Editorial February 7, 1920 Issue

Patience and Self-Possession

William P. McKenzie

Paul in writing to the Thessalonians says, "The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ," but the marginal note explains the better translation as being, "The Lord direct your hearts ... into the patience of Christ." The word used here and translated patience, examined in its original form reveals the added meaning of continuance, endurance, and steadfastness. It is used, for example, in the parable of the sower, in which Jesus spoke of the good seed that sprang up and bore a crop; for when the disciples wanted the story explained he told them that this seed in the good soil, referred to those who having heard the word hold it fast in a good and true heart and so bear fruit with patience; that is, with steadfastness. Again, when warning his disciples of inevitable persecution even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends he said: "Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls." It is the same word implying continuance that is here used; so a scholar offers the translation for the final verse of the quotation, "Hold out steadfast and you win your souls."

Lowell in his poem entitled "The Present Crisis" has stated in modern garb this age-old truth:—

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