June 4

Tuesday of the Second Week after Easter

In your patience possess ye your souls. S. Luke 21:19.

By patience we have the keeping of our own souls; we command ourselves, our passions are subdued to us; and commanding ourselves, we begin to possess that which we are. "What is to possess a thing, but to have entire command over it, that we may do with it what we will?" What, then, is to "possess the soul," but to be lord over all its powers, motions, emotions, and by the grace of God to control them according to His will? Whence even the world calls a man "self-possessed" who cannot be thrown off his guard, but, gathered up within himself and immovable, has a steady command of all the powers of his mind. He is spiritually "self-possessed" who by the grace of God so keeps himself that "no vehemence of delight masters him, no tribulation wears him out, no sudden temptation carries him away, no unworthy affection draws him from God." Patience is the guardian of faith, the fence of love, the strength of hope, the parent of peace. Patience protects humility, keeps meekness, is the soul of long-suffering, guides gentleness, strengthens perseverance. Patience "bridleth the tongue, restraineth the hand, ruleth the flesh, preserveth the spirit, tramples on temptations, breaks the force of passion, calms the violence of pride, quenches the fire of variance," bids, in its Lord's Name, wind and storm "be still;" and there is a calm. Patience makes the soul to be of one mind with God, sweetens the ills of life.

Thus the wilderness, Forgetting her distress, Can bloom like garden of the Lord, Like Eden fruits afford: The fountain in the desert flows, The thistle bears the rose.