the lowest and runs the whole gamut of experience of all
living things below him. And hope alone can save him as he journeys
upward through all the intermediate stages on his way to his throne and
his God. Big with destiny, he is saved by hope. Not to-day and not
yesterday can suffice. The present offers only standing
room--four-and-twenty hours. Memory is a bin banked with snowdrifts,
not the waving harvest-fields. Man's life is all in front of him. His
large endowment asks for an extended period of time, asks seventy years
for skill toward his body; asks an immortal destiny for mind and heart.
He is saved by hope and futurity.

Consider the scope and functions of hope and aspiration. Man is
governed from above and within; while rocks, birds, beasts are governed
from below and without. Gravity holds the bowlder in its place. The
channel saith to the river: "Thus far and no farther." The fawn that
is struck, the lion that strikes, the eagle dwelling above both, are
controlled by fear. The charioteer drives his steeds from behind and
controls by rein and scourge. But man is controlled from within and in
front. God does not scourge his children forward through whips of
fear. Hopes moving on before him lure him onward. The Italian artist
shows us the child passing near the precipice. Then drew near a gentle
guardian spirit. The unseen friend rolled along the pathway apples of
Paradise and the child, following after with shouts of glee, was lured
from danger. To the beauty of the artist's thought Homer's story adds
elements of instruction. When the Grecian boy was pursued by a giant
whose breath was fire, whose hand held a huge club, two invisible
beings lent help. One took the boy's hand and lifted him forward, the
other casting an invisible cord over him flew before him until his
speed was doubled and the palace gates gave shelter. Oh, beautiful
story of God's gentle rule o'er men! When troubles sweep over the
world like sheeted storms, when men fear exceedingly and strong men
cower and shrink and little ones believe the next step to be the
precipice, then God smiles. Striking some sweet bell he sends forth
messengers to lure men forward; they hang stars in man's night; they
whisper that the twilight is nothing, since it is morning twilight;
that fears are bats and owls hooting at the dawn; that hope is a lark
singing the new day; that God reigns and all is well. Then depart all
fears and supersti