Patience Is Better Than Pride

by | Jun 1, 1999 | Patience, Pride

“The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.” – Ecclesiastes 7:8

Thomas Cooper was born in Oxford, England in 1517. After receiving his degree from Oxford University, he practiced as a physician. In 1548, he began his literary career when he edited a Latin dictionary.

In 1549, Cooper began working on a comprehensive thesaurus. During the next eight years, he systematically chronicled 33,000 entries. Now Cooper had a troublesome wife who became jealous of his work. One day in 1557, she went into Thomas’ study and burned all of his notes on the pretence that he would kill himself with study.

Arriving home soon afterward, Thomas asked who had caused this destruction. His wife boldly replied that she had burned his notes. “Oh Dinah, Dinah, thou hast given me a world of trouble” sighed Thomas. He then sat down and for the next eight years he recreated the notes destroyed by his wife.

In 1565 appeared the first edition of his greatest work, Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae, and this was followed by three other editions. Queen Elizabeth was greatly pleased with the Thesaurus, generally known as Cooper’s Dictionary and in 1571 she made him the bishop of Lincoln.

Are you enduring a hard work? Today in prayer, ask the Lord to give you patience and to bring glory out of your endurance.

“Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.” – William Barclay

God’s Word: “Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.” – James 5:7-8

By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2003, Devotional E-Mail DEVOTIONS IN ECCLESIATES AND SONG OF SOLOMON pkennedy@devotional.com

Post

Patience Is Better Than Pride

Topics

Series

Archives