Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1916 — GIFT OF ENDURANCE [ARTICLE]

GIFT OF ENDURANCE

What Paul Meant by Long-Suf-fering That Is Fruit of the ;f _ Spirit. . : “The fruit of the Spirit is . . . long* Buffering.” —Galatians v. 22. ' r Do. not misunderstand St. Paul; __ this is no dream of blessings that might be- real in a better world than this; it is a vision of things as they ape for those in whom the Lord Christ lives; it is a promise for as many as receive him. The Spirit is here, he works in all who are led by him, who are the sons of God. The fruit of the Spirit is life divine, TTocTTnus.TJod’s'Tmkge expressedtn human wills, thoughts, words and tempers. In, so far as any created being may bear the image of the divine; as the God-Man is, so may we be, so must we pray to be in this actual, tangible, visible world. The love which glories in giving, the joy which is life’s fullness and can flower from out of the very heart of pain, the peace with self, and man, and God that issues from* conflict manfully sustained these are all of god, Godlike, and our Father, who has taken humanity for his child-, will raise it into true sonby enriching it with these the fruits of his inspiration and indwelling. I know of no English word that fully embodies the meaning of the Greek original. “Long-suffering” is too passive; it suggests merely the doggedness that takes blow after blow and Still holds on. I want a broader, stronger, more active word; long-mindedness would almost serve, if I might coin. The writer of the Second Epistle of Peter would teach them that if the mills of God seem to grind slowly it is because to him a thousand years are as one day; he Hays long plans, not willing that any should perish; his long-mindedness is our salvation —all time is his, and he measures it against the eternal years. He is long-minded over our sins; and If evil dominates the world in apparent triumph, yet in that strange similitude of the unjust judge our Lord teaches that he vindicates the right in his time. “Shall not God avenge his chosen who cry unto him day and night, and his purpose waits long over them?” “Long-mindedness” is the power to go on, day* after day, and one day a time, in the strength of a distant hope. “The farmef hath long-minded-ness, plowing his best today; the seasons move slowly, from the former to the latter rain, but the harvest comes in the end. Be ye also joug-minded; stablish your hearts.” The fruit of the Spirit is long-suf-fering. Our Lord himself embodied and enjoined all that his apostles taught—of patience, of far-sighted courage, of dogged loyalty to the day’s appointed task; he had patience with men, kept pace with their slowness, forgave till seventy times seven; endured as seeing him who is invisible, and for the hope that was set before him endured the cross; and he bequeathed to his church this very gift of endurance and far-reaching vision: “It is not for you to know times or seasons, but ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” This is the gift we must ask for, and may have today. Our nation and empire need it, and you can do no better service to our great cause than by asking God, one by one, to keep you steady and brave and longsighted in the dark day. Be steady in judgment, in faith; and be long-suffering in prayer. You should be at the front night and morning and at noonday; and whenever a vacant moment gives you space for thought turn it to account for those who are fighting or watching, in weary tedium, in pain of wounds, or in the agony of death for you. The fruit of the Spirit is long-suf-fering. It is seen to be so in the heroes who suffer and die, and in those not less heroic who give what costs them more than death would cost. Let it be seen also in us who are called but to wait, and endure, and hold on, Steady in judgment, in faith and in prayer, till the dawning of the better day which in God’s long patience he shall bring to be. —Rev. H. N. Bate.