SUNDAY READING

Hawera Star, Volume L, 25 October 1930, Page 15

SUNDAY READING

HOPE WINS OUT. (By Pastor L. R. Harvey.) It is a fatal thing when we lose the hope that keeps us buoyant and looking into the iuture to find even' better days than we are enjoying now. Hope is the great soul anchor. When hope goes out despair comes in, and the individual becomes weak and powerless. Hope must not only anchor us to this life, but it must reach with definite assurance into that which lies beyond; but because much of the teaching of this time is making of the Bible a useless fable, and because so many millions of people are receiving this teaching, therefore is hope being cut off from the hearts of great multitudes of men and women. Hence we read every day of the deranged individuals who are not only taking their own lives, but are destroying the lives of others, because of the eonvicf ion that this life lias nothing more for them and it would he easier to end it all in death. The individual cannot degenerate \ into such conditions as this if the great hope of the gospel is burning brightly in his soul. He may have perplexities that would cause _ some men through sheer despair to give up and commit suicide; but this individual. in the place of being hopeless and despairing, turns to the Bible to find words like these: “In hope we are saved; but hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopeth for that which he seeth ? But if we hope for that which wo see not, then do we with patience (margin, ‘steadfastness’) wait for it.” Rom. 8: 24, 25. What an awful condition it is to have no hope. to.see the sands of life running out with no prospect for anything beyond! Under those circumstances, it is not at all surprising, as recently occurred, that two aged people with difficulties staring them in i the face should have agreed together Jto commit suicide. But if the same man and. wife had known the hope of the gospel, the evening time of their lives would liavs been so filled with hope, and so lit up with joy, that they could not have given way to the despair of suicide. Satan’s greatest efforts are to cut off hope, and then bring in the discouragement that produces hopeless despair. What this old world needs to-day, as it has ever needed, is to know the truth of these wonderful words: “Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.” Psalm 90: 1,2. What a consoling power there is in knowing that the infinite God is our dwelling place! And while in our human weakness our emblems may be so great that we know not how to solve them, yet we know that there is One who iias a way out, and He holds before us through His promises the glorious brightness of an eternal future. The world to-day needs to know that “he that dwelletli in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almiglily. I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” Psalm 91, 1,2. As you chance to be reading these lines, and the problems of life are so great that you know not- which way to turn, then go to Him wlio is seeking the opportuniy of blessing and helping you. Go to Him who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believetli on Him should not perish, hut have everlasting life. Go to Him as He reveals Himself in His word, and hear Him saying to you, “Because He hath set his love upon Me, and T will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver _ liim. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation.” Psalm 91: 14-16. ■ Do not read over these words of the psalm too hastily. Meditate upon I them; pray that the great God, who lis the author of these utterances I may enter into your life with His I power, and reveal to you the blessed- ] ness of trusting and hoping in Him, I and give you the consolation that comes through resting upon His exceeding great and precious promises. We set our love upon God. and He says', “Therefore will I deliver him.” And again He says to this one who has set, his love upon Him, “He shall call upon Me, and I will answer Him.” What a consolation there is in knowing that we may call and our God will < answer ! And hear again His promise: 1 “I will he with him in trouble”; and not onlv does He say, “I will he with him,” hut He furthermore adds. “I will deliver him and honour him”: ami all this that He may satisfy us, with long life, and allow us His salvation. These promises come from One who !is infinite in power: thev come from iOne who never could make a promise that could ho broken. God’s promises are all facts. They fill the soul with hope. They drive out the dark ghosts of despair and fill us with in describe able toys and hopes that not only I reach through this life, hut have their j anchorage in the never ending eternity. Learn to take the Bible with! all its rich promises and allow it toj lead you to that intimate aonuaintanco with vour God that will enable you to s.nv that von dwell in the secret place of the Most High.