The Patience of Love

I was reading William Barclay's commentary on the letters to the Corinthians last night. He shared a story that really got me. It involved Abraham Lincoln:

The American Baptist Harry Emerson Fosdick points out that no one treated President Abraham Lincoln, with more contempt than did his secretary for war, Edwin Stanton. He called him a "low cunning clown", he nicknamed him "the original gorilla" and said that the traveller and explorer Paul Du Chaillu was a fool to wander about Africa trying to capture a gorilla when he could have found one so easily in Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln said nothing. He made Stanton his war minister because he was the best man for the job, and he treated him with every courtesy. The years wore on. The night came when the assassin's bullet murdered Lincoln in the theater. In the little room to which the President's body was taken stood that same Stanton, and, looking down on Lincoln's silent face, he said through tears: "There lies the greatest ruler of men the world has ever seen." The patience of love had conquered in the end.

Love is patient...

1 Corinthians 13:4a