American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-06-19
rHE BLESSINGS OF HOPE.


THE following extracts are from a re-
cent sermon by the Rev. Robert Collyer,
OF Chicago, based upon the text: we
are saved by hope, but hope that Is seen
Il not hope, for what . man sceth why
doth he yet hope for. But If we hope
for that we see NOT then do we with pa
tience wait for it. Likewise the spirit
helpeth our inarmities."
think we may get a glimpse OF the
nature and Race Of hope from the sea
In The spring and sad by comparison in
the fall OF the year. The fall is o fruition,
while the spring is at best An expecta-
ton. We know in the fall what we have
10 depend on Our trees have borne
their fruit or made their timber; our
fields have yielded grass or grain in such
. measure; and our years work is worth
about SO much. But in the spring we
are not sure of anything beyond this
that there is sure to be break some
where between the promise and the full
flllment. These blossoms that cloud the
land with glory may never set into fruit;
tho grass may wither ~ it springs; and
the grain, If It prospers ever SO much in
the growth, may be blighted by the rust
or devoured by the plague, SO that we
are not sure OF any. We have nothing
we can really call our'own, and yet we
are glad for the spring, we brighten up
when the flowers come, and find the
song of the birds and the ripple Of the
waters in our own nature, and would
none of us think of exchanging the
glamour and glory of June for the funded
wealth Of October.
Now, in searching after the reasons
for Ibis curious inconsistency, this seems
to me to be the first and best: that we
have como into possession Of q hope born
Of the time and the very nature of things
while atsother timer all that we have is
. certainty. In . month or six weeks
from now the husbandman will know
neax1y what he has to expect, and then,
though that be more than he hoped for,
he will not be so joyful in his real heart
as he is of the expectation which as yet
il set about with all these uncertainties.
His blood will Jingle no longer through
the subtle fires of this beautiful illusion;
he will stand on the very spot where the
rainbow rested and 1t will not be there.
The sober Satisfaction Of munching his
apple as he sits by the winter fire will
which came over him when the blossoms
TRANSPORTED the land; neither will the
full bGns nor the fair handbook be
quite what the fields were when the ten
der shoots began to spring. in the burrows.
The truth is, he has got at the last secret
of his hope; the unseen glory has been
transmitted into the tangible reality, and
he would be . sad man now all his days
II Ne vinsone spirit did not steal out of
his fkuitiop and appear again among the
clouds.
But this IL what she always does to a
sound and healthy nature. The man
gathers his grain and selects the finest
for another sowing; he picks his fruit
and then peers into the trees and tries
TO guess what promise lies in them for
another year. He knows the winter
frost will search them TO the core that
he will very likely fret and groan from
the LIST of April to the LIST Of June, and
say he never saw such q spring; that the
that would deceive the very elect if the
time was not shortened, and that it will
be one long fight with nature from June
to October, and then the old story again
Of tempered satisfaction at the best 1t
Is NO matter; the hope that is not seen
tides him over the winter, brings him out
when the sun returns, and lifts him into
the old glory. And SO from year to year
hope holds him in noblcr and more well
como thrall than fruition, and he is never
quite 80 happy as when he ought, logi-
cally, to be most miserable.
Here, then, Is the secret Of a true hope
which We can'touch somehow through all
the lights and shadows of life. 1t is q
prophecy fulfilled in part; Gods earnest
money paid into our hand that He will
be ready with the whole when we are
ready for il; the sunlight ON the hilltop
when the valley is dark az death; the
spirit touching us all through our pill
grimage, and then when we know that the
end Is near taking us on its wings and
soaring away into the blessed life where
we may expect either that the fruition
will be entirely equal to the hope, or,
what / should like better still, that the
old glamour will come over US again, and
beckon US on forever as the choicest
blessing Heaven has to give. And i know
Of No condition in any life which Is try
ing to be real and true in which this
we have seen 1t doing for the man who
has to wait on the seasons for his daily
bread.
Hope is the winged spirit which is al
ways singing to us out of heaven of q
possible which is better than any posi-
tive, the standing contradiction to the
proverb all the ages cry shame on, that
bird in the hand is worth two in the
bush. There is no hcart-whole man or
woman on this earth to-day who can
truly say that q hope come to such fru-
ition as earth and time allows ever began
to be SO good as the shy, sweet glow of
. hope newly risen. This, ut least, has
certainly been my own experience My
one imperial blessing all my life has
been . certain eager, tremulous on-look-
ing. Few men have had a happier for
tune than has fallen to my lot, but If
that could be which God has saved us
from in His infinite love; If an angel
from heaven could say: You can come
into fruition at once-begin again at
fifteen, and every slightest wish Instant
ly fulfilled-no waiting for place until