The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1908-01-31
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BY REV. THOMAS EDWARD BARR,
Pastor Peoples Church. Milwaukee.

nope. They need to be advised to be moderate in their happ.
ness and ambition and to remember the fraihy of all earthly
AT!MMl things lest they be in despair when disaster comes But what
is be said to the ovcrworked, the distressed, the disappointed?
UX4&1I What message of hope can you give the man whose brain is
RQ&NHI taxed with troubles? or the woman whose heart breaks under
~ her sorrows? 1t is to just such conditions that Paul speaks,
49, and to such he reveals the guaranty on which, but only on
which, hope can rest. He says: 1--WE glory in tribulaton also;
knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and
experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto u.s. In
this compact summary Paul Eliminates the whole philosophy of life. Cold
and hunger drove barbarous man to restrain his immediate desires and
provide against future want; and ever since it has been some pressure
of necessity which has helped the race forward to the enkinding of its
ambitions. -
In all this process men learn patience, selfrestrant: only by the
Office of patience is experience acquired. All, men have things happen to
them. The men of patience, of selfrestraint, learn from what happens to
tnem nc con experienced nhen, men of proved integrity. Such mel
are men o nope When, through half a century of life, you have witnessed
the kaeidSsSo5pe8 ffrrne years, have been part of its play of JOY and sorrow,
and have studied to be patient and sdfcontrolled in all its vicbsitudes,
you get an understanding of the great forces of nature and society in which
God reveals himself, and a confidence in them, which feeds your hope,
but cultvates it, gives it direction and definition. That kind of hope put
teh not to shame. Why? Because you have become persuaded of the
mighty love of God which, despite all accident and suffering, does enfold
and permeate the world. Men of marrow or shallow experience may be
censorious and pesimistc. To mn of broad experience and sober, earnest
mind comes a kindly attitude toward life, a deep sympathy and charity
for men, which is the expression of an abiding faith in the goodness of
nature. or God.
Hope is not the dream of what could be if things were different from
what they art. Hope is the expectation of what may be, things being as
they 1T Such expectation links in with natures processes and with the
movement of life. Neither God nor nature promise u whatever we want
Unmeasured bounty is not good for every one. Not even is life itself
always the best good. .
If our hope is to rest upon a assurance that will outlast all risks it
must be the fruit of spiritual culture.
The will of God is expressed to us in the laws of nature and human
life. The man whose hope is not subject to that will, who does not seek
his desire by integrity and brotherliness, ought to have his hopes blasted.
Men who desire success by injustice and cruelty do not merit our prayers,
save only that God will defeat them and thus, perhaps, turn them from
their evil ways. If our hope is subject to the will of God we shall be pa
uent under the delaying processes through which discipline goes on. By
this the horizon of life will be enlarged, and we shall be made willing
ito leave part of the problems for the
great life beyond, realizing that from
this we grow to that world. cIMs~ EA~4A< .R@~e