With some it is common to speak slightingly of hope. Surely such do not draw their views from the Word of God, nor from the expe­rience of His people. These well agree in giving it a high place among the Christian graces, and in declaring its excellence and usefulness. "We are saved by hope." We are rescued from the dire influences of despair, we are aroused and animated in our whole course, and are finally made victori­ous by the power of hope. This is one of the great bands which holds to­gether the church of God. As "there is one body and one Spirit, . . . one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all," so also "ye are called in one hope of your calling."

Hope consists of desire and expec­tation. It is the opposite of fear, which is composed of aversion and expecta­tion. Richard Baxter says, "Hope is nothing but a desirous expectation." It is also the opposite of despair, which though it desires, does not expect. When we regard anything as impossi­ble, we cannot hope for it, although we may greatly wish for it. As to the gen­eral nature of hope there is no dispute.

The hope of the Christian is a long­ing expectation of all good things both for this and the next world. It embraces all the mercy, truth, love, and faithful­ness promised in Scripture. It lays hold of the perfections and government of God as the sure foundation of its ex­pectations. It has special reference to the person, offices, and exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Scripture the word hope not only means the senti­ment already described, but sometimes it is used for the thing hoped for. Thus Paul speaks to the Colossians of "the hope which was laid up for" them in heaven, where he plainly designates the good things hoped for. The hope of a Christian relates to the whole of what is promised in God's Word. There grace is promised. And on every child of God comes the bless­ing: "Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy." In like manner hope finds sustenance in all the divine perfections. It looks for them to be continually exercised for its good. Thus it expects bread and water, raiment and shelter, guidance and protection dur­ing life, with a blessed victory in death. It goes further. Each Christian can say as Paul, "I have hope towards God ... that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the un­just." Yea, more, he is always "looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ." Yes, more, the souls of believ­ers are sustained "in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began."

The living agent, who is at once the author and object of pious hope, is God Himself. Accordingly pious men cry out, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance." One of the dearest names by which God is known to His people is that of "The hope of Israel, the Savior thereof in the time of trouble." To the end of time "the Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the" true Israel. There is none like Him. He is "the God of hope."

All genuine Christian hope is a fruit of the mercy of God to sinners. It comes from heaven and not from men. Vain, carnal hopes spring up spontaneously in the human soul, but truly pious hopes have a heavenly origin. Therefore, when Paul would have the Romans abound in this grace, he prayed, "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 15:13). God "hath given us ev­erlasting consolation and good hope through grace" (2 Thess. 2:16). This is the first great difference between a true and a false hope in religion. The former is from above; the latter is from be­neath. One is God-inspired; the other has Satan for its author.

The second mark of true religious hope is that it is no vain persuasion, no idle dream, but a sure expectation. It rests upon an immovable foundation, God's unchanging Word and oath and covenant. "We through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." We shall not be disappointed. This "hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil." His Word is pledged in every form. "I will be a God to thee"; "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee"; "Because I live, ye shall live also"; "Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." These are but samples of His Word. To these He has added His oath: "I have sworn ... that I would not be wroth with thee ... For the mountains shall de­part, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee" (Isa. 54:9-10). Here we have His covenant as well as His oath. Indeed it is a covenant estab­lished upon promises and oaths. Else­where God says, "I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel ... not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers ... which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them" (Jer. 31:31­, 32). Behold, here are the sure mercies of David. God bids us rest our all on Him, and take His veracity for the basis of all our hopes. The wicked have no such foundation for their delusive expectations. Their hopes are all like a dream when one awaketh. They vanish before the re­alities of life, before any right test of truth. But the hope of the righteous endureth. It is the anchor, the sheet-anchor. It holds all steady, and en­ables the soul to ride out the storms of sorrow which God permits to beat upon it. Behold here the excellent use of Scripture. "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through pa­tience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope" (Rom. 15:4). Therefore a favorite form of prayer is that of pleading the promises: "Remember the word unto Thy servant, upon which Thou hast caused me to hope" (Psa. 119:49). This blessed hope, more than most things, makes Chris­tians helpers of each other's faith and joy. "They that fear Thee will be glad when they see me; because I have hoped in Thy Word" (Psa. 119:74).

A third difference between a true and false hope is that the former is the fruit of the mediation of Christ and has special regard to Him as a Redeemer, while the latter quite ne­glects His finished work. Many hope for impunity and yet despise gospel grace. But a truly good hope always has a chief reliance upon Christ. Therefore Paul says of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He "is our hope" (1 Tim. 1:1). If you ever have a genuine "hope of glory," it must spring from "Christ in you" (Col. 1:27). Legal hope is just the opposite of evangelical. The for­mer springs from supposed personal obedience to the law; the latter relies upon Christ's obedience unto death. These two cannot agree. You must look to Christ exclusively, or not at all. If this be so, some may ask, What is the difference between faith and hope? To this question the answer is, that though they are distinct, yet they are cognate exercises of the mind. Haldane says, "By faith we believe the promises made to us by God; by hope we expect to receive the good things which God has promised; so that faith hath properly for its object the promise, and hope hath for its object the things promised and the execu­tion of the promise. Faith regards its object as present, but hope regards it as future. Faith precedes hope, and is its foundation. We hope for eternal life because we believe the promises which God has made respecting it; and if we believe these promises, we must expect their effect." Leighton says, "The difference between these two graces, faith and hope, is so small, that the one is often taken for the other in Scripture; it is but a different aspect of the same confidence — ­faith apprehending the infallible truth of those divine promises of which hope doth assuredly expect the ac­complishment, and that is their truth; so that this immediately results from the other. This is the anchor fixed within the veil which keeps the soul firm against all the tossings on these swelling seas, and the winds and tempests that arise upon them. The firmest thing in this inferior world is a believing soul." But like faith, hope admits of degrees, varying from a faint expectation (Psa. 42:5), to a "full assurance" (Heb. 6:11). Like faith, it al­ways keeps Christ in view. Like faith, also, it will last until death, and then give place to enjoyment; "for what a man hath, why doth he yet hope for?" Let us therefore "hold fast the confidence, and the rejoic­ing of the hope firm unto the end" (Heb. 3:6). "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 1:13).

A fourth difference between a true and false hope in religion is that the former is operative and produces pow­erful, happy effects; while the latter is inoperative and dead. The hope of the Christian is expressly said to be "lively" (1 Pet. 1:3). It has life in itself and com­municates animation to the soul. It arouses, awakens, and gives vigor to the mind. It produces the grandest effects, making the people of God triumphant over all their foes and fears, and bearing them up when all appearances are dis­couraging. But a dead hope is without any abiding effect. It does no good in the day of trial.

A fifth difference between a true and a false hope is that the former leads to holiness, while the latter begets care­lessness. Of genuine Christian hope it is said, that "every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He (Christ) is pure" (1 John 3:3). The stronger it is, the greater is the soul's aversion to evil. But the hope of the deluded makes him reckless. To him sin is a trifle, and holiness a thing of naught. This indeed is the great dif­ference between all genuine and all spurious hopes. If any of our religious affections or mental exercises do not tend to holiness, we may surely know that they are not of God.

A sixth difference is that a spurious hope gives no support when we most need help, but a genuine hope bears up our souls above all our foes. Leighton says, "Hope is the great stock of believers. It is that which upholds them under all the faintings and sor­rows of their mind in this life, and in their going 'through the valley and shadow of death.' It is the 'helmet of their salvation,' which, while they are looking over to eternity, beyond this present time, covers and keeps men head-safe amid all the darts that fly around them."