It is not for our tongues to speak of what must, in the natural
working out of consequences, be the ultimate condition of a soul which
has not set its hopes on the God who alone is the right Object of the
blessed but yet awful capacity of hoping, when all the fleeting
objects which it sought as solace and mask of its own true poverty are
clean gone from its grasp. Dante's tremendous words are more than
enough to move wholesome horror in any thinking soul: 'Leave hope
behind, all ye who enter here.' They are said to be unfeeling, grim,
and mediaeval, incredible in this enlightened age; but is there any
way out of them, if we take into account what our nature is moulded to
need and cling to, and what 'godless' men have done with it?
But let us turn to the brighter of these texts. 'Hope maketh not
ashamed.' There will be an internal increase of blessedness, power,
purity in that future, a fuller possession of God, a reaching out
after completer likeness to Him. So if we can think of days in that
calm state where time will be no more, 'to-morrow shall be as this day
and much more abundant,' and the angel Hope, who kept us company
through all the weary marches of earth, will attend on us still, only
having laid aside the uncertainty that sometime veiled her smiles, but
retaining all the buoyant eagerness for the ever unfolding wonders
which gave us courage and cheer in the days of our flesh.