Norwich bulletin., 1915-01-02
Sunday Morning Talk
PRISONERS OF HOPE.

It is related of Alexander the Great that when about to cross over into Asia he gave away all his personal belongings to his friends. One of his captains asked him: Sire. what do you keep for yourself?" 'I keep hope" replied the Emperor, naming the one sufficient possession for ancient king or courier, and for us plain American citizens of the 20th century. With that great gift anyone is rich. what ever the poverty of his material es- tate, and without it, though lapped in every luxury, one is poor indeed.
 I do not know what will sap life of all power so quickly and so thoroughly as to take from it hope. Man is a that blow, when this divine quality has left his heart. Neither poverty, nor sickness, nor business disaster, nor desertion of friends. nor that ul- tiTlate enemy named death itself can vanquish one who it still able to hope. We march breast forward, head erect, with bouyant step through any dis 0ipline while we are what the prophet Zachariah graphically calls prisoners ot hope" It IS only when the spring of hopefulness fairly snaps that life is in extremis.
 The most striking and the most pathetic picture to me in New York's Metropolitan gallery is Winslow Ho- mer's Gulf Stl cam" There is 0 water spout, dismasted vessel. the crew of which have been killed or drowned all save one. and the sharks wait for him. In the of1ng a full-rigged ship is seen, sien of possible succor at hand But the mans back Is turned to it. He waves no signal and makes no sign. He has ceased to hope and his doom is sealed.
 Contrast some classic expression of hope with one of it's opposite-hope- lessness. There is, for instance, the splendid salute of Charming: laugh, for hope hath happy place If my barque sinks-'tis to another
 sea,
 Place besides this the lament of Byron:
 My days are in the yellow leaf.
 Tue towers, tn fruits of love are
 gone,
 The worm, the canker and the grief
 Ase mine alone.
 Tnat5netiveIy one halls the first as the nGh3ec philosophy of Iafe. One man faces 8, blank wall and assumes that life is G@ja4. The other has set his face toTax3 the sunrise, exclaiming,
 DSIONSt-, ILSFT are we the sons or GOO and it doth not yet appear what we shan be-" One no longer expects any thing in this life or in that to come The other expects everything both now and hereafter. In which con- pany would you choose to travel?
 Youth is distinctively the period of hope. of expectation. Normal young people arc forward locking, full of great SnticipaCicuz, avid of life. We grow cfi 9Giy when that eagerness ia pectatio9. ears have little to do with tfa u1att0G.
 Ans icy tna& 4cEten there are people who never genI cld, for they never cease hoping. For them life is contin- ually interesting aEd zestful They meet the extgencies of this human career with uncprquersd optimism, knowing al the time tEGt "tAe best is yet to be- As prisoners Of hope they trudge along &n all kinds of weather to a. distant goal that shall Ec1 f1naIly disappcint <nea7l. Tt is good to be in their company.
 There i5 : great constellation of grGces of permanent place in fbe spir- itual heavens. "&nG noEF ahideth faith, hope, loVl, Il@Eo thf&e" Hope is one of the stea-E that remain. When dark nsss falls os4 ths trayeler this star beckons him CT; whoa ether lights arc paling this flames with brighter glow. Let 1t shine then even through leaden skies, to bring us pilgrims "o'er. moor and fen. OCT crag and torrent, til the
 THE PARSoN.