2. _Increase of patience is increase of happiness._ Though present happiness is not the great object of life, it is one of the effects of religion, to which we cannot be indifferent. And what is very remarkable, there is not a single religious act, which does not increase our happiness. Properly understood, the whole moral law, whether at Sinai or the mount of the Beatitudes, utters this one commandment, BE HAPPY! What is thus true of holiness in general is eminently true of this mode of it in particular. Pain almost ceases to be pain, to a mind that fully yields itself to God. That this is true in a much higher sense than ordinary Christians suppose, is apparent in the case of the martyrs; (Heb. xi. 32-49,) and we have known instances in common life where the most horrible maladies, almost unmanning mere spectators, have been borne with equanimity and even cheerfulness, by disciples of Christ. Patience disarms affliction. If the patience were perfect, the suffering would be annihilated, as to its effect on happiness. The reason why true Christians sometimes endure great distresses before entire relief comes, is not that patience is an insufficient antidote, but that they have not patience enough. And here observe a striking difference between the stoical hardness of a worldly mind, and the sacred endowment which we are endeavouring to recommend. A stout hearted unbeliever will now and then appear absolutely unshrinking under trials, such as bodily pains, calumny, loss of children, hatred and enmity of fellow-creatures; but his shield is _insensibility_. He has made the surface callous. And in so doing he has stopped up the avenues as well of pleasure as of pain. He has diminished his sorrows without increasing his joys. Now observe how opposite the case of Christ's disciple. He suffers too, and triumphs in suffering, but not by insensibility. He feels the wound. The thrill of a poignant infliction runs through his quick and sentient nerve to the centre of feeling, as nimbly as in the most inconsolable and maddened unbeliever. He is not stupefied; he is not seared; his temperament of genuine humanity is all alive to grief; but it is also alive to joy. And that joy God pours in, so that he glories in tribulation also. _Religion_, which has made his susceptibilities more tender, opens new access for refined pleasures. For loss, he finds indemnity; and for pain and woe, a spiritual faith and hope, love and joy, which overcome and absorb them. Patience in such an advanced experience is no longer unfeeling acquiescence, but a swallowing up of man's will in the will of God. What abundant reason have we, in this valley of tears and tombs, to strive that patience may have her perfect work! 3. _Obedience to the requisition of the text conduces to true greatness of character._ Religion, properly understood, is nothing else than a restitution begun, of humanity to its perfect condition.