s their eyepieces, 'Theatre,' 'Field,' 'Marine.' Which of the
three is your glass set to? The turn of a button determines its range.
You can either look at the things close at hand, or, if you set the
eyepiece right and use the strongest, you can see the stars. Which is it
to be? The shorter range shows you possibilities; the longer will show
you certainties. The shorter range shows you trifles; the longer, all
that you can desire. The shorter range shows you hopes that are destined
to be outgrown and left behind; the longer, the far-off glories, a
pillar of light which will move before you for ever. Oh, how many of the
hopes that guided our course, and made our objective points in the past,
are away down below the backward horizon! How many hopes we have
outgrown, whether they were fulfilled or disappointed. But we may have
one which will ever move before us, and ever draw our desires. The
greater vision, if we were only wise enough to bring our lives
habitually under its influence, would at once dim and ennoble all the
near future.

Let us then, dear friends, not desecrate that wondrous faculty of
looking before as well as after which God has given to us, by wasting it
upon the nothings of this world, but heave it higher, and anchor it more
firmly in the very Throne of God Himself. And for us let one solemn,
blessed thought more and more fill with its substance and its light the
else dim and questionable and insufficient future, and walk evermore as
seeing Him who is invisible, and as hasting unto the coming of the day
of the Lord.

II. Then, secondly, note the definite aim which this clear hope should
impress upon life.

If you knew that you were going to emigrate soon, and spend all your
life on the other side of the world, in circumstances the outlines of
which you knew, you would be a fool if you did not set yourself to get
ready for them. The more clearly we see and the more deeply we feel that
future hope, which is disclosed for us in the words of my text, the more
it will prescribe a dominant purpose which will give unity, strength,
buoyancy, and blessedness to any life. 'Seeing that ye look for such
things, be diligent.' For what? 'That ye may be found of Him in peace,
without spot, and blameless.'

Now mark the details of the aim which this great hope impresses upon
life, as they are stated in the words of my text. Every word is weighty
here. 'That ye may be _found_.' That implies, if not search, at least