SERA. XXVIII.] A LOVELY CARRIAGE, &C. 465 fellow-creatures, and waits without clamour till the pro- per season. He makes wise and kind allowances for every incident of life that may give just occasion to a delay, and gains the love of all that are about him by his most engaging carriage. How lovely is it to see a teacher waiting upon those that are slow of understanding, and taking due time and pains to make the learner conceive what he means,. with- out upbraiding him with his weakness, or reproaching him with the names of stupid-and senseless? This is to imitate God, the God of long- suffering and patience, " Who giveth wisdom to all that ask, and upbraideth not," James i. 5. The patient man attends and waits upon those that are slow of speech, and hears an argu- ment fully proposed before he makes his reply. This is an honourable and lovely character; But he that an- swereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him, Prov. xviii. 13. Perhaps he is utterly mistaken in the objection which his friend was going to make,. then he is justly put to the blush for his folly and impatience. The virtue of patience teaches us . to be calm and easy toward our fellow-creatures, while we sustain sharp and continued afflictions from the hand of God. It is the unhappy conduct of some christians, that when the great God puts them under any sore trial or chastisement, theyare angry with all their friends around them, and scatter abroad their discontents in the family, and many times make them fall heaviest upon their most intimate friends. Ifone were to search thismatter to the bottom, we should find the spring of it is an impatience at the sovereign hand of God; but because their christianity forbids them to vent their uneasiness at heaven, they divert the stream of their resentment, and make their fellow-creatures feel it : So a piece of unripe fruit press- - ed with a heavy weight from above, scatters its sour 'nice on every thing that stands near it, and gives a just emblem of the impatient christian. . But what a lovely sight is it to behold a, person bur- dened with many sorrows, and perhaps his flesh upon him has pain and anguish, while his soul mourns within him : yet his passions are calm, he possesses his spirit in patience, he takes kindly all the relief that his friends VOL. I. H
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=