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Verses on Various Occasions · Chapter

Zeal and Patience explained

The speaker reflects on Paul's imprisonment and his patient endurance of hindrances, contrasting it with human impatience in the face of delay or opposition.

What happens

The speaker reflects on Paul's imprisonment and his patient endurance of hindrances, contrasting it with human impatience in the face of delay or opposition. The poem prays for a heart that combines zeal with patience, acknowledging God's long-term perspective.

Themes in this chapter

  • Suffering and Humility

    Paul's imprisonment is seen as a trial of patience, and the speaker prays for a heart that endures hindrances without impatience.

  • Time and Memory

    God's thousand-year wait to accomplish His plan contrasts with human 'languor of delay,' emphasizing divine patience over human time.

Characters to notice

  • Paul

    Addressed as 'comrade bold of toil and pain' and 'prisoner of the Lord'; his patient endurance of chains is the central example.

  • Lord

    Addressed in prayer as the one who waits a thousand years to work His plan; asked to grant a patient heart.

Key passages

  • “Lord! who Thy thousand years dost wait To work the thousandth part Of Thy vast plan, for us create With zeal a patient heart.”

    Lord, You wait a thousand years to accomplish even a small fraction of Your great design; please give us a heart that combines energetic devotion with patient endurance.

    The central petition of the poem, asking for a balance of zeal and patience in service of God's long-term purposes.

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