James 5:8

Be ye also patient Better, long-suffering; as before.

stablish your hearts Better, strengthen. The strength is to come from the thought that the great Advent has come near, that there will be a great Court of Appeal from all man's injustice. Here, as before, we note a hope which was not fulfilled as men expected its fulfilment, and yet was not frustrated. The promise of the second Advent has been to believers in Christ what the promise of the first Advent was to Abraham and the patriarchs. They saw the far-off fulfilment, knowing not the times and seasons, and it made them feel that they were strangers and pilgrims (Hebrews 11:13), and so purified and strengthened them.