The besetting sin of the reformer is his impatience. The world
must be redeemed at once. “The trouble seems to be,” said
Theodore Parker of the anti-slavery cause, “that God is not in
a hurry, and I am.” “If my scheme is not sufficient to redeem
society,” said a labor leader not long ago, “what is yours?” as
tho every self-respecting man must have some panacea of social
salvation. The fact is, however, that a time like ours, whose
symptoms are so complex and serious, is no time for social
panaceas. As one of the most observant of American students
of society has remarked: “When I hear a man bring forward a
solution of the social question, I move to adjourn.” Jesus
proposes no surgical operation which at one stroke can save the
world. He offers no assurance that the tares of the world shall
be exterminated by one sweep of the scythe. He adds faith to
patience.--FRANCIS GREENWOOD PEABODY, “Proceedings of
the Religious Education Association,” 1904.
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