According to God's Word, genuine Christian hope has many and im­portant uses. It does great things for the soul.

1. It makes us patient in tribula­tion. "If we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." Accordingly Paul alike commends in the Thessalonians "your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 1:3). To this happy effect of this grace Jeremiah refers when he says, "It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope" (Lam. 3:26-29). All Scripture and all experience show, that through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom of God. We can purchase no exemption. Patience must have her perfect work. Patience is fed by hope. It is thus we are supported in trials. What but this can give strength in the day of trouble? The church of God has often waded through rivers of blood; she has often been bound in affliction and iron; the fiercest onsets ever made upon her have often threatened something still worse; yet hope has begotten patience, a pa­tience that could not be worn out. Despondency is unquiet, dissatisfied, and full of pain; but hope cries, "Be thou faithful unto death, and Christ will give thee a crown of life."
2. Hope also gives courage in fac­ing danger and fortitude in enduring pain. "Hope maketh not ashamed; be­cause the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us" (Rom. 5:5). Unless we have "for a helmet, the hope of salvation" (1 Thess. 5:8), we shall but play the coward in the day of battle. Here is the great difference between the real child of God and the self-de­ceiver. The former has an expectation of future glory which makes present ignominy to be esteemed as nothing. The latter has perhaps some vague hope of future good, but he has never relin­quished his hold of present good. So when he finds he must let go either the present or the future, he always cleaves to the present, vainly purposing hereaf­ter to seize upon the things to come. Every man who knows anything at all of his own heart is painfully convinced of his sad timidity and wicked shame as to all that is good, until God by His grace gives him the hope of the gospel. Indeed, such is the fearful sway of shame over many minds that some persons have seemed to think that almost the only hindrance to men's salvation. Our blessed Savior was not beating the air nor giving a vain warning when he said, "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulter­ous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels" (Mark 8:38). You will never be able to over­come your natural shame of religion but by a "good hope through grace."
3. The great animating principle in labor is hope. This encourages the mari­ner, the husbandman, and every indus­trial class. This is no less the animating principle in labors for the spread of the gospel, the good of men, and the glory of God. Thus Paul argued: "It is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God care for oxen? Or saith He it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope" (1 Cor. 9:9, 10). What would the apos­tles have effected but for a hope that entered within the veil? They had re­gard to the recompense of the reward in a future life. God never puts and keeps his people at work for Him with­out adequate motives, without influ­ences suited to their nature as men.
4.  Christian hope is the great nour­isher of Christian joy. "We ... rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Rom. 5:2). Our present circumstances have in them much to make us sad and de­sponding, but hope looks to the fu­ture, when the glory of God shall be revealed in us. So steadfastly does hope take hold on what is future, that both Haldane and Hodge propose to read the first clause of Romans 8:24, "We are saved in hope"; meaning thereby that we are saved in prospect, in expectation. No Christian in this life is in full possession of all the blessings of salvation. He has indeed foretastes, earnests, pledges of good things to come, but not the very things them­selves. Yet his title to eternal life is good, is perfect. Nothing could be more so. In due time deliverance shall come in all its fulness. As "rejoicing in hope" is a duty (Rom. 12:12), so it is a great privilege. Charnock says, "Desired happiness affects the soul; much more expected happiness. Joy is the natural issue of a well-grounded hope. A tot­tering expectation will engender but a tottering delight; such a delight will madmen have, which is rather to be pitied than desired. But if an imaginary hope can affect the heart with some real joy, much more a hope settled upon a sure bottom and raised upon a good foundation; there may be joy in a title as well as in possession."
5.  It is Christian hope that makes death easy and comfortable. God's people know that their flesh shall rest in hope. They know who it is that has said, "Thy dead men shall live, to­gether with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead" (Isa. 26:19). Job disarmed death of all its terrors by being able to lay hold on this very truth. So did Paul also, and so have thousands of the humble people of God.

In short, we may well unite with Owen in saying that "hope is a glori­ous grace, whereunto blessed effects are ascribed in the Scripture, and an effectual operation unto the supportment and consolation of believers. By it we are purified, sanctified, and saved ... Where Christ evidenceth His presence with us, He gives us an infallible hope of glory; He gives us an assured pledge of it, and works our souls into an expectation of it. Hope in general is but an uncertain expectation of a future good which we desire. But as it is a gospel grace, all uncertainty is removed from it which would hinder us of the advantage in­tended in it. It is an earnest expectation proceeding from faith, trust, and con­fidence, accompanied with longing desires of enjoyment.... The height of the actings of all grace issues in a well-grounded hope; nor can it rise any higher" (Cf. Rom. 5:4-5).

So that if what has been said be true, there is no force whatever in the infidel objection respecting the want of certainty as to eternal things. They are as certain as the existence and perfections of God — as certain as eternal truth and justice can make them. If our hope is weak, it is yet sure. What there is of it will never be disap­pointed. Nay, its largest expectations will be infinitely more than realized. God will do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Our hope is uncertain in no other sense than that it lays but feeble hold of things which it ought to seize with the utmost tenacity. Therefore to say that the Christian's hope is full of uncer­tainty is an untruth, unless men simply mean to say that the virtuous principle, even in good men, is weak. This all good men confess and bewail.

Nor do wicked angels and men offer us any thing worth our attention when they invite us to forego spiri­tual for carnal hopes, to give up the next world and lay fast hold of this. For what is this mortal life without the hope of the gospel? Is anything more uncertain? What is more delu­sive than worldly hopes? The con­queror of yesterday is the prisoner of today; the rich man of today is the beggar of tomorrow. Pleasures bring pains; honors provoke envy; and what is more malicious or mischie­vous than that? Riches vex us while we have them, and may leave us any moment. He who forsakes heavenly for earthly hopes prefers the chaff to the wheat; he snuffs the wind and de­livers himself over to vanity.

Christians should therefore labor to be rid of all sinful despondency. True, our frames change, but God's nature and counsels are immutable. Our salva­tion is made sure, not by our strength, but by the strength of God; not by our goodness, but by the merits of the Re­deemer; not by our wisdom, but by the wisdom of God. God sometimes with­draws, that we may learn our utter help­lessness. John Newton says, "If I may speak my own experience, I find that to keep my eye simply upon Christ as my peace and my life, is by far the hardest part of my calling. Through mercy He enables me to avoid what is wrong in the sight of men; but it seems easier to deny self in a thousand instances of outward con­duct than in its ceaseless endeavors to act as a principle of righteousness and power." Yet to yield in this point is ulti­mately to sink into despondency. All good and lively and enduring hope springs from the cross alone. "Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with Him is plente­ous redemption" (Psa. 130:7).

And how rich an inheritance have all the saints in God! He is their hope and their portion, their refuge and the rock of their inheritance. Bishop Hall said, "O my God, I shall not be worthy of my eyes if I think I can employ them better than in looking up to Thy heaven; and I shall not be worthy to look up to heaven if I suffer my eyes to rest there, and not look through heaven to Thee, the almighty Maker and Ruler of it, who dwellest there in all glory and majesty; and if, seeing Thee, I do not always adore Thee, and find my soul taken up with awful and admiring thoughts con­cerning Thee ... While others look at the motions, let me look at the Mover and adore that infinite power and wis­dom which preserve those numberless and immense bodies in such perfect regularity." While others grow wiser, let us grow more holy. While they trust in the creature and make flesh their arm, let us set our faith and hope in God. Let us think upon His Name. If we are really His, we shall ever be with Him. You cannot dwell too much on future glory. Nor can you overestimate the value of your future inheritance. It is worth ten thousand worlds. It is worth a thousand times more than any man ever endured for it. Men of the world often congratu­late each other on their prospects. But Christians may well give each other joy in view of their bright future, their sure and certain hopes. "Hope, like a star in the firmament, shines the brighter as the shadows of sorrow darken. A new view opens to us. We live in the pros­pect of another and a happier world," says Dr. John James. A poet well de­scribes this grace when he says,

Hope, like a cordial, innocent though strong, Man's heart at once inspirits and serenes, Nor makes him pay his wisdom for his joys.

How dismal are the prospects of the poor guilty sinner! Scripture de­scribes such as "without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Is­rael, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and with­out God in the world" (Eph. 2:12). Could more dreadful destitution ex­ist? The question has sometimes been raised, What will be the ingredients of future misery? No man may be able to give a full answer. But it is certain that a poor soul, as destitute as sinners are here, and then shut out from all that now renders existence tolerable, must be dreadfully and eternally undone. "The day cometh"— oh, how soon it will be here! — which "shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." And as the wicked die without hope, without Christ, without God, so shall they con­tinue without them forever.

Unconverted sinner, ask thy soul a few questions of great weight.

1. What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
2. Did ever any harden himself against the Lord, and prosper ?
3. Can thy hands be strong, or thy heart endure, when He shall deal with thee?
4. What wilt thou answer when He shall punish thee?
5. How can you escape, if you ne­glect so great salvation?