Hope To The End
"Wherefore
gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the
grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus
Christ." -I
PETER 1:13 [KJV]
Hope
chiefly regards "the end;"—for
that is "better than the beginning," the crowning
consummation of all that faith believes, hope expects, and love
enjoys. But through what dark and gloomy seasons has hope often to
look before this end comes, being sometimes sunk so low as almost to
despair even of life! How it has in these low spots to muster all its
evidences, look back to this and that Ebenezer, this and that hill
Mizar, this and that deliverance, manifestation, and blessing; how it
has to hang upon the word of promise, cry out for help, and that
mightily, as if at its last breath, and hope against hope in the very
face of unbelief, infidelity, and despair.
An
end must come to all our struggles, trials, exercises, afflictions,
and conflicts. We shall not be always struggling and fighting with a
body of sin and death. We shall not be always exposed to snares and
temptations spread in our path by sin and Satan, so as hardly to
escape falling by them as if by the very skin of our teeth. Every day
reminds us with warning voice that an end must come.
But
now comes the question, and often a very anxious question it is, What
will that end be? Here hope comes in to sustain and support the soul,
enabling it to look forward, that it may prove to be a hope that
maketh not ashamed, a good hope through grace, and a hope of such a
complete and enduring nature that the end may prove it was a grace of
the Holy Spirit, and, as such, stamped with His own perfecting power.
-Gospel
report by preacher J.C. Philpot (1802-1869 A.D.)
March
19th, EARS FROM HARVESTED SHEAVES
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