June 28

Let patience habe her perfect work. — JAMES i. 4.

In your patience possess ye your souls. — LUKE xxi. 19.

A glance at our Revised Version, "In your patience ye shall win your souls," shows us that this text is a promise, not a command, a blessed hope, not a stern ordinance. What is the spirit of this promise? "Souls" is rendered in the margin "lives:" and the thought of winning one's life is of accomplishing the highest end of life, and of realizing its highest possibility of power and of peace. Regarded in this light, how sweet is the promise for those who are compelled to live in this impetuous, harassing generation! By patience we shall win our lives! Impatience in our work; the chafing of the spirit against providential restrictions; the wild haste to be rich; the intolerant and consuming ambition, which to satisfy itself will crush a path over the rights of others, — these are characteristic types of world-life to be seen around us every day. But the servant of the Lord must not, will not abandon himself to this impatient, selfish strife. He will maintain the bright example of the patient Jesus. He will discern by the light of the Holy Spirit's teaching that the highest end of our life on earth cannot be won by the selfish and by the impatient; he will receive the strength to remember that impatience is waste and loss, the strength to live in the hourly atmosphere of that blessed prayer for every busy and every earnest life.

Chas. Cuthbert Hall

Calm me, my God, and keep me calm;

Let thine outstretched wing

Be like the shade of Eliza's palm

Beside her desert spring.

H. BONAR.