Section 16

16. A godly man is a patient man, James 5. 11. Ye have heard of the patience of Job. Patience is a star which shines in a dark night: There is a twofold patience.

- 1. Patience in waiting. - 2. Patience in bearing.

1. Patience in waiting: A godly man, if he has not his desire presently, he will wait till the mercy be ripe, Psalm 130. 6. My soul waiteth for the Lord. Good reason God should have the Timing of our mercies, Isaiah 60. 22. I the Lord will hasten it in his time. Deliverance may tarry beyond our time, but it will not tarry beyond God's time.

Why should not we wait patiently upon God. 1. We are servants; it becomes servants to be in a waiting posture. 2. We wait upon every thing else; we wait upon the fire till it burns; we wait upon the seed till it grows, James 5. 7. Why cannot we wait upon God? 3. God has waited upon us: Did not he wait for our repentance? How often did he come year after year before he found fruit? Did God wait upon us, and cannot we wait upon him? A godly man is content to stay God's leisure, though the Vision tarry, he will wait for it.

2. Patience in bearing: This patience is twofold. 1. Either in regard of man; when we bear injuries without revenging. Or 2. In regard of God; when we bear his hand without repining: A good man will not only do God's will, but bear his will, Micah 7. 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord. This patient bearing of God's will is not

1. A Stoical Apathy: Patience is not insensibleness under God's hand; we ought to be sensible.

2. It is not patience upon force; to bear a thing because we cannot help it; which (as Erasmus says) is rather necessity than patience. But, patience is a cheerful submission of our will to God, Acts 21. 4. The will of the Lord be done. A godly man does acquiesce in what God does, as being not only good, but best for him: The great quarrel between God and us is, whose will shall stand: Now the Regenerate will, falls in with the will of God: There are four things opposite to this patient frame of soul.

1. Disquiet of spirit: When the soul is discomposed, and pulled off the hinges, insomuch that it is unfit for holy duties; when the strings of a Lute are snarled, the Lute is not fit to make Music; so when a Christian's spirit is perplexed and disturbed, he cannot make melody in his heart to the Lord.

2. Discontent; which is a sullen dogged humor: When a man is not angry at his sins, but at his condition, this is different from patience: Discontent is the daughter of pride.

3. Prejudice, which is a dislike of God and his ways, and a falling off from Religion: Sinners have hard thoughts of God, and if he does but touch them in a tender part, they will presently be gone from him, and throw off his Livery.

4. Self-vindication, when instead of being humbled under God's hand, a man justifies himself, as if he had not deserved what he suffers: A proud sinner stands upon his own defense, and is ready to accuse God of unrighteousness, which is as if we should tax the Sun with darkness; this is far from patience: A godly man subscribes to God's wisdom, and submits to his will; he says not only good is the Word of the Lord, Isaiah 39. 8. but good is the Rod of the Lord.

Use. As we would demonstrate ourselves godly, let us be eminent in this grace of patience, Ecclesiastes 7. 8. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit: There are some Graces which we shall have no need of in heaven; we shall have no need of Faith when we have full Vision, nor patience when we have perfect joy; but in a dark sorrowful night, there is need of these stars to shine: Let us show our patience in bearing God's will; patience in bearing God's will is twofold.

1. When God removes any comfort from us.

2. When God imposes any evil upon us.

1. We must be patient when God removes any comfort from us: Does God take away any of our Relations? Ezekiel 24. 16. I will take away the desire of thine eyes with a stroke; yet it is our duty patiently to acquiesce in the Will of God: The loss of a dear Relation, is like the pulling away a Limb from the body. —Homo toties moritur, quoties amittit suos.—

But grace will make our hearts calm and sedate, and work us to a holy patience under such a severe dispensation. I shall lay down eight considerations, which may be as spiritual Physic to kill the worm of impatience under the loss of Relations.

1. The Lord never takes away any comfort from his people, but he gives them that which is better: The Disciples parted with Christ's corporal presence, and he sent them the Holy Ghost: God eclipses one joy, and augments another, he does but make an exchange, he takes away a Flower, and gives a Diamond.

2. Godly friends dying are in a better condition, they are taken away from the evil to come, Isaiah 57. 1. They are out of the storm, and are gotten to the Haven, Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, Revelation 14. 13. The godly have a portion promised them upon their marriage with Christ, but the portion is not paid till the day of their death: The Saints at death are preferred to Communion with God, they have that they so long hoped for, and prayed for; why then should we be impatient at our friends' preferment?

3. You that are a Saint, have a friend in heaven which you cannot lose: The Jews have a saying at their Funerals, Let your consolation be in heaven. Are you a close Mourner, look up to heaven, and fetch comfort thence, your best kindred are above, Psalm 27. 10, When my Father and Mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up: God will be with you in the hour of death, Psalm 23. 4. Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me. Other friends you cannot keep, God is a friend you cannot lose; he will be your Guide in life, your Hope in death, your Reward after death.

4. Perhaps God is correcting you for a fault, and if so, it becomes you to be patient; it may be your friend had more of your love than God, and therefore God did take away such a relation, that the stream of your love may run back to him again. A gracious woman having been deprived, first of her Children, then of her Husband, Lord (says she) thou hast a plot upon me, thou intendest to have all my love; God does not like it, to have any Creature set upon the throne of our affections, he will take away that comfort, and then he shall lie nearest our heart. If a Husband bestow a jewel upon his Wife, and she does so fall in love with that jewel, as to forget her Husband, he will take away the jewel, that her love may return to him again; a dear relation is this jewel, if we begin to idolize it, God will take away the jewel, that our love may return to him again.

5. A Godly Relation is parted with, but not lost, that is lost, which we are out of hope ever of seeing again; religious friends are but gone a little before. A time will shortly come, when there shall be a meeting without parting, 1 Thessalonians 5. 10. How glad is one friend to see another, that has been long absent? Oh what glorious acclamations shall there be, when old relations shall meet together in heaven, and be in each other's embraces? When a great prince lands at the shore, the guns go off, in token of joy; when godly friends shall be all landed at the heavenly shore, and shall congratulate one another's felicity, what stupendous joy will there be? What music in the choir of Angels? How will heaven ring of their praises? And that which is the crown of all, they who were here joined in the flesh, shall be joined nearer than ever in the mystical body, and shall lie together in Christ's bosom, that bed of perfume.

6. We have deserved worse at God's hands; has he taken away a child, a wife, a parent? He might have taken away his spirit; has he deprived us of a relation? He might have deprived us of salvation; does he put wormwood in the cup? We have deserved poison, Ezra 9. 13. Thou hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve; we have a sea of sin, and but a drop of suffering.

7. The patient soul does most sweetly enjoy itself; an impatient man is like a troubled sea, that cannot rest; he tortures himself upon the rack of his own griefs and passions, whereas patience calms the heart, as Christ did the sea, when it was rough, and now there is a sabbath in the heart, yea, a heaven, Luke 21. 19. In your patience possess ye your souls: By faith a man possesses God, and by patience he possesses himself.

8. How patient have many of the Saints been, when the Lord has broken the very staff of their comfort, in bereaving them of Relations; The Lord took away Job's children, and he was so far from murmuring, that he falls a blessing, Job 1. 21. The Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. God foretold the death of Eli's sons, 1 Samuel 2. 34. In one day they shall die both of them; but how patiently did he take this sad news, 1 Samuel 3. 18. It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good: See the difference between Eli and Pharaoh, Pharaoh says, who is the Lord? Eli says, it is the Lord: When God struck two of Aaron's sons dead, Leviticus 10. 3. Aaron held his peace; patience opens the ear, but shuts the mouth, it opens the ear to hear the Rod, but shuts the mouth that it has not a word to say against God, Behold here the patterns of patience; and shall not we write after their fair Copies? These are heart-quieting considerations, when God sets a death's-head upon our comforts, and removes dear relations from us.

2. We must be patient, when God inflicts any evil upon us, Romans 12. 12. Patient in Tribulation.

1. The Lord sometimes lays heavy affliction upon his people, Psalm 38. 2. Thy hand lies sore upon me. The Hebrew word for afflicted, signifies to be melted; God seems to melt his people in a furnace.

2. God does sometimes lay diverse afflictions on the Saints, Job 19. 17. He multiplieth my wounds: as we have diverse ways of sinning, so the Lord has diverse ways of afflicting; some he melts away their estates, others he chains to a sick bed, others he confines to a Prison; God has various arrows in his quiver, which he shoots.

3. Sometimes God lets the affliction lie long, Psalm 74. 9. There is no more any Prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth how long: As it is with diseases, there are some Chronic, that linger and hang about the body several years together, so it is with afflictions, the Lord is pleased to exercise many of his precious ones with Chronic afflictions, such as lie upon them a long time; now in all these cases, it becomes the Saints, patiently to rest in the will of God; the Greek word for patient, is a metaphor, alludes to one who stands invincibly under a burden. This is the right notion of patience, when we bear affliction invincibly without fainting, or fretting.

The trial of a Pilot is seen in a storm; so is the trial of a Christian seen in affliction; he has the right art of navigation, who when the boisterous winds blow from heaven, does steer the ship of his soul wisely, and not dash upon the rock of impatience; a Christian should always keep a decorum, not behaving himself unseemly, or disguising himself with intemperate passion, when the hand of God lies upon him. Patience adorns suffering; affliction in Scripture is compared to a net, Psalm 66. 11. Thou broughtest us into the net. Such as have escaped the Devil's net, yet the Lord suffers them to be taken in the net of affliction, but they must not be as a wild Bull in a net, Isaiah 51. 20. to kick and fling against their Maker, but lie patiently till God break the net, and makes a way for their escape. I shall propound four cogent Arguments, to excite patience under those evils which God inflicts on us.

1 Afflictions are [in non-Latin alphabet], for our benefit. Hebrews 12:9. He for our profit, we pray that God would take such a course with us as may do our souls Good, when God is afflicting us, he is hearing our prayers, he does it for our profit: not that afflictions in themselves do profit us, but as God's Spirit works with them. For as the waters of Bethesda could not give health of themselves, unless the Angel descended and stirred the water, John 5:4. So the waters of affliction are not in themselves healing till God's Spirit cooperates and sanctifies them to us: Afflictions are many ways profitable.

1. They make men sober and wise: Physicians appoint distracted persons to be bound in Chains, and to be dieted, and have hard fare to bring them to the use of reason: Many run stark mad in prosperity, they neither know God nor themselves; the Lord therefore binds them with cords of affliction, that he may bring them to their right understandings, Job 36:8. If they be held in cords of affliction, then he shows them their transgression, he opens also their ear to discipline.

2 Afflictions are a friend to grace.

1 They beget grace; Beza acknowledged God laid the foundation of his Conversion in a violent sickness at Paris.

2 They augment grace, the people of God are beholden to their troubles, they had never had so much grace, if they had not met with such sore trials; now, the waters run, and the spices flow forth. The Saints thrive by affliction, as the Lacedemonians grew rich by war; God makes grace flourish most in the fall of the leaf.

3 Afflictions quicken our pace in the way to heaven; it is with us, as with children sent on an errand, if they meet with Apples or Flowers by the way, they linger and make no great haste home, but if anything fright them, then they run with all the speed they can to their father's house; so in prosperity, we are gathering the Apples and Flowers, and do not much mind heaven, but if troubles begin to arise, and the times grow frightful, then we make more haste to heaven, and with David; run the way of God's commandments. Psalm 119:32.

2 God intermixes mercy with affliction, he steeps his sword of justice in the oil of mercy, there was no night so dark, but Israel had a Pillar of fire in it; there is no condition so dismal, but we may see a Pillar of fire to give light, if the body be in pain, conscience is in peace, there is mercy; affliction is for the prevention of sin, there is mercy: In the Ark there was a rod and a pot of Manna, the Emblem of a Christian's condition, mercy interlined with judgment, here is the rod and Manna.

3 Patience evidences much of God in the heart; patience is one of God's titles; Romans 15:5. The God of patience; you that have your heart cast into this blessed mold, it is a sign God has imparted much of his own nature to you, you shine with some of his beams.

Impatience evidences much unsoundness of heart; as it is in the body, if the body be of that temper, that every little scratch of a pin makes the flesh to rankle, you will say, sure this man's flesh is very unsound; so for every petty cross to fly out in impatience, and quarrel with providence, it is the sign of a distempered Christian; if there be any grace in such an heart, they must have good eyes that can see it; but he who is of a patient spirit, is a graduate in Religion, and does much participate of the divine nature.

4 The end of affliction is glorious; the Jews were captive in Babylon, but what was the end? They departed out of Babylon with vessels of silver, with gold and precious things, Ezra 1:6. So, what is the end of affliction, it ends in endless glory, Acts 14:22. 2 Corinthians 4:17. How may this rock our impatient hearts quiet: who would not willingly travel through a little dirty way, and plowed lands, at the end whereof is a fair meadow, and in that meadow, a golden mine?

Question. How shall I get my heart tuned into a patient frame?

Answer. 1 Get faith; all our impatience proceeds from unbelief; faith is the breeder of patience, when a storm of passion begins to arise, faith says to the heart, as Christ to the Sea, peace, be still, and there is presently a calm.

Question. How does faith work patience?

Answer. Faith argues the soul into patience; faith is like that Town Clerk in Ephesus, who allayed the contention of the multitude, and argued them soberly into peace, Acts 19:35, 36. So when impatience begins to clamor and make a hubbub in the soul; faith appeases the tumult, and argues the soul into holy patience: Says faith, Why are you disquieted O my Soul? Are you afflicted? Is it not your Father has done it? He is carving and polishing you, and making you fit for glory, he smites that he may save; what is your trial, is it sickness? God shakes the Tree of your body, that some fruit may fall, even the peaceable fruit of righteousness, Hebrews 12:11. Are you driven from your habitation? God has prepared for you a City, Hebrews 11:16. Do you suffer reproach for Christ's sake? A spirit of God and glory rest upon you, 1 Peter 4:14. Thus faith argues and disputes the soul into patience.

2 Pray to God for patience, patience is a flower of God's planting; pray that it may grow in your heart, and send forth its sweet perfume: Prayer is a holy charm, to charm down the evil spirit; prayer composes the heart, and puts it in Tune, when impatience has broken the strings, and put all into a confusion: Oh go to God, prayer delights God's ear, it melts his heart, it opens his hand; God cannot deny a praying soul; seek to him with importunity, and either he will remove the affliction, or which is better, he will remove your impatience.

16. A godly man is a patient man. James 5:11: You have heard of the patience of Job. Patience is a star that shines in a dark night. There are two kinds of patience.

1. Patience in waiting. 2. Patience in bearing.

1. Patience in waiting: A godly man, if he does not receive what he desires immediately, will wait until the mercy is ripe. Psalm 130:6: My soul waits for the Lord. It is right that God should determine the timing of our mercies. Isaiah 60:22: I the Lord will hasten it in its time. Deliverance may be delayed beyond our timetable, but it will not be delayed beyond God's.

Why should we not wait patiently on God? First, we are servants — and it is fitting for servants to wait. Second, we wait for everything else. We wait by the fire until it burns. We wait for the seed until it grows, as James 5:7 says. Why can we not wait on God? Third, God has waited on us. Did He not wait patiently for our repentance? How many times did He come, year after year, before finding fruit? If God waited on us, can we not wait on Him? A godly man is content to wait for God's timing. Even if the vision is delayed, he will wait for it.

2. Patience in bearing, which has two aspects. First, toward other people — enduring wrongs without seeking revenge. Second, toward God — enduring His hand without complaining. A godly man not only does God's will but bears God's will. Micah 7:9: I will bear the indignation of the Lord. This patient acceptance of God's will is not —

1. Stoic indifference: Patience is not numbness under God's hand. We are meant to feel our pain.

2. Nor is it patience under compulsion — bearing something simply because we have no choice. As Erasmus says, that is necessity, not patience. True patience is a willing submission of our desires to God. Acts 21:14: The will of the Lord be done. A godly man rests in what God does, accepting it not merely as good but as the best thing for him. The core conflict between God and us is whose will prevails. In the regenerate person, the human will yields to the will of God. Four things are opposed to this patient disposition.

1. Restlessness of spirit: when the soul is thrown into disorder and shaken off its foundation, so that it becomes unfit for holy duties. When the strings of a lute are tangled, the lute cannot make music. In the same way, when a Christian's spirit is troubled and disturbed, he cannot make melody in his heart to the Lord.

2. Discontent — a sullen, resentful spirit. When a person is not angry at his sins but at his circumstances, that is the opposite of patience. Discontent is the daughter of pride.

3. Bitterness toward God — a rejection of God and His ways, leading to turning away from religion altogether. Sinners harbor hard thoughts of God, and if He touches them in a sensitive place they will quickly withdraw from Him and throw off any pretense of belonging to Him.

4. Self-justification — when instead of humbling himself under God's hand, a man defends himself as though he does not deserve what he is suffering. A proud person stands on his own defense and is ready to accuse God of being unjust — which is like accusing the sun of being dark. This is the opposite of patience. A godly man bows to God's wisdom and submits to His will. He says not only 'Good is the word of the Lord,' as Isaiah 39:8 says, but also: good is the rod of the Lord.

Application: If we want to show ourselves godly, let us excel in the grace of patience. Ecclesiastes 7:8: Better is the patient in spirit than the proud in spirit. There are some graces we will not need in heaven — we will not need faith when we have full sight, nor patience when we have perfect joy. But in a dark and sorrowful night, we need these stars to shine. Let us show our patience in bearing God's will. Patience in bearing God's will has two aspects.

1. When God removes a comfort from us.

2. When God brings suffering upon us.

1. We must be patient when God removes a comfort from us. Does God take away someone we love? Ezekiel 24:16: I will take away the desire of your eyes with a stroke. Even so, it is our duty to quietly accept the will of God. The loss of a beloved person is like having a limb torn from the body. As one ancient writer put it: a man dies as many times as he loses those he loves.

But grace will calm and settle our hearts and work in us a holy patience under even such a severe trial. Here are eight considerations that may serve as medicine to kill the root of impatience when we lose loved ones.

1. The Lord never takes a comfort from His people without giving something better in its place. The disciples lost Christ's physical presence — and He sent them the Holy Spirit. God dims one joy and brightens another. He does not simply take — He makes an exchange. He takes away a flower and gives a diamond.

2. Godly friends who have died are in a better condition. They have been taken away from the evil to come, as Isaiah 57:1 says. They are out of the storm and have reached the harbor. Revelation 14:13: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. God's people have a promised inheritance through their union with Christ, but it is not paid out until the day of death. At death, the saints enter into direct communion with God and receive what they hoped and prayed for so long. Why should we resent a friend's promotion?

3. If you are a saint, you have a friend in heaven that you cannot lose. The Jews say at funerals: Let your consolation be in heaven. If you are deep in grief, look up to heaven and draw comfort from there. Your closest family is above. Psalm 27:10: When my father and my mother forsake me, the Lord will take me in. God will be with you in the hour of death. Psalm 23:4: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, You are with me. Other friends cannot be held forever — but God is a friend you cannot lose. He will be your guide in life, your hope in death, and your reward after death.

4. Perhaps God is correcting you for a fault. If so, you should be patient. It may be that your friend had more of your love than God did, so God took that person away so that the stream of your love might flow back to Him. A devout woman who lost first her children and then her husband said: Lord, You have a plan for me. You intend to have all my love. God does not approve when any created thing is placed on the throne of our affections. He will remove that comfort so that He alone is nearest our heart. If a husband gives his wife a jewel, and she becomes so enchanted with the jewel that she forgets her husband, he will take the jewel back so that her love returns to him. A dear loved one is like that jewel. If we begin to idolize them, God will take the jewel away so that our love returns to Him.

5. A godly loved one is parted from us, but not lost. What is truly lost is what we have no hope of ever seeing again. Believing friends have simply gone a little ahead of us. A time will come soon when there will be a reunion with no more parting (1 Thessalonians 5:10). How glad one friend is to see another after a long absence! What glorious celebrations there will be when old companions meet again in heaven and embrace one another! When a great prince lands at the shore, cannons fire in celebration. When godly friends all arrive at the heavenly shore and congratulate each other on their happiness, what astonishing joy will fill the air! What music in the choir of angels! How heaven will ring with their praise! And the crowning glory of it all: those who were joined in the flesh on earth will be joined even more closely in the mystical body of Christ, resting together in His embrace — that bed of perfume.

6. We have deserved far worse from God's hand. Has He taken away a child, a wife, a parent? He might have taken away His Spirit. Has He deprived us of a loved one? He might have deprived us of salvation. Does He put bitterness in the cup? We have deserved poison. Ezra 9:13: You have punished us less than our sins deserve. We have a sea of sin, but only a drop of suffering.

7. The patient soul enjoys the sweetest peace. An impatient person is like a troubled sea that cannot rest — he tortures himself on the rack of his own grief and passions. But patience calms the heart the way Christ calmed the sea when it was rough. Then there is a sabbath in the heart — even a taste of heaven. Luke 21:19: By your patience you will gain your souls. By faith a person possesses God, and by patience he possesses himself.

8. Consider how patiently many of the saints have endured when the Lord broke the very staff of their comfort by taking their loved ones. The Lord took away Job's children, and he was so far from complaining that he broke into praise. Job 1:21: The Lord has taken away — blessed be the name of the Lord. God told Eli that his sons would both die in one day (1 Samuel 2:34). Yet how patiently Eli received this devastating news! 1 Samuel 3:18: It is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good to Him. Notice the difference between Eli and Pharaoh. Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord? Eli said, It is the Lord. When God struck two of Aaron's sons dead, Aaron held his peace (Leviticus 10:3). Patience opens the ear but shuts the mouth — it opens the ear to hear the rod, but shuts the mouth so that not a word is spoken against God. Here are the models of patience. Should we not follow their example? These are truths that quiet restless hearts when God sets a death's mark on our comforts and removes the people we love.

2. We must be patient when God brings affliction upon us. Romans 12:12: Patient in tribulation.

First, the Lord sometimes lays heavy affliction on His people. Psalm 38:2: Your hand has come down hard on me. The Hebrew word for afflicted means to be melted. God sometimes seems to melt His people in a furnace.

Second, God sometimes lays many different afflictions on the saints. Job 19:17: He multiplies my wounds. Just as we have many ways of sinning, the Lord has many ways of afflicting. He melts away some people's wealth. He chains others to a sickbed. He confines still others to a prison. God has many arrows in His quiver, and He shoots them.

Third, sometimes God lets the affliction last a long time. Psalm 74:9: There is no longer any prophet, nor is there any among us who knows how long. Just as some diseases are chronic, lingering in the body for years, so it is with afflictions. The Lord allows many of His precious ones to endure chronic afflictions that weigh on them for a long time. In all these situations, it is right for the saints to rest patiently in the will of God. The Greek word for patient is a metaphor drawn from someone who stands unshaken under a heavy load. This is what true patience looks like: bearing affliction without giving way to despair or complaint.

The skill of a pilot is proven in a storm, and the quality of a Christian is proven in affliction. The person with true skill in navigation is the one who steers the ship of his soul wisely when fierce winds blow from heaven and does not crash on the rock of impatience. A Christian should always maintain his composure — not behaving in an unworthy way or losing himself to uncontrolled emotion when the hand of God is on him. Patience adorns suffering. In Scripture, affliction is compared to a net. Psalm 66:11: You brought us into the net. Those who have escaped the devil's net may still be caught in the net of affliction. But they must not be like a wild bull in a net (Isaiah 51:20), kicking and fighting against their Maker. Instead, they should lie patiently until God breaks the net and makes a way for their escape. I will now present four compelling arguments to encourage patience under the afflictions God brings on us.

1. Afflictions work for our benefit. Hebrews 12:9: He disciplines us for our good. We pray that God would take whatever course is best for our souls. When God is afflicting us, He is answering that very prayer — He does it for our profit. Not that afflictions benefit us on their own, but God's Spirit works through them. Just as the waters of Bethesda could not heal by themselves until the angel came down and stirred the water (John 5:4), so the waters of affliction have no healing power until God's Spirit works with them and makes them beneficial to us. Afflictions are profitable in many ways.

First, they make people sober and wise. Doctors sometimes restrain disturbed patients with chains and a strict diet to bring them back to reason. Many people go completely out of control in prosperity — they know neither God nor themselves. So the Lord binds them with the cords of affliction to bring them to their senses. Job 36:8-9: If they are bound in chains and caught in the cords of affliction, then He shows them their transgression. He also opens their ear to correction.

2. Afflictions are a friend to grace.

First, they produce grace. Beza acknowledged that God laid the foundation of his conversion through a severe illness in Paris.

Second, they increase grace. God's people owe much to their troubles. They would never have had so much grace if they had not faced such severe trials. Now the waters flow and the fragrance of grace pours out. The saints thrive through affliction the way the Lacedemonians grew rich through war. God makes grace flourish most in the fall of the leaf.

Third, afflictions quicken our pace on the way to heaven. It is like children sent on an errand: if they find apples or flowers along the way, they dawdle and are in no hurry to get home. But if something frightens them, they run as fast as they can to their father's house. In prosperity, we are gathering the apples and flowers and not thinking much about heaven. But when troubles arise and times grow frightening, we make greater haste toward heaven and, like David, run the way of God's commands (Psalm 119:32).

2. God mixes mercy with affliction. He steeps the sword of justice in the oil of mercy. There was no night so dark that Israel did not have a pillar of fire in it. There is no condition so dismal that we cannot see a pillar of fire giving light. If the body is in pain but the conscience is at peace, there is mercy. If affliction is preventing sin, there is mercy. In the ark there was both a rod and a pot of manna — a picture of the Christian's condition: mercy woven together with judgment, the rod and the manna side by side.

3. Patience reveals much of God in the heart. Patience is one of God's own titles. Romans 15:5: The God of patience. If your heart has been shaped by this blessed quality, it is a sign that God has given you much of His own nature. You shine with some of His light.

Impatience reveals deep weakness in the heart. Think of it this way: if a person's body is so unhealthy that every small scratch festers, you would say his flesh is in very poor condition. In the same way, when every small trouble provokes impatience and complaints against God's providence, it is a sign of a disordered heart. If there is any grace in such a heart, it takes sharp eyes to see it. But the person with a patient spirit is an advanced student in the school of faith and shares deeply in the divine nature.

4. The end of affliction is glorious. The Jews were captive in Babylon — but what was the outcome? They left Babylon with silver vessels, gold, and precious things (Ezra 1:6). In the same way, affliction ends in endless glory (Acts 14:22; 2 Corinthians 4:17). This truth can quiet our restless hearts. Who would refuse to travel through a short stretch of muddy, plowed-up road if at the end lies a beautiful meadow — and in that meadow, a mine of gold?

Question: How can I bring my heart into a patient frame?

Answer: 1. Cultivate faith. All our impatience comes from unbelief. Faith is the source of patience. When a storm of emotion begins to rise, faith speaks to the heart as Christ spoke to the sea — Peace, be still — and immediately there is calm.

Question: How does faith produce patience?

Answer: Faith reasons the soul into patience. Faith is like that town clerk in Ephesus who calmed a rioting crowd and argued them soberly back to peace (Acts 19:35-36). When impatience begins to make an uproar in the soul, faith settles the disturbance and reasons the soul into holy patience. Faith says: Why are you troubled, O my soul? Are you afflicted? Is it not your Father who has done this? He is shaping and polishing you, making you fit for glory. He strikes so that He may save. What is your trial — is it sickness? God is shaking the tree of your body so that fruit may fall, even the peaceable fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:11). Have you been driven from your home? God has prepared a city for you (Hebrews 11:16). Do you suffer insult for Christ's sake? A spirit of God and glory rests on you (1 Peter 4:14). This is how faith argues and reasons the soul into patience.

2. Pray to God for patience. Patience is a flower of God's planting. Pray that it may grow in your heart and release its sweet fragrance. Prayer is a holy power that can quiet a troubled spirit. Prayer composes the heart and brings it back into tune when impatience has broken the strings and thrown everything into confusion. Go to God in prayer. Prayer delights God's ear, melts His heart, and opens His hand. God cannot deny a praying soul. Seek Him urgently, and He will either remove the affliction — or, which is better, He will remove your impatience.