The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1891-11-27
Written for the MONITOR.
HOPE.

state, a more successful experience, new
discoveries, new conflicts and pew victor
les. 1t is this hoping for things to come
that makes life progressive, pleasant and
endurable. 1t is this hope that nerves us
to encounter new difficulties, and gives us
and rise above them. Without hope there
would be No activity, there would be no
enorgy, there would be 30 progress. Our
courage would f~alter, our ambition would
die, and the future would be regarded as
an empty void through which We must
pass with languishing powers, suffering
the torments of ennui. Hope lost, aIl's
LOST
1t is hope that auimates us in youth,
carries us onward over difficulties and OBJ
~stacles, lays plans for the future, gives US
courage for our wo:k and enables us TO
pursue our course n spite Of failures.
Hope goes before US as a guiding light,
beckoning US onward to greater happiness,
and like our natural horizon, advancing as
We proceed.
1t is in thus INDUCING our hopes that much
Of our highest happiness is experienced. It
is often the case that more real pleasure is
found in pursuing an object than in obtain
ing actual possession Of it. Iu our rur-
suit our mag nation has fall play, and it
may adjust the end to our own desire and
satisfaction, pictuiing it to u minds in a
manner most pleasing aud gratifying but
it frequently happens that in the realiza-
ton Of our hopes the picture is changed
and bears many defects which mar the
actual pleasure.
And even when the result is just as we
would have it, and no effort has been de-
feated, the realization ends all uncertainty,
which 10 itself is a source of pleasure; we
know the end, we know what We have,
and there is nothing still to be hoped for.
In hunting the greatest pleasure Il not in
| carrying home the trophies of our skill,
but in the baying of the hounds, the eager
watching, the sudden appearance of the
| game and the successful shot.
W. are all living in hope of something.
Some may have clearer conceptions of their
desires than others. Some may vaguely
hope for prominence, affiueuce and honor,
but wait in an easy way expecting some
special dispensation of providence by
which their hopes will be realized. Their
| light is dim and smoky, bat they hope
that something will turn up by which the
dimness will be dispelled and the light of
success gid their slothful lives.
Others may have some more definite end
to hope for, towards which their whole
nature is turned and all their energies are
directed They may imagine IN their hopeful
vision a position of usefulness in the world,
a position of influence and enyiable reputa-
ton, and such an image will urge them
onward with increased strength, Vieor and
| resolution.
Without hope life indeed would become
| sta grant and insufferable. There would be
no Indictment, no stimulus to conceive and
prosecute plans. There would be no ad-
| vance of art, science, or knowledge. There
would be nothing to animate the paiLtsr's
brush, nothing to inspire the poets pen,
nothing to urge the astronomer to search
the Heavens, map ont the stars, determine
their distance, and reckon the regular re-
turn of the various planets. There would
be no inducement to the explorer 10 pene-
trate the forests of Africa, and risk bis
life among the missmatie territories and
! strange tribes. All progress would cease;
civilization would advance no further;
Christianity would die, and mankind soon
revert to its primitive condition.
1t is hard to conceive of a man entirely
| destitute of hope. We may go into the
| homes Of the humblest of the city, amid
the squalor md poverty, the want and
| wretchedness, but we will find here be
| meath the depressing influences that sur
round them, some ray of hope, bringing
perhaps the only happiness they know.
| We may descend into the dark ana dismal
mines, where the slaves of mighty corpora
| tions Zurich a cold ard cruel society, but
even here. among the black aud gloomy
caNtiDS, We " ltA AhO AfOfN N"~
| lives of the imprisoned miners. Some
| times we see individuals who seem to have
| lost all hope and abandoned themselves to
! the tide of fortune, but still there is hope
| existing somewhere within that this same
| tide NAV lead them on TO better things, and
| that somew here in the impenetrable future
| there lie blessings in store for them. 1t IS
when the last spark o fhope is e~xtinguished
tia. suicide is committed; when there is
no Happiness to be anticipated in life,
nothing but one continual chain of sorrow,
misfortune and despair. But there is
usually some ray Of hope, though it may
often be faint, shining into every life; hope
of deliverance, hope OF escape, and some
times the cherished hope of healing friend
ships, which, though now broken, were
once so dear; Of the return Of love, once so
fond. The harder allotnents are softeued
by these hopes, the arduous duties are
iightened, and the darker paths made
brighter. Our lives are more cheerful,
labor is transformed from a task to &
pleasure, and ali our present happiness is
increased by the pleasant a~nticipations OF