"Christian hope is the firm expectation of all
promised good things, so far as they may be for God's
glory and our good, but especially of eternal salvation
and happiness in heaven, where we shall be conformed to
the Son of God; which hope is founded on the grace, blood
righteousness, and intercession of Christ, and the earnest
of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and the unchangeable
truth and almighty power of God, which always second His
Word. This hope is distinguished from worldly hopes,
first, by the excellency of the object, which is an
eternal state of glory and joy; whereas worldly hopes are
terminated on empty, vanishing things gilded over with the
thin appearance of good. Secondly, by the stability of its
foundation, namely, God's unchangeable truth and almighty
power. God cannot lie, and consequently neither deceive
our faith, nor disappoint our hopes; and He can do all
things, which the apostle makes the ground of his
confidence. 2 Tim. 1:12, 'I know whom I have believed, and
I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have
committed to him against that day.' But worldly hopes are
always uncertain. There is so much of impotence or deceit
in all the means used to obtain human desires that the
success is doubtful. Thirdly, divine hope is distinguished
from carnal presumption by its inseparable effect; it has
a cleansing efficacy. 1 John 3:2, 'Every man that hath
this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.'
He endeavors to shun all sin, and to be perfecting
holiness. He purifies himself by the assistance of the
Holy Spirit, from whom the spiritual life, and all the
operations of it, do proceed. But vain and groundless
hopes are inspirations of wind, loose and ineffective.
" 'The hope of Israel is the
Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.' Acts 28:20—'For the
Hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.' Christ is also
called in respect of the fathers, who looked for his
promised coming. Some by this understand the belief of the
resurrection. Christ is called our hope, that is, the only
foundation we have to build our hope of heaven or any good
thing, upon. 1 Tim. 1:1. Hope is taken for that eternal
salvation, which is the object or end of our hope. Tit.
2:13—'Looking for that blessed hope.' The Lord is called
the hope of his people. Jer. 14:8. He is that God in whom
alone they hope for help, and their hope shall not be
confounded. On the contrary, the hope of the ungodly shall
perish. Prov. 10:28; 11:7. Then hope shall be without
effect: or they shall live and die without hope. Hope
deferred maketh the heart sick, delays in obtaining that
good which a man passionately desires and hopes for makes
the heart sad and sorrowful; but when anyone possesses
what he desires, his soul is comforted and revived. Prov.
13:12. My flesh shall rest in hope. Psa. 16:9. My body
shall quietly and sweetly rest in the grave in confident
assurance of its resurrection to a blessed and immortal
life. Abraham against hope believed in hope, when being
advanced in years, God promised him a son. Rom. 4:18. He
confidently believed God's promise that he should have a
son, against all grounds of hope when, it was most
unlikely in a way of nature and reason. The prisoners of
hope (Zech. 9 :12) are the Israelites who were captives in
Babylon, but were in hopes of deliverance. Oh, ye
prisoners of hope, ye who, though captives to sin and
Satan, yet have good grounds to hope for deliverance, turn
ye to the stronghold, repent, believe, and apply to the
Lord Jesus Christ, your only help and refuge."—Cruden.
CULTIVATION OF HOPE
Some people are naturally hopeful,
others naturally despondent. One man sees hope where there
is no hope, and hopes on when he has no foundation
whatever for his hope. Another man cannot see hope where
there is hope. While it is true that an abnormal
development of hope that is, unreasonable and unfounded
hope, is undesirable and is likely to cause us a great
many disappointments, it is no less true that a lack of
hope robs many a dear soul of the joyful expectation of
future good and of the happiness peculiar to the hopeful
heart. Those who can see only the dark side of life are
certainly to be pitied. In the most auspicious of all
ages, the glorious day of grace when the bright hope
gleams from Calvary's cross, the soul that is not hopeful
certainly needs a word of encouragement to point it
upward. No picture is so dark, no experience so gloomy,
that it has no bright side to the hopeful Christian. It is
Satan's business to show you the dark side of everything;
it is your business, if you will attend to it, to find the
bright side.
The reason why most people are not
hopeful is because they look too low. If within the
compass of your present vision you can see no light, hope,
nor cheer, lift up your head and look higher; continue to
go forward and upward till the angel of hope shall greet
your vision. If you cannot see her near, look above and
beyond the stage of natural action and you will see her at
the threshold of that eternal world, holding out a crown
of rejoicing to all the faithful. Look forward and above
the trials now surrounding you until you see the hope
gleam from above; fix your eyes upon it and rejoice, even
though now, if need be, you are in manifold temptations.
Leap and shout for joy, because great is your reward in
heaven. But, we need not look so far ahead; for the trials
of life seldom gather so dark about the Christian pilgrim
that he can see no sign of hope in this life. There are
too many rich promises, too many bright victories just
ahead, to allow the light of hope to be entirely obscured.
If you would cultivate hope and
thereby cultivate happiness, give vent to the faculty of
anticipation; pluck from the tree of life by faith some
joy, some victory, some freedom, that you have unwisely
supposed was not for you. Do not feel that you would rob
heaven by enjoying all that you can today.
There is no better way to cultivate
hope than to meditate on the goodness of God and the
pleasures held out to us in His promises. "My soul,
wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense; I
shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory:
the rock of my strength and my refuge is in God. Trust in
him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before
him: God is a refuge for us." Psa. 62:5-8. Let your
expectation be from the Lord, and found that expectation
on the revealed promises of His Word. By so doing you will
drive trouble from your door and though you have long been
despondent, God will come to your deliverance and though
it seems to you as if you had been forgotten, as if the
Lord had forsaken you, if you will obey the Word of
God—hope in the strength of Jehovah—you will be
comforted. "For the needy shall not always be
forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish
for ever." Psa. 9:18.
Hear the testimony of the blessed
apostle Paul. Learn from him how in the midst of the
sorest trials to cultivate hope. The testimony that I am
about to quote was given by him when he lay bound in
chains at Rome, surrounded by enemies of the cross and
pressed by Satan on every hand, yet his hope was bright.
"For I know," said he, "that this [trouble]
shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the
supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ."
"According to my earnest expectation and my hope,
that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all
boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified
in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me
to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Phil. 1:20,
21.
BORROWING TROUBLE
Never worry over what might have
been yesterday. What might have been can be of no benefit
to you today. What might have been has filled many an eye
with tears and robbed many a soul of its joy, but has
never added one cubit to the spiritual stature of any man.
Neither should you spoil your hope of today by taking
anxious thought of what may be tomorrow. Yesterday and
tomorrow are alike in eternity. Live for today and get
from it all the good you can, for when today is gone, you
can never live it again.
"Therefore I say unto you, Be
not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye
shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.
Is not the life more than food, and the body than raiment
? Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not,
neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your
heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more
value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add
one cubit unto his stature? And why are ye anxious
concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how
they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: yet I say
unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these. But if God cloth so clothe the
grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast
into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of
little faith? Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall
we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we
be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles
seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need
of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom and his
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto
you. Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the
morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof." Matt. 6:25-34, Revised Version.
The "maybes" and the
"might have beens"—those things which will
never come to pass and those things that never
were—cause more trouble than realities. Retain no
thought of trouble from yesterday that will dim your hope
today. Borrow no gloomy vision for tomorrow, for the
morrow will have trouble enough of its own. It is time
enough to be troubled when trouble comes. If your power of
anticipation is so great that you can taste the bitterness
of trouble yet to come, make that power of anticipation,
instead of a curse, a blessing, by tasting of the sweets
that are before.
"Hark! I hear Hope sweetly singing
Softly in an undertone,
Singing as if God had taught her,
'It is better farther on.
'Night and day I hear her singing,
Singing while I sit alone,
Singing so my heart may hear it,
'It is better farther on.
'"When my faith took hold on Jesus,
Light divine within me shone,
And I know since that glad moment,
'It is better farther on.
'I have plunged into the fountain,
Flowing free for every one;I am saved, and
Hope is singing,'It is better farther on.
'"Farther on, but how much farther?
Count the mile stones one by one;
No, no counting, only trusting—
'It is better farther on.
'Rest, my soul, in hope forever
,All my doubts and fears are gone;
Jesus is my Savior,Keeper—
'It is better farther on.' "
"But the path of the just is
as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the
perfect day." Prov. 4:18. Therefore by looking ahead
you can see brighter things.
"I no trouble and no sorrow
Know today, nor will I borrow
Gloomy visions for tomorrow;
In my Jesus all is bright."
HOPE AN ANCHOR TO THE SOUL
"Which hope we have as an
anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which
entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner
is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever
after the order of Melchisedec." Heb. 6:19, 20.
"The hope of eternal life is here represented as the
soul's anchor; the world is the boisterous, dangerous sea;
the Christian course, the voyage, the port, everlasting
felicity; and the veil, or inner road, the royal dock in
which that anchor was cast."
The natural scene from which this
illustration is taken is that of a storm tossed ship
endeavoring to make its port. The dangerous rocks that lie
between the ship and its docks, together with the violence
of the storm, prevent it from entering at once into the
haven. So the forerunner, the anchor man, taking in a
small boat the anchor with its cable attached, rows into
the docks and makes the anchor fast. "Then, swinging
at the length of her cable, the ship rides out the storm
in confidence, knowing that her anchor is sound, the
ground good in which it is fastened and the cable strong.
Though agitated, she is safe; though buffeted by wind and
tide, she does not drive. By and by the storm ceases, the
tide flows in, her sailors take to the capstan, wear the
ship against the anchor, which still keeps its bite, or
hold, till she gets safely into port."
In the spiritual application, the
soul has been sailing on the wide sea of life and at last
is making an attempt to enter the eternal haven. Without
the hope of salvation your bark would soon be driven far
out on the sea of sin again; but Jesus, our forerunner,
the anchor man, has for us entered within the vail,
fastened our anchor, to which we are bound by the strong
cable of faith firmly and surely to those immortal docks.
How necessary, then, that "we should hold fast the
confidence and the rejoicing of hope firm unto the
end"! Though we be storm tossed on the billows of
trials and temptations, our anchor is sure. A few more
days of trial and temptation, and the storms of life will
be over; the tide of eternity will flow in, and by the
cable of faith we shall run in our tempest tossed vessel
and fasten her forever to those everlasting docks in the
haven of eternal bliss.
