2. Let us wait with patience. Patience is just the other side and the practical side of faith. Faith is the breath of life to the religious man. Without faith he cannot live. But there may be, and there often is, a faith which is extremely lacking in patience, a faith whicli is even impatient, a faith which, in the name of God, almost rebukes God for His leisure with the world, and with the
* Sir Edward Cook, The Life of Florence Nightingale, i. 488. ' J. Stialiau, 'The MuivcJicUe (1913), 51.
PSALM XXVII. 14 25
Church, and with ourselves. We know it to be a Christian duty to be patient with our fellow-men ; have we ever thought of the necessity and the duty of being patient with God ? Let us have patience with God. And this patience, about which the Bible is full, is not the sickly, complaining counterfeit of it which we often hear of under the name of patience ; it is the power to suffer, the power to sacrifice, the power to endure, the power to die, and, if need be, sometimes harder as it is, to continue to live for His sake. Let us wait God's time. If there were no other reason why we must wait God's time, this is one, and one all-powerful — because He knows the whole, and because we know only a part. The Psalmist cries out, under protracted and aggravated trials, " Lord, how long ? " but he never complains or murmurs, " Lord, this is too long ! "
^ It is worthy of remark that Bishop King's first Charge elicited warm commendation from the prelate who, of all the Bishops at that time on the Bench, possessed the acutest and most vigorous intellect. Bishop Magee, of Peterborough, wrote on November 28, 1886 :—
"What I write specially to thank you for is simply one sentence in your Charge — a very pregnant one, and to me, I confess, a new one — it is, ' The Soul is impatient of the Mediatorial Kingdom.' This is a thought which runs out very far and very deep under all our Christian life. The ' 'impatient,' instead of the ' patient, waiting for Christ,' is seen, when we come to think of it, to be the source of no small part of our ecclesiastical and even our personal errors and troubles." ^
Say, did impatience first impel
The heaven-sent bond to break ? Or, couldst thou bear its hindrance well,
Loitering for Jesu's sake?
Oh, might we know ! for sore we feel
The languor of delay, When sickness lets our fainter zeal,
Or foes block up our way.
Lord ! who Thy thousand years dost wait
To work the thousandth part Of Thy vast plan, for us create
With zeal a patient heart.^
* G. W, E. Russell, Edivard King, Bishop of Lincoln, 122. ' J. H. Newmau, Verses on Various Occasions.
26 WAITING COURAGEOUSLY
3. Let us wait with assurance. According to our English Versions, the 62nd Psahn begins with the words, " Truly my soul waiteth," or " My soul waiteth only upon God." The adverbs do not matter at present, but the verb does. What the Psalmist actually wrote, as we can see from the word which he used, was, " My soul is silent unto God." The same expression occurs else- where in the Old Testament. It is a very striking one. The condition of silence before God, inward silence, with every fret and murmur and disturbing thought hushed, was recognized as the condition suitable for hearing the still small voice of the Eternal One. Those that achieved it were rewarded. And have we no experiences of our own to corroborate the testimony of these Old Testament writers ? Matthew Arnold tells us that —
From the soul's subterranean depth upborne As from an infinitely distant land, Come airs and floating echoes and conv.ey A melancholy into all our day.
But other airs and other echoes as well are upborne from the depths of the soul. There is conveyed into the day of the soul that waits upon God and is silent unto Him a peace and a quiet sense of assurance that passes all understanding. Language cannot describe the source and nature of these inward ministries of strength and consolation, but the soul knows that God has responded to its waiting.
^ " Does it hurt you severely ? " one asked of a friend who lay with a broken arm. " Not when I keep still," was the answer. This is the secret of much of the victoriousuess we see in rejoicing Christians. They conquer the pain and the bitterness by keeping still. They do not ask questions, or demand to know why they have trials. They believe in God, and are so sure of His love and wisdom that they are pained by no doubt, no fear, no uncertainty. Peace is their pillow, because they have learned just to be still. Their quietness robs trial of its sharpness, sorrow of its bitterness, death of its sting, and the grave of its victory.^
4. Let us wait with prayer. Let us call upon God and spread our case before Him; tell Him our difficulty, and plead His promise of aid. In dilemmas between one duty and another, it is sweet to be humble as a child, and to wait with simplicity of soul