Hope

Tim spoke yesterday of the hope found in the early verses of Rom. 5. After the sermon a man (not a member of Otter) came forward who, as he sat on the front pew, exhibited all the characteristics of a lack of hope; sobbing, shoulders bent, a face painful to look at. I do pray as the week goes on that men at Otter can take hold of him and help him to see the hope he has in Jesus.

Cicero said famously, "Where's there's life, there's hope." ( think Bob Hope used the quotation on occasion too.) I like C. S. Lewis's "Hope is a continual looking forward to the eternal world."

P. O. W.'s have written books about their experiences in the camps and one of the ideas that seems to shine is that those with hope survived; those who gave up did not.

Does hope really " spring eternal in the human breast"? I don't know because I am a great believer in hope and looking forward. I think it was unfortunate that I heard so many sermons on condemnation and hell and the just rewards of sin when I was growing up. There was no room for grace and hope there. Now I have come to believe that a large reason for the cross was to give us hope because of salvation and to make us happy pilgrims blessed by God rather than dour-faced cynics waiting for the ax to fall.

So, "sing on, ye joyful pilgrims while here on earth we stay...."