The crowning hope

Front matter

CONGRESS,

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LIBRARX-.OF I

CHAPTER I. Hope

Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never is, but always to be blest : The soul, uneasy and confined from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come.— Pope.

Hope. How bright a word! one that sparkles and glows with lustrous light! one that comes to comfort us when we are cast down! one that leaps forth to meet us and to greet us when our hearts are sad!

Hail, thou blest word ! we love thee, and love the things that, in anticipation, thou dost bring to our view. Without thee our well-loved language were nbt complete. Without thee our very lives would still be dark. Thou art the opposite of darkness and despair ; and through thee we lift our heads and rejoice. Thou dost bring to us joyous prospects of good, and dost fill our lives with sweet anticipations of a gladsome future.

Hope is the great incentive of life. It is this that, dwelling within the breast of men, spurs them on to earnest endeavors. Were it not that they expected to obtain those things which are desirable they would give up in despair. The daily laborer goes forth to the toilsome work before him with a heart made light by the Hope of receiving his wages for the labor performed. The hard working farmer plants in the Spring because he desires a crop in the Fall, and it is his expectation to reap one. The mariner on his voyage homeward looks hopefully forward to the day when his vessel shall sail into the harbor of home, and he, after receiving the due reward of his labor, may have the happy privilege of meeting again those whom he loves. The young man enters college with the Hope that, by careful attention to his studies, he may receive such an education and become so developed mentally, that he shall be fitted to enter upon one of the learned professions, and so take his place among the thinkers of the world. And, if it were not that men were inspired by Hope, if they were not enthused by the expectation of future attainment and emolument, we fear their labor would be less hearty and their efforts less severe.

From Joseph Addison's essay on " Religious Hope" we quote the following: "Our actual enjoyments are so few and transient, that man would be a very miserable being, were he not endowed with this passion, which gives him a taste of those good things that may possibly come into his possession. We should hope for everything that is good, c says the old poet Linus,' ' because there is nothing which may not be hoped for, and nothing but what the gods are able to give us.' Hope quickens all the still parts of life, and keeps the mind awake in her most remiss and indolent hours. It gives habitual serenity and good humor. It is a kind of vital heat to the soul, that cheers and gladdens her, when she does not attend to it. It makes pain easy, and labor pleasant."

"Auspicious Hope ! in thy sweet garden grow Wreaths for each toil, a charm for every woe ; Won by their sweets, in Nature's languid hour, The way-worn pilgrim seeks thy summer bower; There, as the wild bee murmurs on the wing, What peaceful dreams thy handmaid spirits bring ! What viewless forms the ZEolian organ play, And sweep the furrowed lines of anxious thought away !" — Campbell.

Without Hope man would indeed be miserable. If misfortune came and cast him down, and he had no Hope of ever rising above it, the suicidal pistol ball would find his brain, or the poisonous draught his vitals. If sorrow and misery once were ours, and we had no Hope of outliving or getting beyond it, our life would surely be a blank. But in our darkness and despair, Hope, cheering Hope, comes to us ; and, piercing the gloom of our present, sheds luminous light on the possibilities and probabilities of the future. Were it not so the burden would be too great to be borne, and beneath it our poor hearts would surely sink. But that Hope which "springs eternal in the human breast," comes to us and soothes us, and bids us onward go.

We all have Hope of some kind. One has Hope that his circumstances will change, and that the clouds which now overshade his life will at some time be driven away by the shifting winds of fortune, and the sunlight of peace and joy be his. One has Hope that, through his own industry, he may at some future time be enabled to remove from his present impoverished condition and low-roofed hovel, to a more spacious home with happier surroundings. The mind of another glows with the pleasing Hope that, because of his own shrewdness and financiering skill, he may attain to such a success in the business world that he yet may hold his head as high as some he knows.

But even Hope is often deceptive. How seldom do we attain the full measure of that for which we hoped ; and how many are the times when disappointment quick and complete is the finality of our cherished expectations. As Alexander Cruden has said, " there is so much of impotence or deceit in all the means used to obtain human desires, that the success is doubtful."

"For Hope is like dew on the blossom of morning,

The rinsh of the fair western sky, The perfume of roses, the mist on the mountain,

The beauties whose life is to die, - *'

This little stanza speaks truth regarding that Hope which is centred merely on the perishing things of earth. And so, as all " worldly hopes are terminated on empty vanishing things, gilded over with the thin appearance of good," we ought to be looking for something more real and substantial. And, we are glad to know, there is, within the reach of all, something more solid and more lasting. There is the Hope that comes from God, the Hope of eternal good. Said Rev. Thomas Dixon, Jr., " Hope is of divine parentage. Hope is the beautiful child born of the union of Love and Life, and reared in the light of Reason."

Again we quote from Mr. Addison : " No kind of life is so happy as that which is full of Hope, especially when the Hope is well grounded, and when the object of it is of an exalted kind, and in its nature proper to make the person happy who enjoys it. This proposition must be very evident to those who consider how few are the present enjoyments of the most happy man, and how insufficient to give him an entire satisfaction and acquiescence in them.

"My next observation is this, that a religious life is that which most abounds in a well-grounded

Hope, and such a one as is fixed on objects that are capable of making us entirely happy. This Hope in a religious man is much more sure and certain than the Hope of any temporal blessing, as it is strengthened not only by reason, but by faith. It has at the same time its eye perpetually fixed on that state, which implies in the very notion of it the most full and most complete happiness."

" The good man's Hope is laid far, far beyond

The sway of tempests, or the furious sweep

Of mortal desolation. —He beholds,

Unapprehensive, the gigantic stride

Of rampant Ruin, or the unstable waves

Of dark Vicissitude.— Even in death ....

Then, even then, that Hope forsakes him not,

For it exists beyond the narrow verge

Of the cold sepulchre.— The petty joys

Of fleeting life indignantly it spurned,

And rested on the bosom of its God.

This is man's only reasonable Hope ;

And 'tis a Hope which, cherished in the breast,

Shall not be disappointed."

Why do not people turn, more often than they do, from earthly hopes to heavenly ones ? Why not turn from uncertainties to that which is as sure as the rising of the sun ? Why not exchange human hopes for those that are divine? Why not go from human frailities and deceit to the strength and truthfulness of the promises of God ?

Who would be satisfied with this present, earthly life ? Not merely is it a transitory existence, but it is an incomplete one. There is no fullness of joy to be found here. Happiness without alloy is unknown. People are continually seeking for pleasure, and yet abiding happiness is something that ever eludes their grasp. Try ever so perseveringly to find it, they are never successful in their search. To obtain full anfl perfect happiness baffles all their persistent endeavors.

But how much misery there is ! On every side we see it. Its pitiful manifestations are all around us. We lift our eyes, and we see those who are weighted down by burdens of woe. We look, and we see lives from which all cheer seems to have fled. We look, and we see faces that bear but the marks of long suffering and distress. We bend our ear, and we hear a wail of woe. We listen, and we catch the cries of the sobbing millions. We listen, and the heavy, hopeless tones of dark despair are borne to our sympathizing ears. We turn, then, to our own sad heart, and we find even that to be beating time to the funeral dirge of a sinning and sorrowing world. ;c Humanity marches ever to this universal drum-beat of muffled anguish. The history of the world is the story of incompleteness, cruelty, and wrong, and suffering."

This life, of course, is not without its joys and gladness. Winter with us is not perpetual. This life knows its vernal brightness, its summer bloom, and its autnum fruit. The dry desert is not without its green oasis. The voyage over the tossing, turbulent sea of time is varied and enlivened by the isles of beauty and pleasure which we pass on the way.

But then again, no matter how happy may be our life here, no matter how free we may be fr^m those sad things which spoil the pleasure of life, no matter how smooth may be our pathway nor how bright our skies ; this is, at the longest, a short life. And, perhaps, when life appears the brightest, and our prospects the fairest, and we have reached the very summit of our expectations, it may be that then the fell destroyer, Death, will come to us, and, laying his dreadful hand upon our vitals, call us to leave the active scenes of a busy life, and dwell in the dark dungeon of the tomb. Death comes alike to all ; to the kingly form dressed in richest robes and sitting upon an imperial throne, as well as to the cringing sycophant who cowers at the feet of royalty ; it comes to those who dwell at ease and roll in the luxury of wealth, as well as to the abject wretch who gnaws a crust and sleeps in the gutter. We know that this life will not last forever; "It is appointed unto men once to die." Are we then satisfied with things as they are ? Shall we eat and drink, and live and die, and bestow no nobler thought on the possibility of a loftier existence ?

Ah, this life does not satisfy. The masses of the people are not contented with it. If they, for a little while, were to cease their hurry and bustle, and give a little more time for sober thought, its incompleteness and imperfection would be brought home to them with greater force. And, even as it is, there is much of unrest at the heart and unquietness in the mind. The conscience at times is sorely troubled, and well may it be.

Those who do not find satisfaction full and complete in the present state of things can, if they will, have a sure Hope of something better. God, in His infinite goodness, has made provision for our eternal redemption. And he who is living with " no Hope, and without God in the world," is dead while he liveth. We need not go around depressed in spirits, and dejected in mind. We need not hang down our heads like a bulrush. It is our privilege to lift up our heads and rejoice. Our lives can be filled with cheer. Hope, cheering Hope, may be ours. We all can have the blessed Hope of future life, of future bliss. We all can ''rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory." We can all " rejoice in Hope of the glory of God." We can look away by faith to the blessedness of the eternal world, and claim its joys as ours. We can become " heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." We can "have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the Hope set before us ; which Hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast." The darkness of our despair may be driven away, and the radiant light of a heavenly Hope, in all the fullness of its divine effulgence, stream in to our opened heart. The former emptiness of our lives will then be gone, and we will be overflowing with the welling fullness of an elevating Hope. We know there are those " having no Hope, and without God in the world ;" but there are others who have a Hope that is far superior to any of the hopes of earth. Some of us have been "saved by Hope." "We have our Hope set on the living God," and, as a consequence, we now "rejoice in Hope of the Glory of God." We have been "begotten again unto a lively Hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." We have found that " whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have Hope." And so we are now glorying " in Hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before times eternal." ' The God of Hope has filled us with all joy and peace in believing, so that we now abound in Hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.'

It is blessed to trust in God and to have a Hope in His sure mercy. As the prophet Jeremiah well has said : "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose Hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green." As also has the psalmist said : " Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose Hope is in the Lord his God." "Happy indeed is that people that is in such a case ; yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord." For " behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy ; to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine." " The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in his mercy."

The patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, had such a Hope ; and, amid earthly trials, amid affliction and persecution, in the lion's den, at the fiery stake, on the painful cross, it still buoyed them up and gave them courage and fortitude. It kept them while here ; it will be consummated at the proper time.

18 THE CROWXIXG HOPE.

How glad is that heart that has Jesus for its friend. How happy is that life which is filled with the joy that comes with the " Hope of the gospel." How blest is that soul who, amid the changing scenes and trying circumstances of a tempted and troubled existence, has learned to "lean upon its God." In what a fortunate position are they who have found by experience that it is sweet to drop their woes, their worries, their burdens ; and to " cast all their care upon Him, for He careth for them."

The blessed religion of the dear Son of God, when it is felt in the heart and lived in the life, is an overflowing fountain from which pours a full measure of true peace. It is, even now, a source of many comforts and true joys. Amid the conflicts of life it gives a restful spirit, and a feeling of calm content that can be supplied by nothing else.

But not only is it a religion of peace and rest and holy joy. It is pre-eminently a hopeful religion, the religion of true Hope, Not only does it benefit in the present, but it gives bright prospects of future good. It gives something to which we can joyfully look forward. And, ofttimes, it is in the contemplation of future bliss that the true Christian finds his greatest pleasure. As he ponders upon the "good times coming" he is filled with emotions of most ecstatic joy.

THE CROWXING HOPE. 19

His meditations of the glories of future time often enrapture his heart, and fill his very being with thrills of heavenly delight. His visions of future happiness oft are the means of dispelling from his otherwise saddened heart, the rough realities of his present lot in life. He is cheered by the divine rays of the gospel Hope. He is saved by Hope. But hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if he hopes for that he sees not, then does he with patience wait for it. And in patient waiting he is supremely blest. As saith Jeremiah : " The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord." Hope fills his heart, and inspires his life. Hope drives away his clouds, and brings into his life the sunshine of heaven. Hope keeps away despair and morbid melancholy, and bids cheerfulness and gladness be his. And, though his life may be beset on every hand by those contaminating influences which would tend to draw him away from the object of his Hope, yet he knows with the apostle James that u Blessed is the man that endureth temptation : for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him." And he knows that the words of Peter are true when he said : " The trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with lire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ ; whom having not seen, ye love ; in whom though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory" It is Hope that fills his heart with " joy unspeakable." It is Hope that makes his righteous soul to be " full of glory." It is Hope that bids him rise above the dank atmosphere of mortal existence, to soar above the obscuring clouds that would hang so darkly over him; and then, while bathing his enraptured soul in the resplendence of heaven's pure sunlight, to gaze beyond intervening time and obstacles, and feast his mind upon the eternal blessedness and joys that are to be.

11 O, glorious Hope of perfect love !

It lifts me up to things above ;

It bears on eagle's wings ;

It gives my ravished soul a taste,

And makes me for some moments, feast

With Jesus, priests and kings.' 1

When the true Christian engages in " the soul ravishing exercise of heavenly contemplation," how the comforts of God delight his heart. While he looks " not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen," how his whole being is stirred by feelings of holy rapture. As he looks forward by faith to the blest objects of his Hope, how his heart is cheered and his glory rejoices. He gazes, and his faith is strengthened. He gazes, and his determination becomes more fixed. Such an uplifting Hope is his, so bright, so enlivening, so eternal, that he feels he cannot miss its consummation. When the time of harvest comes he must be there to share its full fruition. And so say we all. " There is none on earth live such a life of joy and blessedness, as those that are acquainted with this heavenly conversation. The joys of all other men are but as child's play, a fool's laughter, or a sick man's dream of health. He that trades for heaven is the only gainer, and he that neglects it is the only loser."

He who lives the whole of his lifetime in the service of sin and Satan, and who at last sinks into a hopeless grave, has indeed wasted his precious privileges of salvation, and lived his life for naught. It may well be said of him as it was of the unhappy Judas, " good were it for that man if he had never been born." He has satisfied himself with the lower, ignobler things of life ; and, as a result, shall at last " utterly perish in his own corruption." But he, who, dissatisfied with the evils of the world and with the emptiness of the things of the present, does set his Hope on God, and looks to the glowing future for a perfection of life and a completion of happiness, is truly blest now, and shall be eternally blest in the ages that are to come. To be enlightened by Hope, enlivened by Hope, and uplifted by Hope ; to be thrilled with Hope and filled with Hope ; to be fired by Hope and inspired by Hope ; is a condition supremely blest. And it can be the condition of each one of us. We may say with the poet that

Hope's " blissful omens bid my spirit see The boundless fields of rapture yet to be.''

F. W. Farrar, discussing the iQ Theology of the Epistle to the Hebrews," said: "Hope is necessary, because the state in which we live is but a shadow of the state in which we shall be. In this view we can only realize the future by the exultant anticipation and inward evidence, Hope is not fruition. Here the ship still tosses on the turbid waves, but yet it is held by a sure and steadfast anchor, of which the golden chain passes out of our sight in that aerial ocean beyond the veil; — and the unseen links of that chain are held by the hand of Christ, w T ho has gone before us there."

11 How cheering is the Christian's Hope While toiling here below !

It buoys us up while passing through This wilderness of woe."

CHAPTER II. The Crowning Hope

11 A cheerful expecter of the best hath a fountain of joy

within him ; Yea though the breath of disappointment should chill

the sanguine heart, Speedily gloweth it again, warmed by the live embers

of Hope.'" — Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy.

If we are creatures of Hope, and are animated with Hope, then there must be an object for which we hope. We cannot hope unless our affections are centred upon some desirable object. Hope is "expectation of good; desire joined with belief." It is also " the thing hoped for; object of Hope."

If we are not looking beyond this " present evil world " then we have no more than a perishing earthly Hope. He who has no Hope in the mercy of God has no expectation of good beyond the vanishing things of this life. It is said that " while there is life there is Hope." But death comes, and Hope is gone. For "when a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish : and the Hope of the unjust man perisheth." "The eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape ; their Hope shall be as a puff of wind," " So are the paths of all that forget God ; and the hypocrite's Hope shall perish : whose Hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web."

But with the righteous man it is not so. He is divinely blest ; blest with an unfailing Hope. " The Hope of the righteous shall be gladness." And if he is made glad with Hope, and is " saved by Hope," and is " rejoicing in Hope," there must be an object upon which his Hope is set. There must be that for which he is hoping. " For we, through the Spirit, wait for the Hope of righteousness by faith." Now, if " Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," then we think that Hope is the desire for those things, and the expectation of them. Hope, with the Christian, is the expectant desire of future good; a desirous expectation of that which is worthy and lofty ; a happy anticipation of blessings that are promised. He not only has " promise of the life that now is," but of that also " which is to come."

Paul teaches that " if in this life only we have Hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." "But," says Wesley 6i if we have a Divine evidence of things not seen, if we have a Hope full of immortality, if we now taste the powers of the world to come, and see the crown that fadeth not away; then, notwithstanding our present trials, we are more happy than all men." If we are going to be Christians, we should be Bible Christians. Our faith and Hope should be in God, and in His word of promise. As Paul has it "your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." We should not have our trust in the vain philosophies of men, nor should we rest our Hope on their theories. We must go to the word of God, and, reverently turning its pages, find out what is there held forth to us as the object of Hope. We should find what the Bible places before us as the great object of Christian Hope. What are the promises of God? What is the teaching of His word? What, that has been revealed, can we look forward to with glowing confidence ? And I sincerely trust that the " Father of glory may give unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, that we may know what is the Hope of His calling"

We know that " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard .... the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." But we know, also, that He " hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit" And if God, by His Spirit and in His Word, has revealed to us certain things, it is our privilege to find out what they are. So we should seek to know what is the true Bible Hope.

And, having once found it,' we should be sure to " hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the Hope firm unto the end." We should not allow ourselves to be "moved away from the Hope of the gospel which we have heard ;" but, if need be, we should cry out with David, "Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live : and let me not be ashamed of my Hope." And, surely, if we get the true Hope, the one that God has given, it is a Hope that " maketh not ashamed ;" it will not be as rottenness to our bones, but will be the strength of our life and the gladness of our heart.

We insist that men should have a Scriptural Hope, that they should have a Bible basis for what they believe and expect ; because we know there are in the world many false Hopes. Many Christians have a Hope that is not biblical. While we do not doubt the sincerity of their hearts, we do doubt if they be ready always, with meekness and fear, to give a Bible answer to every man that asketh them a reason of the Hope that is in them. And if they have no Bible reasons for their Hope, it is evident that it is not a Bible Hope.

The church should have for her Hope, not that which the false philosophy of men has given to her, but that which God has set forth in His revelation. We should be "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets." We should have, and " earnestly contend for, the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." We should not allow ourselves to be contented with a Hope that is false, no matter how pleasing it may appear to be. We should be satisfied with nothing less than the true Hope. And if so be we have a false one, it would be a profitable bargain for us to exchange it for the true.