3. What is hope ? The expectation of things to come — good things ; brighter, better, fuller life. And the surer the expecta- tion, the truer the hope. In the first dawn of the world's history, was not this hope an inspiration? Indeed it is the very per- version of hope that we see exemplified so strikingly in the desire to be wise, to be as gods (Gen. iii. 5, 6). And in our world to-day, is it not the glorious heritage of the sons of God, antici- pated by hope, that makes the present not only bearable but instinct with strength, and fraught with victory? And can we conceive of any other world, or of any other state of life, where hope is not ? where the goal is already reached, and only the dull monotony of existence is left ? Nay, hope shines on the forehead of every happy world, as of our poor, sinful, struggling world. And in the immortal future shall hope cease ? Nay, for that would be our doom. But rather, " for ever and ever " — or " unto the ages of the ages," as implying the opening up of an ever-growing history — there shall be the joyous expectation of fuller, richer, and more glorious life.
U We can imagine only one condition from which hope is for ever shut out ; but one place over the portal of which is inscribed, " All hope abandon, ye who enter here." But in heaven, where the spirit shall be refined and quickened and exalted to the utmost, shall the keenest of all its pleasures, the life of all its delights, the spur of all its exertions, be absent? Hope dis- appointed indeed there shall be none, for hope shall be based on certainty ; the eye of the soul shall rest, not on the flitting visions of earthly bliss, but on the calm realities of perfect knowledge. Hope deferred there shall be none ; no more sickness of heart at long waiting ; for the state of trial will be over, the perfect work of patience will be accomplished, and the hand which here is often stretched out till it wearies and stiffens and cannot grasp the object which it has reached, will there have but to open and be filled. But hope in all its blessedness, in all its fulness of joy, shall abide for ever.1
1 H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, i. 130.
i CORINTHIANS xm. 13 441
Bury Hope out of sight,
No book for it and no bell; It never could bear the light
Even while growing and well: Think if now it could bear The light on its face of care And grey scattered hair.
No grave for Hope in the earth,
But deep in that silent soul Which rang no bell for its birth
And rings no funeral toll. Cover its once bright head; Nor odours nor tears be shed: It lived once, it is dead.
Brief was the day of its power, The day of its grace how brief
As the fading of a flower, As the falling of a leaf,
So brief its day and its hour;
No bud more and no bower
Or hint of a flower.
Shall many wail it? not so: Shall one bewail it? not one:
Thus it hath been from long ago, Thus it shall be beneath the sun.
0 fleet sun, make haste to flee;
0 rivers, fill up the sea;
O Death, set the dying free.
The sun nor loiters nor speeds,
The rivers run as they ran, Thro' clouds or thro' windy reeds
All run as when all began. Only Death turns at our cries: — Lo the Hope we buried with sighs Alive in Death's eyes!1
iii. Love Abides.
1. Love is the eternal form of the human relation to God. It, too, like the mercy which it clasps, " endureth for ever." It is greater than its linked sisters, because, whilst faith and hope
1 Christina G. Rossetti, Poems, 137.
442 THESE THREE
belong only to a creature, and are dependent and expectant of some good to come to themselves, and correspond to something which is in God in Christ, the love which springs from faith and hope not only corresponds to, but resembles, that from which it comes and by which it lives. The fire kindled is cognate with the fire that kindles ; and the love that is in man is like the love that is in God. It is the climax of his nature ; it is the fulfilling of all duty ; it is the crown and jewelled clasp of all perfection. And so " abideth faith, hope, love, these three ; and the greatest of these is love."
Bound among the quiet graves,
When the sun was low, Love went grieving, — Love who saves;
Did the sleepers know?
At his touch the flowers awoke,
At his tender call Birds into sweet singing broke,
And it did befall
From the blooming, bursting sod
All Love's dead arose, And went flying up to God
By a way Love knows.1
2. The first thing about love is that it is Godlike, the second follows from the first, and that is, it is indestructible —
They sin who tell us love can die.
With life all other passions fly,
All others are but vanity.