The Penn's Grove record., 1909-04-02
THE PULPIT.
. BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. JOHN WESLEY HILL.
Theme: The Kingship of Patience.

New York City.-The following
impressive discourse was delivered in
the Metropolitan Temple IN. Ed by
the pastor, the Rev. John Wesley
Hill, who is by far at present the
most progressive of New York's
preachers. The subject of the SER
mon was "The Kingship of Patience"
and the text, Revelation 1:9: "I,
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 kingship 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 ear make. This is a truth
which permeates the entire spiritual
economy, finding its supreme eyem-
~plification in the being and nature of
God.
Christianity is solitary in its rev.
elation of patience as a quality of
God. No pagan god was yer crowned
with this virtue. The coarse mind of
man never evolved a gentle deity.
The gods of human genius are great
in imratience, force and resentment.
This conception of impatience as the
prerogative of deity is not only at the
root of the ~grotesque forms of pagan
ism, bat it is responsible for many of
the false n 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 absolutism; when they say that
God must be just and may be merci-
ful, and set themselves to parceling
out the divine nature into sections,
tracing the boundary lines with
mathematical precision, and then
settirg watches upon the frontiers
lest love should encroach upon truth
and mercy supplant justice; then
they forget that all the great moral
qualities are duly proportioned in the
divine nature; hat they include each
other in a way that defies triangula-
ton; and that patience is the
guardian of them all.
When the s%culptor'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 ~actualizing his ideal. The
greater the difficulties, the mor his
patience is called into play. And
dare we think of God as c~onceiving a
purpose less sharply or bringing it to
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 licentious-
ness, over fraud and graft and god
less luxury; and because things are
crooked, we would hew them to the
line of u thinking, lay the scor-
pion scourge on the back of con-
servatism, condemn all who are not
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
III the millennium. But meanwhile,
God waits. He stands in the midst
of the passing centuries with out
stretched hands of entreaty. No
ether attitude would be %consonant
with His character. Self-existent and
eternal, without beginning or eEding,
He cannot take account OF tine.
Time is an element that does not
enter into His being. Perfection is
the mould in which the divine ideals
are cast; the amount of time is moth
ing. 1t is not a question of calendar
but of character. The problem re-
d1ces itself to perfection. That is
TIE infinite goal toward which all
things in the universe, seen and I'M
seen, r silently, slowly, and patient
ly mcving-the goal Of a redeemed,
perfected and glorifed humanity.
From this viewpoint, we begin to
understand that there is a divine
philosophy in the expression, the
Kingdom and patience of Jesus
Christ" In it Is hidden the mystery
of redemption; above it is lifted the
blood-stained cross; upon the cross
hangs an innocent Victim, an in
finite Sacrifice, vicarious and saving,
0O0 . 6ACoS 4O0O GI5QAVAt " NAO
world. Time. Providence and CAL
vary are the forces that conquer the
soul, and therefore God waits to give
them a chance, waits for US to weary
of our rebellion, waits for the fever
of sin to cool, waits for the black
blood of passion to run out, waits
with infinite patience for us to re-
turn, demanding 10 more than obedi-
nnao ond ocEino nn1u fho n oo Of
our hearts; and then He embraces US
in the rapture of long delayed con
Citation.
gazing into the tranquil face of Jesus
Christ, We begin to realize what is
meant by the patience of Jesus
Christ. His patience meant infinitely
more than the popular conception of
patience; more than the power OF
physical endurance, more than drift
ing and dreaming in silence. The
patience of Jesus Christ is a con-
structive force; it inspires a des-
perate, persistent struggle for spirit
ual manhood. 1t is a power which
makes a kingly man and not a stoical
pe~trifaction, insensible to "the sings
and arrows of outrageous fortune"
4NO" thOAO SoA OO liz A1uSollp Al
the absence of patience. Protracted
discipline is the condition of exalted
character. 1t is thus that mar wins
himself from the wrecking forces of
life; thus that he learns the truth
and feels the power of Christ's i'm
mortal maxim, in your patience We
shall possess (win) your souls" 1t
was thus that John, the author of our
text, won self-mastery. Think of it.
The man who in the early stage of
his Christian life desired that he and
his brother James might sit on the
right hand and on the left hand in
the kingdom of Christ; the man of
dignity and of ambition; the man
who in his unbridled rage wanted to
call fire down from heaven upon the
inhospitable Samaritans; the man of
pride and resentment; that man,
chastened, subdued and exalted, de-
spised by the world, prosecuted, ex-
lied and everything but martyred.