Chapter 5 - HOW KEPT FROM IMPATIENCE AFTER WE ARE SANCTIFIEDWe have seen that patience cannot have her perfect work in any human soul, till thatgreatest of all disturbing elements, the carnal mind, is destroyed within. It is true that not a remnantof impatience is left, when God wholly sanctifies. The office work of complete sanctification, isnot to destroy any of our faculties, but to eliminate all antagonistic elements, and bring our powerswhere they will act in harmony with the will and attributes of God. If impatience or any other sinever reappears, it will not spring from inherited evils, but from the wrong use of our sanctifiedfaculties, as sin came in, in the first place.
Adam did not become impatient with his wife, because of an inherited sinful nature: he hadno such nature, and never could have it. If his God-given powers ever became depraved, or sinful,it must have been by his own hand. Adam and Eve, both depraved themselves, by disobeying God,as Satan did in heaven, and both parties lost the likeness and favor of God, by their own action.There is no other way by which any completely holy soul, in earth or heaven, can ever becomeunholy, than by personal disobedience to God. If one act on the part of a holy angel depraved himthrough billions of years, when there was no sin in any form, any where, why should it be sodifficult to understand how a wholly sanctified soul can corrupt himself and sin in a world full ofwicked people and the air often pregnant with devils!
If Adam and Eve, spotlessly pure, could, and did sin (so far as we know), with their firsttemptation, why should it be so mysterious that sanctified people should yield to sin in theirfortieth temptation, without the "old man," who was killed dead, destroyed, springing from thegrave and forcing them into sin? No sanctified man falls through a return of his inherited depravity,but by his own act: nor does he ever have a return of the "old man," so-called because it camedown from Adam. He may bring upon himself a depravity deeper, and more damning, than hisinherited carnality: but this will be of his own manufacturing -- a new production of his own!There is no need of that contradictory statement with some of both our teachers and witnesses, thatthe carnal mind, the body of sin, the old man, was crucified, killed, dead, destroyed, when wewere sanctified; and subsequently rose from the dead, came back into being and rules his subjectas before. There can be true of the devil when cast out, because he is a living personality, and hasnever been either dead, or destroyed; but cannot be true of an inherited sinful state. Any sinful actof impatience will produce depravity, but depravity is not needed to produce impatience. Theglorious fact that God's work within, when He sanctifies you, puts you on the base of perfectpatience, does not take away your power to again become impatient. Any trial, from any source,after sanctification, can be patiently borne, and thus be made a blessing; or it may be dealt withimpatiently, and thus, bring damage to your soul. In God's economy trial is a great characterbuilder; and is really indispensable to our best, and highest future. Such stalwarts as Job,Abraham, David, Paul, Luther, Knox and Wesley, are never produced, without severity of trial.But impatience ordinarily perverts the Divine design, and makes such moral manhood impossible.Impatience is a robber!
The keeping power of God, like His saving power, is predicated on the co-operation of ouragency. God saves no sinner, who keeps on sinning. He keeps no man holy, whose ransomedpowers are not persistently used to avoid all that is unholy. He cannot keep your thoughts pure, ifyou insist on entertaining impure thoughts, nor your heart pure, if you insist on looking at impurepictures. He cannot keep you honest, if you entertain dishonest propositions nor right, if you choose to do wrongly. God surely will not keep you in perfect patience, if you keep yielding toimpatience.
We suggest on this most difficult subject: First; that you rightly and fully appreciate yourlocality in the moral and spiritual realm. Having been wholly sanctified, you are now in the way ofholy obedience to God. Your whole past life of disobedience has been utterly and foreverabandoned, and blotted out. God has not only canceled all your guilt, and put His life in you whichhates sin and loves holiness, and cleanses your nature from all inherited defilements; but has takenyou out of the spiritual realm where these things took place, and put you where you belong.
Christ said of all true believers, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."Your former residence was the place of sin, this is the place of righteousness. That was the placeof Divine condemnation, this of approval. That the place of darkness, this the place of light. Thatthe kingdom of darkness, this the kingdom of His dear Son. That was the place of death, this thelocality of eternal life begun. There, belong the unbelieving, disobedient, restless, impatientthrong; here, the believing, obedient, loving, patient sons and daughters of light. Added to all this,the Lord having gotten you in His Own possession, has now carefully removed from your wholebeing every element out of harmony with His attributes and will, and so filled you with Divinelove that you cannot be impatient without doing violence to both your condition, and itsenvironments! So if you will but take time, when severely tried, to think of, and appreciate thegood things God has put in your soul, and your heavenly relationships, impatience would seemabhorrent, and nothing would be in sight to become impatient about!
This sanctified state into which you have come, if rightly appreciated, is so like themansion you soon expect to enter, that even a breath of impatience allowed, would throw a darkshadow into the holy of holies: and you could not allow it!
2. Secure and maintain an abiding attitude against impatience, as you do against lying, orany other known sin. A holy man rarely, if ever, does what his whole soul agrees not to do. Thewant of full decision against committing any sin, makes us an easy prey to the tempter. Theconcession that we must sin, is a sad rejection of Christ as a complete Saviour, and a practicalsigning of our own death warrant! A settled attitude against impatience, gives you the right to claimChrist as your continuous deliverer from its power, and without this attitude you never will be thusable to claim Him. It has always been impossible for any one to be kept from lying, while any doorwas left open to lie. Get the doors to impatience all closed, with the attitude that patience shallhave her perfect work; and Jesus will be delighted to be your partner in the undertaking!
3. If you really expect impatience to remain dead, carefully avoid furnishing it nourishment.Millions of people pray for the death of sin, in many of its forms, who continuously put forthefforts to keep it alive. The drunkard greatly desires freedom from his fearful appetite: butunceasingly keeps feeding it!
We never will be able to trust Christ to keep us from any evil that He sees we are feeding.(1) Avoid unnecessary exposures. Ordinarily, weak people incline to go where they will beovercome! Patient people instinctively avoid friction, while those who are impatient, desirecontact with it. (This is an added mark of its Satanic origin!) How wise when conversation tends to friction between friends, to cease at once or change the subject. Why rush into the fire? When anevil party is known to have come for the purpose of stirring up bad feelings, how foolish to enterinto altercations with him? Why not kindly and sweetly excuse yourself from contact with him, orif compelled to remain, hear in silence his bitter words, while you are insistently looking at Jesus?If the battle is only on one side, Jesus will see that your soul comes out without a scar. If that viletongue has injected its poison into your beautiful spirit, so that you feel its bitterness, Jesus willsee it is not your bitterness, nor you that is bitter, and your patience will be strengthened by thebattle. If parties that trouble you are of your own household, insist on saying and doing nothing thatyou would not say or do, if you saw Jesus sitting beside you. Then, carefully follow up wrongs thathave been done you, by special acts of kindness and a sweet spirit, ceasing utterly to feedimpatience, and Jesus will make you a patient stalwart before He gets through with you.
(2) Avoid haste in speaking and action, when under trial. Hasty acts and words will keepimpatience alive a thousand years! If of a nervous temperament, study always to act deliberatelywhen tried. Persist in that process, till it becomes a habit. Never speak instantly when suddenly, orseverely tried. Make no response to a bitter statement, till you have time for thought and a look atChrist. If any reply is needed, by that time, the Holy Spirit will give you the right thing to say. Thatwill secure calm in a storm, and give a death blow to impatience.
(3) Avoid loud, sharp tones of voice, when under trial. Unholy anger fattens on loud talk,with a bitter tone. In some way, our own words have a tremendous power to mold our spirit. Waittill you are pretty certain something has to be said, and then say it slowly, and with a softenedvoice. That will tend to calm your own spirit, and compel your enemy to see Christ in you. If youhad been in Jerusalem when Jesus was under trial and you had seen His eyes red with anger, Hisface red, and heard Him in loud, bitter tones of voice, responding to the abuse of His enemies, younever could have trusted Him afterwards!
(4) If you really desire to be patient with others, look well to your after thinking,concerning those who have tried you. If like other sinners, you insist on entertaining yourself withmemories of their meanness, your impatience will scarcely need any further nourishment. But ifwhen compelled to think of their trying demeanor, you insist on only seeing them through thethirteenth chapter of I Corinthians, your thoughts will be so softened and sweetened, that patiencewill be delighted to run in and stay with you!
4. My patience with others, has been greatly strengthened, by reflecting on the patience ofGod with me. I have rarely been treated so badly by human beings, as I have treated Him!!! Wouldit not be well to think of this, when we are all stirred up with our dear ones, over some petty littlethings we need not have noticed?
5. Carefully guard against the repetition of impatient acts. "I write unto you little children,that ye sin not: but, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ, therighteous." In all cases where there is yielding to impatience, show the Lord quickly yourdetestation of the thing, and put it right under the blood. This will be pleasing to God, it willdeliver you from evil consequences; and fortify your soul against after failure. Fresh wounds aremore easily healed than old ones.
6. Keep so filled with Divine love, to God and man, that you will have no place forimpatience. Displace the ugly thing, with the most beautiful commodity in earth or heaven. It willnot be provoked, it will bear all things, it will keep you from doubting God, it will keep you fromenvy, it will make you a sample of long-suffering, it will preserve you from being rash; it willforce you to seek the good of others, it will not puff you; it will load you with kindness, and neverfail!
7. Let it be ingrained into your spirit, that God's keeping power is equal to His power tosave. You know the completeness of the latter, why not now trust Him for completeness in theformer? He has equally promised complete sanctification and complete preservation. I Thes.5:23-24, Jude 1:1-24.
You have trusted Him for the one, now trust Him for the other. His best promises in bothTestaments are a failure, if He cannot keep you from impatience; and no man can prove the Bibletrue, if these promises fail. If you meet His conditions, He cannot afford to let you fail! Your soulwill conquer through the blood of the Lamb, and the word of your testimony, and in you, patienceshall have her perfect work! The painful ills of ten thousand families would disappear ifimpatience were absent: but if entertained and exercised, it will weight your soul, and jeopardizethe salvation of the family. No intelligent sinner can witness impatient conduct in any Christian,without compelling questions of doubt, as to the truth of Christ's religion! If fretting is sin, wecannot now be saved from all sin, and keep on fretting!
Holiness is the highest type of our Divine religion, and if its possessors have not themeekness and patience of Jesus, to whom shall we go, and where shall we look to find thesegraces? The Book teaches that he who has perfect love, is "as He is in this present world."
The eyes of a passion-enslaved race, are upon you brother, and if they see that you are free,there is hope: if not, what?Pasadena, California,September 14, 1910
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