 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 n
the universe. Patience prevents waste
fulness of energy and power; 1T guards
against destructive violence n dlsln-
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 feyerish 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 exhalesan atmosphere
which is heavy with the deadly miasma
of Impotence.
Scripture which speaks of God as a
God of patience calls attention to the
patience of Jesus Christ, to the pa
thence of Job, and Paul refers to his
own patience. The prophets are held
up as examples of patience, and the
churches at Ephesus. Thyratira and
Philadelphia were commended for
their patience. Even the patience of
the Scriptures is declared. This last
is rather a peculiar expression. but is
full of deep spiritual meaning. 1t is
most natural to speak of the patience
of Jesus Christ, as we think of His
IS years at the carpenter bench and of
His three years of faithful ministry
while He faced the accursed death
upon the cross. We do not consider
it out of place for Paul to refer to his
OWL patience, as we follow him in his
tedious and perilous missionary tours
and see how in every place he first
sought out the Jews and preached to
them Jesus, despite their bitter hostil-
lty and persecution. When James
speaks of the prophets as examples of
patience we can but say amen as we
recall their long-suffering patience in
delivering the message of God to a
hayward and perverse nation. When
Job is raised to the pinnacle of human
attainment by the same inspired
writer and is held out as the great ex-
emplar of patience outside of Christ
Himself, simple justice comedies him
the place without argument. But
when GOD speaks of the patience of
the scriptures, the expression at once
challenges attention. What does it
mean? 1t means that Gods marvellous
secret of the redemption of man has
been gradually unfolded to the mind
and heart of man as fast as it was
safe so to do. The first promise in
Genesis that the seed of the woman
should bruise the s%erpent's head held
within its simple phrase the germ.
from which was to spring the glori-
Gus plant of salvation. AS the first
faint blush of the dawning morn
prepares one for the coming of the
glorious sun, SO this promise spread
a rose tint over the horizon of man
which awakened in his heart the
hope of a coming light. And each
new promise sent out its CLEAN of
light and prepared, his vision for the
full blaze of glory of the Son of
Righteousness as He rose with heal
ing in His wings. And herein is
manifested the patience of the Scrip
lures, in that they have so grad.
ually, step by step, led man from the
deep valley of death in sin outside
the Garden of Eden, up, up, over the
way blazed by Enoch, Noah. Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, Moses, David and
the prophets, until Calvary's heights
are scaled and the full glory of the
cross bursts upon the human vi
sion.
The patient in the darkened room
would have his restored eyesight
burned out forever if suddenly the
full light of the MONDAY sun were
allowed to stream into the room. This
doctor knows that the ewes m11ct