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Avantages des la patience

I.

Aujourd’hui, mes frères bien-aimés, j’ai à vous parler de la patience : je dois vous faire connaître le mérite et les avantages de cette vertu. Puis-je mieux commencer mon discours, qu’en vous faisant remarquer que, même en ce moment, la patience vous est nécessaire, car, sans elle, vous ne pouvez ni m’écouter, ni profiter de mes leçons? En effet, l’instruction ne peut être efficace qu’autant qu’on l’écoute avec patience.

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On the Advantage of Patience

1.

As I am about to speak, beloved brethren, of patience, and to declare its advantages and benefits, from what point should I rather begin than this, that I see that even at this time, for your audience of me, patience is needful, as you cannot even discharge this duty of hearing and learning without patience? For wholesome discourse and reasoning are then effectually learnt, if what is said be patiently heard. Nor do I find, beloved brethren, among the rest of the ways of heavenly discipline wherein the path of our hope and faith is directed to the attainment of the divine rewards, anything of more advantage, either as more useful for life or more helpful to glory, than that we who are labouring in the precepts of the Lord with the obedience of fear and devotion, should especially, with our whole watchfulness, be careful of patience. ¹