ion, if you believe
in God, that a man who thus 'feels he was not made to die' because he
has grasped the Eternal, is right in so feeling. If, too, we look at
the experiences themselves, they all have the stamp of
incompleteness, and suggest completeness by their own incompleteness.
The new moon with its ragged edge not more surely prophesies its
completed silver round, than do the experiences of the Christian life
here, in their greatness and in their smallness, declare that there
come a time and an order of things in which what was thwarted
tendency shall be accomplished result. The tender green spikelet,
pushing up through the brown clods, does not more surely prophesy the
waving yellow ear, nor the broad highway on which a man comes in the
wilderness more surely declare that there is a village at the end of
it, than do the facts of the Christian life, here and now, attest the
validity of the hope of the glory of God.

And so, brethren, if you wish to brighten that great light that fills
the future, see to it that your present Christianity is fuller of
'peace with God,' 'access into grace,' and the firm, erect standing
which flows from these. When the springs in the mountains dry up, the
river in the valley shrinks; and when they are full, it glides along
level with the top of its banks. So when our Christian life in the
present is richest, our Christian hope of the future will be the
brighter. Look into yourselves. Is there anything there that
witnesses to that great future; anything there that is obviously
incipient, and destined to greater power; anything there which is
like a tropical plant up here in 45 degrees of north latitude,
managing to grow, but with dwarfed leaves and scanty flowers and half
shrivelled and sourish fruit, and that in the cold dreams of the warm
native land? Reflecting telescopes show the stars in a mirror, and
the observer looks down to see the heavens. Look into yourselves, and
see whether, on the polished plate within, there are any images of
the stars that move around the Throne of God.

But let us turn for a moment to the second source to which the
Apostle traces the Christian hope here. I must not be tempted to more
than just a word of explanation, but perhaps you will tolerate that.
Paul says that trouble works patience, that is to say, not only
passive endurance, but brave persistence in a course, in spite of
antagonisms. That is what trouble does to a man when it is rightly
born