only to starve and torture that man? Impossible! It were blasphemy to
suspect it. No. Where God has made any man to be so far a partaker of
the Divine nature as to change all that man's deepest desires, and to
turn them from vanity to wisdom, from earth to heaven, and from the
creature to the Creator, doubt not, wherever He has begun such a work,
that He will hasten to finish it. Yes; lift up your heavy hearts, all ye
who desire such things, for God hath sent His Son to say to you, Blessed
are ye that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for ye shall be
filled. Only, keep desiring. Desire every day with a stronger and a
more inconsolable desire. Desire, and ground your desire on God's word,
and then heave your hope like an anchor within the veil whither the
Forerunner is for you entered. May I so hope? you say. May I venture to
hope? Yes; not only may you hope, but you must hope. You are commanded
to hope. It is as much your bounden duty to hope always, and to hope for
the greatest and best things, as it is to repent of your sins, to love
God and your neighbour, to keep yourself pure, and to set a watch on the
door of your lips. You have been destroyed, I confess and lament it, for
lack of knowledge about the nature, the grounds, and the duty of hope.
But make up now for past neglect. Hope steadfastly, hope constantly,
hope boldly; hope for the best things, the greatest things, the most
divine and the most blessed things. If you forget to-night all else you
have heard to-day, I implore you not any longer to forget and neglect
this, that hope is your immediate, constant, imperative duty. No sin, no
depth of corruption in your heart, no assault on your heart from your
conscience, can justify you in ceasing to hope. Even when trouble "comes
tumbling over the neck of all your reformations" as it came tumbling on
Hopeful, let that only drive you the more deeply down into the true
grounds of hope; even against hope rejoice in hope. Remember the
Psalmist in the hundred-and-thirtieth Psalm,--down in the deeps, if ever
a fallen sinner was. Yet hear him when you cannot see him saying: I hope