The Teaching Church

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 31, Issue 9, 1 November 1940, Page 5

The Teaching Church

Hope.

Faith is the gift, of God which enables the intellectual life to be consecrated to His .service: We .know that it is really impossible ip actual life to possess faith without love; yet, for purposes of. thought, it is permissible to consider faith • mainly m connection with the intellectual side of our life m order that we may distinguish its province and attempt to discover whether it be strong or weak, or whether we even have it at all. • Hope is the N gift of God, by means of which the desires are purified. We cannot doubt ,that these gifts will be given to those who humbly and devoutly )jray ( for them. Faith and hope are" not the same, though they are closely 1 ' connected. , St. Paul shows the 1 ' close connection when he writes "how the God of hope fill you with all jpy and peace m 'believing, that •ye may abound m hope, through the power - of the Holy Ghost." Jeremy Taylor m his ''Holy Living"' distinguishes faith and hope thus:— / "Faith differs from, hope, m the extensions' of its object, and m the' intension of degree. St. Justin, i;hus accounts their differences: faith is of things revealed, good arid bad; rewards and punishments, of things past, present; and to come, of things that concern us, and. of things that concern us not; but hope .hath for its object things only that are good£ and fit to be hoped for, future, and concerning ourselves: And because these things! are offered to us upon x conditions of Which we may so fail, as we may change pur will, therefore our certainty is less than v the adher- • , ences of faith; which (because faith relies only upon one proposition. That is, the truth of the word ■ of God^ cannot be made uncertain m, themselves, though the object of our • hope may become uncertain tp ,us~ ,and to our possession. ; For it is infallibly certain thai; there is heaven ..for all the godly, and for me, amongst them all, if I do my duty; but that

I shall enter into heaven is the object of my hope', not of my faith, and is' so sure as it is certain that I shall perserve m the- ways of God." THE SIGNS OF HOFE We' shall want to know* Whether there are signs which enable us to discern whether we have hope and to what degree. It would seem that the first test is to be sought from St. John: "Beloved, now asre we the children of God, and it* is not yet made manifest what we -shall be. We know, that, if he shall b.e mani- . fested we shall* be like him for we shall see him' even as he is. And everyone that hath this hope' m him purifieth himself even as -he is pure." (1 St. John 3.3). Hope must surely be. said -to be weak when " there is little of no attempt to control and order the desires, unless it is. a presumptuous hope , of which something will be said later. The 1 work of - purif yipg ourselves is an arduous one and might weir cause us to fall into despair, if it were not that hope gives confidence m God. Here is a .second sign,, for the best hope is a degree of confidence and if it be .placed m God and not m ourselves, it is the anchor 'of the soul. ) A third sign of hope is the capacity to rejoice m the midst of sorrow and trials. Here faith and hope are closely related, x for it would seem .to be impossible to rejoice m -tribulation if the sorrow or trials ggeefti to be meaningless, but, if faith, is allowed to teach the 'truth that trials' may be used to purify the desires, it is possible tb rejoice m the midst ' of them. The Apostles' vide an example :— "They departed from the" presence of the Council, rejoicing that ' they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His sake." Acts, 5; 41. ■ A fourth sign of hope may be found m the degree of perseverance

we possess. Perseverance has been calleti "The perfectiqn of the ' duty oi'hope,^;and .we can hardly quarrel with the statement. , How many wrecks and failures are made just simply because men will not apply themselves to persevere unto. the end. . It is hot without reason that Faber's hymn echoes Our Lord's words and bids us pray. "Multiply our graces, Chiefly love and fear, And, dear L,ord, the chiefest, ' Grace to persevere." THE^ GOVERNMENT OF, HOPE "Blessed be the God and Father of • our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten "us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the* dead." (1 St. Peter 1.3). ■ Our^hope is founded upon the revelation of God m Jesus Christ and He is the measure of our hope. We may not hope for ease if Master bore the Cross for us. We must not hope for position or work beyond, our natural powers, though we may hope' to 'use and develop thenr to the full. Indeed most of us would be better men if we did lentertain hope that our powers might be developed to the 'full, provided* that we mean to use them for work' and not display. .Patience must be/ mixed with our" hope lest we make our own rules as to the time at" which our - hope is to be satisfied, and lest we be tempted to despair? .Lastly vain hope must be avoided and the following words of Jeremy 1 Taylor (Holy Living) deserve to be weighed well: — "Let your hope be well founded, relying upon just confidences. That isi upon God,, according to His revelations and promises. For it is I possible for a man to have a vain hope upon God; and m matters of religion,' it is' presumptuous to hope that God'S\ mercies will be poured forth upon lazy persons, that - dp nothing towards holy and strict walking. Nothing, I say, " but trust and long for an event besides, and .against, all dispositions of the means. Every false principle yin religion is a reed of- Egypt, false and , dangerous." > S.F.N.W.