en
again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh
intercession for us.' And remember that Christ Himself bestows the
gift of His Divine Spirit as the result of the humiliation and the
agony of His Cross. Faith brings the direct action of the giving God.

And one more word about this first part of my text: the result of
that direct action is complete--'the God of hope fill you' with no
shrunken stream, no painful trickle out of a narrow rift in the rock,
but a great exuberance which will pass into a man's nature in the
measure of his capacity, which is the measure of his trust and
desire. There are two limits to God's gifts to men: the one is the
limitless limit of God's infinitude, the other is the working
limit--our capacity--and that capacity is precisely measured, as the
capacity of some built-in vessel might be measured by a little gauge
on the outside, by our faith. 'The God of hope' fills you in
'believing,' and 'according to thy faith shall it be unto thee.'

II. Notice the joy and peace which come from the direct action of the
God of hope on the believer's soul.

Now, it is not only towards God that we exercise trust, but wherever
it is exercised, to some extent, and in the measure in which the
object on which it rests is discovered by experience to be worthy, it
produces precisely these results. Whoever trusts is at peace, just as
much as he trusts. His confidence may be mistaken, and there will
come a tremendous awakening if it is, and the peace will be shattered
like some crystal vessel dashed upon an iron pavement, but so long as
a man's mind and heart are in the attitude of dependence upon
another, conceived to be dependable, one knows that there are few
phases of tranquillity and blessedness which are sweeter and deeper
than that. 'The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her'--that
is one illustration, and a hundred more might be given. And if you
will take that attitude of trust which, even when it twines round
some earthly prop, is upheld for a time, and bears bright flowers--if
you take it and twine it round the steadfast foundations of the
Throne of God, what can shake that sure repose? 'Joy and peace' will
come when the Christian heart closes with its trust, which is God in
Christ.

He that believes has found the short, sure road to joy and peace,
because his relations are set right with God. For these relations are
the disturbing elements in all earthly tranquillity, and like