Would admire that I stand in debate!
But the small turns the great
If it vexes you, — that is the thing!
Toad or rat vex the king?
Though I waste half my realm to unearth
Toad or rat, 'tis well worth!"
So, I soberly laid my last plan
To extinguish the man.
Eound his creep-hole with never a break
Ean my fires for his sake;
Over-head, did my thunder combine
With my underground mine:
Till I looked from my labour content
To enjoy the event.
When sudden . . . how think ye, the end ?
Did I say " without friend " ?
Say rather, from marge to blue marge
The whole sky grew his targe
With the sun's self for visible boss.
While an Arm ran across
JAMES V. i6 29
Which the earth heaved beneath like a breast
Where the wretch was safe prest !
Do you see ? Just my vengeance complete,
The man sprang to his feet,
Stood erect, caught at God's skirts, and prayed !
— So, / was afraid ! ^
* Browning, Instans Tyrannus.
A Living Hope.
Literature.
Arnot (W.), Tlie Lesser Parables and Lessons of Grace, 265, 270.
Beaumont (J. A.), Walking Circumspectly, 171.
Burrell (D. J.), God and the People, 287.
Church (R. W.), Pascal and other Sermons, 159.
Greenhough (J, G.), Christian Festivals and Anniversaries, 76.
Hodge (C), Princeton Sermons, 156.
Hort (F. J. A.), Village Sermons, 108.
Hutton (R. E.), The Crown of Christ, ii, 47.
Jones (J. C), Studies in the First Epistle of Peter, i. 15,
Liddon (H. P.), Easter in St. Paul's, 135.
„ „ Sermo?w (Contemporary Pulpit Library), iii. 115.
Lightfoot (J. B.), Sermons on Special Occasions, 233. Pope (W. B.), Discourses on the Lordship of the Incarnate Redeemer, 360. Punshon (W. M.), Sermons, ii. 80.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xvi. (1870) 481. Stuart (E. A.), Sermons (City Pulpit), iv. 77. Thomas (W. H. G.), TJie Apostle Peter, 146. Thome (H.), Foreshadowings of the Gospel, 205.
Whitworth (W. A.), Christian Thought on Present Day Questions, 106. Wilberforce (S.), Sermorts on Various Occasions, 103. Christian World Pulpit, i. 376 (Liddon) ; x. 264 (Solomon) ; xxiii. 163
(Hubbard) ; xxx, 85 (Pearse) ; Ixxiii. 253 (Martin). Churchman's Pulpit : Easter Day and Season : vii. 349 (Mackay), 351
(Pope). Treasury (New York), xvii. 248 (Gregg) ; xviii. 946 (Hallock).
I A Living Hope,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who accord- ing to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. — i Pet. i. 3.
There is something strange to our ears at the present day both in what these words say and in the joyful, fearless tone in which they say it. We have been born and bred in the faith that Jesus Christ, who was crucified on Calvary, rose from the dead on the third day. We have also been born and bred in the faith that, when our bodies are shut up in a coffin and buried in a grave in the churchyard, that is not the end of us, but that we shall rise again to a future life. Once more, we have been born and bred in the faith that Christ's rising from the dead at Jeru- salem more than eighteen hundred years ago is in some way an assurance of our rising from the dead, and that therefore our hopes of a future life are naturally brought to mind by Easter Day more than by any other day of the year. All this we take rather as a matter of course. But it does not seem to bring us much nearer to St. Peter's state of mind. We are willing perhaps to allow that thanks are due to God for not leaving us to perish utterly with the decay of our present bodies like sheep or cattle ; but we find it hard to join quite honestly in so warmly blessing the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for it. We scarcely think of it as mercy, much less as great mercy. We should hardly of our own accord call our own feeling a lively or living hope. Above all, we cannot enter into that very peculiar saying of St. Peter, that God has hegotten us again to a living hope by His Son's resurrection. It is not hard to understand how our rising from the dead to a better life might be truly called a second birth ; and in that case God who will raise us from the dead might well be spoken of as begetting us again. But this is not
JAS.-JUDE — 3
34 ' A LIVING HOPE
what St. Peter says. The new life for which he blesses God is something given to us already : and its great mark is that it is a life of glowing hope.
The subject is our living hope. Take it in three divisions — I. The Source of our Hope 11. The Means of it. III. The Nature of it
The Source of our Living Hope.
Its source, says St. Peter, is the mercy of God. He calls God's mercy "the great (A.V. abundant) mercy"; and he calls God " the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." And he blesses God for it. So we have here a blessing upon the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ on account of His great mercy.