Life is not easy for any of us. No branch escapes the pruning knife, no jewel the wheel, no child the rod. People often tyrannize over us and vex us almost beyond endurance. Circumstances strain us until the cords of our hearts threaten to snap. Our nervous system is overtaxed by the rush and competition of our times. Indeed, we have need of pa­tience!

Never to relax the self-watch; never to indulge in unkind or thoughtless criticism of others; never to utter the hasty word,-or permit the sharp retort; never to com­plain...; never to permit hard and distrustful thoughts to lodge within the soul; to be always more thought­ful of others than of self; 'to detect the one blue spot in the clouded sky; to be on the alert to find an excuse for those who are froward and awk­ward; to suffer the aches and the pains, the privations and trials of life, sweetly, submissively, trustfully; to drink the bitter cup, with the eye fixed on the Father's face, without murmur or complaint; this needs pa­tience, which mere stoicism could never give.

We can not live such a life until we have learned to avail ourselves of the riches of the indwelling Christ. The beloved Apostle speaks of being a partaker of the patience which is in Jesus. (Rev. 1:9.) So may we be. That calm, un-murmuring, unreviling patience which made the Lamb of God dumb before his shearers, is ours. Robert Hall was once over­heard saying, amid the heat of an argument, "Calm me, O Lamb of God!" We may go further and say, "Lord Jesus, let thy patience arise in me, as a spring of fresh water in a briny sea."

- F.B. Meyer