The lesson of Advent is a twofold one. It is a lesson of watchfulness; it is also a lesson of patience. They are the two contrasted tones heard all through that solemn discourse upon the Mount of Olives from which, as "in a glass, darkly," through parable and figure, we have learned all that we can ever learn of that
"Far-off Divine event
To which the whole creation moves."
I. Patience is a lesson which we all need. We need it in the heat and eagerness of youth; we need it in the more firmly held purposes and severer tempers of manhood; we need it in forming our opinions and in ordering our lives, in judging our friends, in judging our enemies, in judging ourselves; we need it in our selfish plans and in our unselfish ones also. Impatience wears many disguises. It is indeed nearly related to several virtues; but the near relations of virtues are often not virtues themselves. To one it bears the appearance of frankness, which says out what others feel, which has no time or care to soften wholesome, if unpleasant, truth; to another it seems like proper spirit, resenting what should be resented, chafing at officious criticism, claiming a man's freedom in thinking and judging; to still another it seems the expression of energy, or zeal, or fearlessness, pushing on when others hesitate, making light of imaginary obstacles, so intent on a great end as to have no time for minute consideration of the means. In the smallest spheres of life, in little societies, in the family, in the individual soul, impatience destroys peace, takes its happiness from effort, wears out prematurely hearts which, if this poison were absent, would bear and do great things in God's service.
II. I suggest three points in respect of which especially the New Testament bids us connect the lesson of patience with the thoughts of the Second Advent: (1) Judging. "Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come." "Let your moderation" (your fairness, largeness, gentleness of judging) "be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand." Our Lord puts it in one word, not as a counsel of perfection, not as what in all cases we can actually do, but as an aim, an ideal, a warning: "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged." We should make allowance, look always on the best side, hope all things, believe all things. "He hath committed all judgment unto the Son, because He is the Son of man." (2) Bearing. Think how many times in the Epistles we hear the words "patience," "endurance," and almost always in the context, either in word or in thought, is the remembrance of this limit, this great hope, in which men can stand firm. Our trials are very various; they vary with our years, our circumstances, our temperament. "The heart knoweth its own bitterness," but the great sweetener to all may be the thought that God knows it too; that He is disciplining us for the day when He comes to "restore all things," to "bind up the broken-hearted," when "all sorrow and sighing shall flee away." (3) Waiting. "O tarry thou the Lord's leisure," sings the Psalmist; "the patient waiting for Christ," is St. Paul's last word to the Thessalonians. Both of them knew that to anxious and eager hearts it was one of the hardest of lessons; but peace cannot be had unless it be learnt, nor true strength.
E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons,p. 278.
References: James 5:7; James 5:8. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xvii., No. 1025; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. i., p. 308; Ibid.,vol. xiv., p. 88; E. H. Palmer, Ibid.,p. 269. James 5:7; James 5:11. Homilist,2nd series, vol. i., p. 86. James 5:11. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxxi., No. 1845; T. B. Brown, Christian World Pulpit,vol. v., p. 376; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ii., p. 269; vol. iii., pp. 287, 326.