THE INSPIRATIONAL FORCE OF FAITH AND HOPE.

"That your faith and hope might be in God." — 1 Peter i. 21.

Faith and Hope are often brought into dose conjunction in the New Testament Scriptures; and they are usually found together in the real experience of life. The reason is, that they are two forms of the soul’s endowment which are most intimately allied, and which, therefore, are ever ready to blend with each other, and support each other’s activity.

They carry with them a virtue which is always welcome, to produce a widening of the mental horizon, a freshening of interest, a heightening of the zest of existence. This is especially the case when Faith and Hope are wakened into exercise by the revelation given in Jesus Christ of the grace and goodness of God, and when they are kept alive by the breath of the Spirit Divine. Then Faith becomes gifted with a singular capacity of spiritual vision. It catches glimpses of the higher meaning of things, of the grandeur of the divine purpose, the certainty that Eternal Love rules and reigns, and that, in spite of all the tangled confusion of the world, the reality of that Love will at last be made clear. Then Hope, too, gains an unwonted power to glance forward into the future, and see the Eternal Love working on in front, preparing good in the midst of opposing evil, and opening the path through danger and darkness to victory and peace.

1. Faith and Hope are Transfiguring.

They bring the radiance of a higher realm to bear on the dull, dry details of life’s dusty ways, and gild them with brighter hues than ever they previously wore. The most humdrum work becomes sacred when that radiance falls upon it. The faith that holds the goodness and wisdom of God as a treasured conviction sees the drab, grey things of daily experience suffused with colours fairer than ordinary eyes can perceive. Indeed, were it not for this transfiguring vision of Faith, how dingy and empty much that we pass through from day to day would seem! It is faith which enables us to discern the possible good lying hidden beneath the prosaic grind and drudgery, the possible gain to be reaped through the strenuous grapple with difficulties and discouragements. Faith illumines even the dreary incidents of life by detecting in them the gleam of something precious enshrined within. This, as Tennyson reminds us, is the mystic power of Faith: —

"She sees the Best that glimmers through the Worst,

She feels the Sun is hid but for a night,

She spies the Summer through the Winter’s bud,

She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls,

She hears the lark within the songless egg,

She finds the fountain where they wailed ‘ Mirage.’"

In short. Faith sees things in the light of God’s goodness, guaranteed by the cross and by the Saviour’s risen life, and in that light hidden possibilities begin to shine out where all before seemed purposeless and vain.

And Hope also has a transfiguring power. Hope casts the radiance of promise over the mists and shadows of coming days. When hope, kindled by the divine love in Christ, springs up in the heart, how wondrously sunny is the glow that falls on all around and on all our forward way! The aspect of the world and its affairs changes to us then. Hard and trying things are brightened, and the cheerier outlook tinges the present stress and struggle with a softer hue.

"Hope is the rainbow to the storms of life,

The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,

And tints to-morrow with prophetic day."

2. Faith and Hope are Stimulating.

They act as an incentive to high endeavour. For the moment we grasp the nobler possibilities of life and catch the sunny gleam of promise on the days in front — that moment we feel spurred to put forth our energies. The will is invigorated; we are roused to do and dare. All the best work ever done in the world has been done under the instigation of Faith and Hope. And the Faith and Hope that draw their strength from God have fired men and women with a decision and plodding tenacity of purpose which made them capable of the heaviest tasks.

And what a power of patient endurance Faith and Hope can impart to the soul! In many a case the wrestle with trouble and personal infirmity is long and sore; yet the earnest wrestler is enabled to fight on and wait — wait and trust — because of the inner assurance of victory and the warrant given by the glorified Christ that God is on his side. That is the infallible support for us all. In dark days, days of sad inward struggle, that assurance is the grand stimulus we have to keep our souls in patience and brace us to endure.

"The heavenward gaze of souls sublime

At once transcends and conquers time."

And then, as for courage, there is no more potent stimulus than Faith and Hope "in God" to make men brave. It tightens up all the fibres of the spirit to feel sure of the Everlasting Goodness and the gracious purpose of the Everlasting Will. Such an assurance stirs to heroisms in duty which lift common human nature to the loftiest levels of moral dignity and worth; and what terrible ordeals it can nerve men to face with calm daring and unflinching heart, history has many splendid examples to show. When Luther was pressing forward his work of Reformation, and several of the German dukes and princes were declaring themselves in his favour, a cardinal legate was sent from Rome to deal with him and crush him into silence. "The Pope’s little finger," said the haughty Church dignitary, "is stronger than all Germany. Do you expect your princes to take up arms to defend you — you, a wretched worm like you? I tell you, No! and where will you be then?"

"Then, as now," was Luther’s quiet reply, "in the hands of Almighty God."

Thus spoke out the courageous soul. And thousands in all ranks and grades of life have been roused to brave danger with a similar courage, because they also vividly believed themselves sustained and guarded by the presence of the Invisible.

3. Faith and Hope are Creative.

What I mean is this: when a person is really alive to the possible good which the love of God has put within his reach, and when, with the vision of that possible good in his soul, he makes a genuine effort to reach it, — then gradually he works out the very conditions essential for reaching it. The hindrances may be great and the limitations of circumstance hampering; yet it is simply amazing what Faith and Hope can do in enabling any one, not only to mould his circumstances to the bent of his will, but also to effect changes in his environment which further his purpose, and even to control for good the events that arise independent of his own wish or choice. It is possible by the power of Faith so to master the hard details of one’s lot that they become stepping-stones to the fulfilment of one’s higher ideals. Yes, and one can hope, and even in seeming defeat and bafflement can toil and labour in hope,

                                        — "till Hope creates

From its own wreck the thing it contemplates."

Who does not know some instances in which a person’s Faith and Hope have so worked upon his surroundings, and so modified and utilised them, that he has made them the means of gaining the good on which his aspirations were set? It is by the creative energies of Faith and Hope throbbing in the soul that such achievements are accomplished, — the creative energies stirred and vivified by yielding to the power of grace divine. Factors in our environment which we cannot alter, we may yet turn to use for worthy ends; disadvantages in our circumstances which we cannot remove, we may so grapple with as to develop moral strength and gain an elevated freshening of soul. Everything depends on what we carry with us in our own inner life. That is why it is so important that our Faith and Hope should be in God; for the quality and temper thereby inspired enlarge our inward resources, and prepare us in our deepest spirit for any experiences that may come.

Maurice Maeterlinck, the Belgian mystic, has a suggestive saying in one of his books — •"None but yourself shall you meet on the highway of Fate"; and it is wise to ponder seriously the truth which the words convey. "None but yourself shall you meet on the highway of Fate." Yes; the things that happen to us as we step along our path will prove friendly or unfriendly to our happiness just as we are inwardly qualified to make them. The good or the evil which may come through these things is not in the things themselves, but in the secret dispositions of our own mind and will. Their effect upon us is determined by the manner and spirit in which we take them. It is always what a person has and is within himself that creates the elements of blessing for him in the events and circumstances with which he has to deal. And nothing is so effectual in creating the real elements of blessing as the sacred energies begotten in the soul by reverent surrender to the Spirit of God. We may be inclined to fret and complain that the good of life is denied us, that our surroundings debar us from the satisfaction and exhilaration we long to feel. But our fretting and complaining only aggravate the trouble. The imperative need is to cast ourselves on the Father above and get wakened in us that Faith and Hope which shall give us power to use circumstances for the highest ends, and to convert our surroundings into helps for the enrichment of our hearts. That is the true moral victory, and through Faith and Hope we create the conditions for winning it.

4. Faith and Hope are Contagious.

Their influence passes from soul to soul. There is never a man or woman, cherishing a buoyant, trustful spirit, but is in some degree an inspirer of others. The weary and the heavy-laden receive somehow a new access of strength when such a man or woman is by. It is those who have a brave, bright confidence in the eternal goodness and love that hearten their fellows bearing the burden and battle around them. The common difficulty, felt almost everywhere, is the temptation to be discouraged. So hard is it to persevere amid disappointing obstructions and besetting infirmities, that the spirits are apt often to languish and faint. But in presence of some resolute soul, lit up with a sacred Faith and Hope, we are imbued with fresh ardour and the springs of high endeavour are set moving again. We feel stirred to nobler impulse in contact with those who are filled with strength and brightness derived from trust in the faithfulness of God. Our hearts are uplifted as their kindling influence touches us.

And they are the saviours and helpers of society, those spiritually brightened, strengthened souls. It is they who rouse to upward effort, and keep the better aspirations of their fellow-men alive. Wherever they come they bring the breath of reviving encouragement with them. These are the bright, strong souls who fulfil the mission so finely described in Matthew Arnold’s memorable lines: —

"Beacons of hope, ye appear!

Languor is not in your heart,

Weakness is not in your word,

Weariness not on your brow.

.  .  .  .  .  .  . At your voice

Panic, despair, flee away.

Ye move through the ranks, recall

The stragglers, refresh the outworn,

Praise, reinspire the brave.

.        .        .       .        .        .        .

Ye fill up the gaps in our files,

Strengthen the wavering line,

Stablish, continue our march,

On, to the bounds of the waste,

On, to the City of God."

Certainly it is a blessed service which Faith and Hope enable men and women to render to their brothers and sisters struggling forward on their pilgrimage to eternity. It is something worth living for, to be the means of brightening the hearts and helping the higher strivings of toiling, tempted, care-burdened humanity. And why should not every one desire and pray to have his own small share in the gracious privilege? Unspeakable blessing is theirs who, by the contagious influence of their Faith and Hope, can cheer others on in the upward path, and inspire others with freshened resolve to fight their battle and hold true to their own soul and to God.