Article November 21, 1953 ISSUE

CHRISTIAN PATIENCE

DORIS D. MAC MASTER

What a beautiful quality is patience! It brings to mind such Christian attributes as steadfastness, kindliness, serenity, calm endurance in seeming adversity, and unwavering faith in the goodness and eternal rightness of God's creation. Sometimes the meaning of a word can be brought into sharper relief by a consideration of its opposites. The reverse of patience would be impatience, self-will, anxious doubt, restlessness. Surely these qualities can be clearly recognized as unlovely and undesirable, and never attributable to Deity, unchanging Love, in whose image and likeness man is made.

To the Christian Scientist, patience means a deepening understanding of God's allness and His methods of unfoldment. Some of the best loved and most familiar Bible verses are concerned with admonitions to patience. The Psalmist directed the people to "rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him" (Ps, 37:7); in his letter to the Hebrews Paul wrote (12:1), "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Hebr. 12:1). And James in his epistle counseled patience, saying (1:4), "Let patience have her perfect work," and (5:8), "Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."

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