Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1909-04-01
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. JOHN WESLEY HILL.
Theme: Fhe Kingship of Patience.

New York City.-The following
impressive discourse was delivered in
the METROPOLITAN Temple (M. F. by
the pastor, the Rev. John Wesley
Hill. who is by far at present the
most progressive of New York's
mon was "The Kingship of Patience"
and the text, Revelation 1:9: II,
John, your brother and companion in
tribulation, and in the kingdom and
patience of Jesus Christ" Mr.. Hill
said:
Patience does not appeal to us as
a regal quality. Why should a king
wait? Having power to accomplish
at once, why should he bear with the
dulness and obdurateness of his sub
jects? Commanding swift agencies,
why should he delay their execution?
And right here we encounter a SEEM
Ing contradiction; our text Introduces
a divine interpretation. It teaches
that kingsh1p is not divorced from pa
thence, but bound up with it; that
the divine kingdom is inherited
) through patience; and that spiritual
sovereignty is acquired not by a sin
gle bound, but through the long,
plodding pilgrimage which patience
alone can make. This is a truth
which permeates the entire spiritual
economy, finding it's supreme exem-
p~lifcation in the being and nature of
God.
Christianity is solitary in it's rev.
citation of patience as a quality Of
God. No pagan god was ever crowned
with this virtue. The coarse mind Of
man never evolved a gentle deity.
The gods Of human genius are great
in Impotence, force and resentment.
This conception of Impotence as the
prerogative Of deity is not only at the
root of the grotesque forms Of pagan
ism, but it is responsible for many Of
the false and monstrous views Of
God that have found their way into
the so-called "Christian theology"
When theologians paint pictures of
God that stamp Him with remorse-
less a%bsolutism; when they say that
God must be just and may be merci-
full, and set themselves to parceling
out the divine nature into sections,
tracing the boundary lines with
mathematical precision, and then
lest love should -encroach upon truth
- A0OAN ~ 0uppA0At Ju0L4CC, tACU
they forget that all the great moral
qualities are duly proportioned in the
divine nature; that they include each
other in a way that defes triangu1a-
ton; and that patience is the
guardian Of them all.
When the sculptor's vision dis
closes the angel in the block, he Is
not discouraged by hardness in the
stone nor defect in the grain. He is
bent on actualfzing his ideal. The
greater the difficulties, the more his
patience Is called into play. And
dare we think Of God as c%onceiv1ng
purpose less sharply or bringing it tc
perfection with less patience?
We fall into bitter, suspicious, mis-
anthropic frames of mind over the
high-handed insolence of demagogu.
ism, over social laxity and licentfous.
ness, over fraud and graft and god.
less luxury; and because things are
crooked, we would hew them to the
line of our thinking, lay the scor
pion scourge on the back of con,
servatismI condemn all who are no
willing to march to our music; yea
we are tempted to doubt the divine
goodness, because God does not arise
in His might, destroy sin, and usher
in the millennium. But meanwhile
: God waits. He stands in the mids
OF the passing centuries with out
stretched hands of entreaty. NJ
other attitude would be c~onsonan-
with His character. Self-existent ant
eternal, without beginning or ending
He cannot take account of time
Time is an element that does no
enter into His being. Perfection i
the mould in which the divine ideal
are cast; the amount Of time is moth
ing. It is not a question of calenda,
but Of character. The problem re
duces itself to perfection. That i
the infinite goal toward which al
things in the universe, seen and un
seen. are silently. slowly and patient