Our remembrances and our hopes are closely connected; one might almost
even say that the power by which we look backwards and that by which we
look forwards are one and the same. At all events, Hope owes to Memory
the pigments with which it paints, the canvas on which it paints, and
the objects which it portrays there. But in all our earthly hopes there
is a feeling of uncertainty which brings alarm as well as expectation,
and he whose forward vision runs only along the low levels of earth, and
is fed only by experience and remembrance, will never be able to say, 'I
hope with certitude, and I know that my hope shall be fulfilled.' For
him 'hopes, and fears that kindle hopes,' will be 'an indistinguishable
throng'; and there will be as much of pain as of pleasure in his forward
glance.
But if, according to my text, we set our hopes on God, then we shall
have a certainty absolute. What a blessing it is to be able to look
forward to a future as fixed and sure, as solid and as real, as much our
possession, as the irrevocable past! The Christian man's hope, if it be
set on God, is not a 'may be,' but a 'will be'; and he can be as sure of
to-morrow as he is of yesterday.
They whose hopes are set on God have a certain hope, a sufficient one,
and one that fills all the future. All other expectations are fulfilled,
or disappointed, as the case may be, but are left behind and outgrown.
This one only never palls, and is never accomplished, and yet is never
disappointed. So if we set our hopes on Him, we can face very quietly
the darkness that lies ahead of us. Earthly hopes are only the mirrors
in which the past reflects itself, as in some king's palace you will
find a lighted chamber, with a great sheet of glass at each end, which
perpetuates in shining rows the lights behind the spectator. A curtain
veils the future, and earthly hope can only put a mirror in front of it
that reflects what has been. But the hope that is set on God draws back
the curtain, and lets us see enough of a fixed, eternal future to make
our lives bright and our hearts calm. The darkness remains; what of
that, if
'I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care'?
Set your hopes on God, and they will not be ashamed.