'And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is
given unto us.'--ROMANS v. 5.
We have seen in former sermons that, in the previous context, the
Apostle traces Christian hope to two sources: one, the series of
experiences which follow 'being justified by faith' and the other,
those which follow on trouble rightly borne. Those two golden chains
together hold up the precious jewel of hope. But a chain that is to
bear a weight must have a staple, or it will fall to the ground. And
so Paul here turns to yet another thought, and, going behind both our
inward experiences and our outward discipline, falls back on that
which precedes all. After all is said and done, the love of God,
eternal, self-originated, the source of all Christian experiences
because of the work of Christ which originates them all, is the root
fact of the universe, and the guarantee that our highest
anticipations and desires are not unsubstantial visions, but morning
dreams, which are proverbially sure to be fulfilled. God is love;
therefore the man who trusts Him shall not be put to shame.
But you will notice that here the Apostle not only adduces the love
of God as the staple, so to speak, from which these golden chains
hang, but that he traces the heart's being suffused with that love to
its source, and as, of course, is always the case in the order of
analysis, that which was last in time comes first in statement. We
begin at the surface, and go down and down and down from effect to
cause, and yet again to the cause of that cause which is itself
effect. We strip off, as it were, layer after layer, until we get to
the living centre--hope comes from the love, the love comes from the
Spirit in the heart. And so to get at the order of time and of
manifestation, we must reverse the order of analysis in my text, and
begin where it ends. So we have here three things--the Spirit given,
the love shed abroad by that Spirit, and the hope established by that
love. Now just look at them for a moment.