Precept and Practice – OCTOBER 12 – We Shall Reap if we Faint not

Twice over St. Paul gives to ‘patience’ the first place among the marks required in an apostle

(2 Cor. vi. 4; xii. 2).   No doubt it is hard to attain to it.

We are little men, and we are in a hurry.   God is great, and He is in no hurry.   But if we are to work with the Eternal we must needs learn patience.

Patience is not the same thing as indifference.   Every Christian, when he sees sin and misery, has a right to feel what Tennyson told us he felt, ‘shame for the sake of God.’

‘Blessed are they that mourn,’ and ‘that sigh, and that cry for all the abominations that be done’ around them.   Anything and everything that will stir men’s consciences to detect the evils that are common in the world and in the Church – luxury, self-indulgence, class hatred, party spirit, intolerance, culpable indefiniteness, and the rest can only be good if we keep our tempers and do not give way to a wrath which worketh not the righteousness of God.

And patience, of course, is not the same thing as inaction.   We are no mere spectators, watching a conflict in which others are engaged.   We are in the thick of it;  by our every word and act we must help or hinder the good cause.   We long to be sure that we are helping.   It is this which makes it so difficult to be patient.   We want to see some result for our effort.

We can ill brook the slightest delay.

What we have to learn is to be willing to labour and to wait, knowing that ‘in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.’

The Reverend Arthur W. Robinson (Co-operation with God)

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From the Introduction to Precept and Practice

The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.

The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;-  with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;-  with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.

CONSTANCE  M. WHISHAW