2. /xaKpoBvfila also is a word rare in profane Greek. It appears in the apostolic wTitings as a synonym of Oirop^ov^ (Col 1", He 6'= 10'^ Ja 5'», 2 Ti 3'"). On the other hand, it has the special meaning of longsutfering {g.v.) and stands opposed to dpyri, $vix6s, and is synonymous with Trpadri]! (cf. Gal 522, Eph 42, Col 3^2, 2 Ti 4=). In these passages the word is used of the patience of men one towards another. But it is also used of the patience or longsuB'ering of God, who delays the punishment of sinners in order to give them time to repent (cf. Ro 2^ 1 P 3-»', 2 P 3'°). _ In Ro 9^2 the idea of giving time for repentance is absent, and the word refers simply to God's delaying punish- ment.
In the sub-apostolic writings /laKpoBvp-la stands side by side with inroiiovri as in the NT ; cf. 1 Clem. Ixiv. A noteworthy passage dealing with this virtue is Hermas, Mand. v. 1, which is all in praise of patience {iJ.aKpo8vp.la) : ' In patience the Lord dwells, but in hot wrath the devil ' (v.*).
In conclusion, reference may be made to the fine develojimeut, on the basis of the apostolic teaching, of the idea of Christian patience (inropLorri), which A. RitschI has given in The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation, Eng. tr. of vol. iii., 1900, p. 627 f.
Patience is that feeling which views the evils of life in the light of Divine providence. It is quite different from the Stoic idea of apathy, which aims at the suppression of the pain due to the evil from which we suffer. 'Patience in suffering implies that the pain continues' (p. 627).
This is true not only of ordinary patience, but of the Christian form of this virtue. ' The eleva- tion of the general human exercise of patience into its special Christian form depends on the fact that man's feeling of self and of personal worth, by being combined with the thought of the supra- mundane God Who is our Father, and guarantees to us salvation through dominion over the world and participation in the Kingdom of God, is raised above all natural and particular motives, even when they are the occasion of troubles. This still
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admits of evils being felt with pain even by the Christian' (p. 6'2S). Ritselil roters in a note to Calvin, In.it. iii. 8. 8 : ' Keitlior is tliere required from us a cheerfulness, suc-h as maj' take away all sense of bitterness and grief; there would be no patience of the saints in the cross, except also thej' were tormented with grief and pressed with trouble.' The NT, indeed, speaks of rejoicing in suffering, of glorying in afllictions and persecutions for Christ's sake. But we can quote against the idea that this joy is to exterminate the sense of pain not onh- the explicit confession in He 12", but also the example of Jesus and St. Paul. The actual position of things is, in fact, as follows :
' The consciousness of reconciliation with God places the assurance of personal worth firm above all the special motives which arise from the world ; and therefore the pain wliich springs from tln'ir oppressive action can be subordinated to the joy which, in our feeling of self, denotes the incompar- able worth of Divine sonship. But in the case in question, joj" would not last ; rather, it would veer round into indifference, unless underneath the joy the pain still continued. Moreover, the truth of the Fatherly care of God for His children suggests to us not only the inference that no evils arising from the world can overbalance the blessing of fellowship with God, but also this further applica- tion, that these evils, as tests of our fidelity to God, are elevated into relative blessings. And this comes about just through the exercise of patience as the peculiar and proper manifestation of Christian freedom ' (p. 629).
LiTERATDRE. — H. Bushnell, The New Life, 1860 ; M. Creigrhton. The Mind of St. Peter, 1904, p. 22 ; H. Black, Christ's SerDtee of Love, 1907, p. 130 ; H. M. Gwatkin, The Eiie for Spiritual Thinns, 1907, p. 61 ; H. E. Manning:, S'^nnons on Ecclesiastical Subjects, i. (1870) 173; J. H. Jowett, The Transfigured Church, 1910, p. 149 ; W. H. Hutton, A JJisciple's Religion, 1911, p. 12 ; W. B. UUathorne, Christian Patience, 1SS6 ; G. Hanson, A Chain of Graces, 1906, p. 67.
Robert S. Franks.
PATMOS (ndr/ios). — Patnios, one of the group of islands named the Sporades, lies in that part of the yEgean Sea which the Greeks called the Icarian, and is visible on the right as one sails from Samos to Cos. It is a volcanic island, bare and rocky, 10 miles long from N. to S., and 6 miles wide at the northern end. Its hills command a magnilicent view of the surrounding sea and islands. At its centre, where it narrows to an isthmus, between the bay of Scala on the E. and that of INIcrika on the \V., are found the remains of an ancient Hellenic town, which prove that the island was once populous ; and the name of ' Palmosa,' which it bore in the Middle Ages, points to another time of prosperity ; but Turkish rule has had its usual blighting ett'ect. To-day ' the isle ' has 4,000 Greek inhabitants, who are mostly sponge-fishers. The modem town stands on a hill- top, 800 ft. above sea-level, in the southern half of the island. It clusters about the Monastery of St. John — founded by St. Christodulus in A.D. 1088, on the site of an old temple — which has lost most of the treasures of its once valuable library, in- cluding the 9th cent, edition of Plato, now in the Bodleian. Monastic piety shows the place where the Revelation was written by St. John, and half- way down the hill is a grotto (t6 aTr-qKaiov Trjs 'AiroKaXi/^tews) the rocks of which are said to have been cleft by the Divine voice.