“‘We have done our work in warning sinners, and in trying to awake a formal church. God, in his providence, has shut the door;[27] we can only stir one another up to be _patient_, and be diligent to make our calling and election sure. We are now living in the time specified by Malachi 3:18; also Daniel 12:10; Rev. 22:10-12. In this passage we cannot help but see that, a little while before Christ should come, there would be a separation between the just and unjust, the righteous and wicked, between those who love his appearing and those who hate it. And never since the days of the apostles has there been such a division line drawn as was drawn about the 10th or 23d day of the 7th Jewish month. Since that time, they say, “they have no confidence in us.” “‘We have need of _patience_ after we have done the will of God, that we may receive the promise; for he says, “Behold, I come _quickly_, to reward every one as his work shall be.” You may inquire, how long quickly means. The false-hearted professor will tell you it may mean ages upon ages yet to come; but the real lover of Christ will _hope_ it is _near_. Christ has told us how near. Matt. 24:32, 33. Again, the apostle James has told us that we are to have _patience_, for it is nigh. He then tells us that the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long _patience_ for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. How long then does the husbandman wait? The former rains, in Judea, fell after the autumnal equinox, at their seed time, to quicken the grain; and the latter rains, after the vernal equinox, to insure a plentiful crop. [_Carpenter’s Introduction_, p. 334.] “Be ye also _patient_; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” How nigh? It cannot be seen, by the reading of the passage, that we are to be in this _patient_ waiting for his coming, after we have done the will of God, sown the seed, given the midnight cry, longer; and it may be much less than the husbandman waited. Therefore let us stablish our hearts, be determined to go forward, let us not look back, “Remember Lot’s wife.”