Verse 7— Be patient, therefore, brethren. What a relief it must have been to the writer to turn away from the contemplation of the grievous sins of the wicked Jews to his suffering brethren. Be patient, there­fore, brethren. You have the high and exalted example of the blessed Master: "Continue, therefore, your patience unto the coming of the Lord." Then your persecutors will be punished. Reference here evidently is had to the coming of punishment upon the Jews in the destruction of their commonwealth, as may be seen in the following verse. Behold, the husbandman. A further incentive to patience, one that daily appears before the gaze of all, and in every age and clime— the patience of the tiller of the soil. He must, and does, wait with patience for the coming crop. He waits for the rains, both the early and the latter. Upon these he depends. If men exercise patience in the daily avocations of life and are so schooled, as men, and it will be more commendable in them, as believers, can exercise patience in matters pertain­ing to God, and the more ready and willing ought they to be when they are assured that the Lord, in whom they be­lieve and in whom they put their trust, will soon come to their relief and terminate their sufferings and crown them with joy.