Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1908-03-06
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INSPIRATION OF HOPE.
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BY neV. 0uy a. Jameson.
Rejoicing in hope.-Romans xiii, u.
This is but one link in chain Of
tersely put elements that go into the
making Of Christian character But
without this one link, that ST. Paul has
in the very heart of the chain, the
strength of the chain, whatever the
beauty and power Of the other links,
will be a rope of sand.
When the soul has no longer the pow
er to hope. no matter what the DIRK
ness of the passing hour, it has lost the
divine spark that makes life worth
while. AS long as the soul has hope 1t
has courage, it has faith, it has life
and it will fight and struggle and re
fuse to know defeat.
Hope engenders all the qualities of
strength--it is the very foundation of
them 1t gives joy and sunshine to
life, to work, to every aspiration. We
can rejoice in hope, but without 1t we
can only wall and mourn. Out Of hope
grows patience and endurance, and
these virtues are twins. Patience to
endure; endure because we are patient,
and both because we have hope-.be-
cause we can look beyond the moment
and see the flush of sunrise on the dis
tant horizon.
Hope enables a man to keep a cool
head, dumb tongue, a sweet temper
under the most trying circumstances,
because he can rejoice in hope in the
knowledge that nothing lasts forever,
that perhaps the next turn of the wheel
Of fortune may lift him to the coveted
height and If it doesn't because of his
hope he does not despair, but silently
works and struggles on.
But let the man lose hope, let the
divine spark die in his bosom and set
him down amid all that perplexes, an
noys, condemns and binders and you
make of him q Weakling or a mailman.
But all these are insignificant things
when the soul that hopes compares
them with the victories and achieve
ments he believes await him in the fu-
ture and he finds strength to master
the spirit of resentment, anger and de-
spair
1t was a hope Of this kind that en-
abled st. Paul to say: Our light Attic
tons, which are but for a moment,
WOrketh for US a far more exceeding
and eternal weight Of glory"
So hope not only works in us the
power to endure present struggles and
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tunity to develop the strength through
which we are to overcome in the end.
Find the strongest and most firmly
rooted oak of a forest and you will find
one that has best combatted the fury
of thousand storms. Go find a man
who stands high among his fellows and
you will find a man who has passed
through some Of the hard places of life.
who has suffered and fought, but be-
cause of his hope and the vision it in
spired has overcome and won. He re-
jOiced in hope. Go find the saint. the
beautiful poised Christian character,
who breathes the spirit Of the Christ,
who is touched with sympathy and
loves everything that Is weak and help
less, everything that struggles and suf-
fers, and you will find a soul that has
passed through the fire, a soul that has
met temptation and has fought and
fallen and got up and struggled on till
with the fighting there has come
strength and understanding and the
spirit that In the end has conquered.
rejoicing in the hope rejoicing in the
victory seen from afar.
We must not despair; we cannot af-
ford to grow skeptical because the
Christ does not come In our own way
and in our day. But He is coming, He
Is here, If the world will only look I'D
and behold Him. 1t Is only by reioic-
Ing in hope that we will in a measure
attain. l know how disappointed we
are often with our lives. how some
times we almost despair of ever max
Ing Of them the beautiful thing we
would like to see them but. rejoicing
in hope in patience, we must endure
till the Christ comes to us, till we come
to Christ. Hope will steady our lives,
I'LL them with visions of attainment.
with inspiration that will carry US to-
ward the heights and anchor our soul
to the eternal.