Long-suffering

This is love enduring. If the trial come direct from God, it is enough. It is correction. It is His heavenly Father’s hand; and with Luther the disciple cries, “Strike, Lord, strike; but oh! do not forsake me!” If the trial come from Christian brethren, if it be seven-fold seventy times repeated, love to Jesus demands forgiveness. If it come from worldly men, it is the occasion for that magnanimity which recompenses evil with good, and in every case it is an opportunity for following a Saviour who was made perfect through suffering. That Saviour never loved the Father more intensely than when His Father’s face was hid, and when the bitter cup proclaimed His justice terrible, and His truth severe. One apostle denied Him, and all the disciples forsook Him; but Jesus prayed for Peter, whilst Peter was cursing; and His love followed the rest even when they were running away. Jerusalem killed him; but, in foresight of the guilty deed, it was over Jerusalem that Jesus wept. And when the deed wan done, in publishing pardon and the peace of God, it was at Jerusalem that evangelists were directed to begin.