THE

METHODIST MAGAZINE,

AND

Quarterly Review.

VOL. XVI, No. 2. APRIL, 1884. NEW SERIES-VOL. V, No. 2.

From the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine.

THE FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIAN HOPE:

A Sermon by the Rev. Wm. France.

"And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us," Rom. v, 5.

WHEN We consider the object and the character of Christian hope, as here exhibited by the apostle, we are naturally led to inquire after the foundation on which so high and exulting an expectation rests with so much security. We rejoice,' he says, 'in hope of the glory of God.' By the glory of God, in this place, we must doubtless understand all the perfections of the Divine nature. For all these shall combine to make the Christian for ever blessed, and thus become his immutable portion. In righteousness he shall behold the face of God, and be satisfied with his glorious form when he shall awake up from the sleep of death; for then that form of perfect moral beauty shall present itself to the view of his enraptured soul in all its beatific splendor. He shall then see all the glory of infinite power and knowledge exhibited in connection with infinite goodness, with the most intense love, and feel himself to be the object of the same ineffable affection, which is fixed from everlasting to everlasting by the Father on his only begotten and infinitely beloved Son. I have,' says the Son of God, speaking in reference to his disciples, declared to them thy name, and I will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.' If this be compared with what follows, it will fully prove the correctness of our view of this amazing subject: Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.' Then God shall be all in all. But this is a subject more proper for devout contemplation than verbal discussion.

The Christian's expectation of this glory is the most certain and joyful. Hence the apostle does not content himself with saying, We hope for the glory of God; but, We rejoice,' or, rather boast, in hope of the glory of God.' We feel within ourselves an expectation of that glory so certain and fully assured, that our souls swell, and exult, and triumph, and put us upon the most confident, and even what may be deemed boasting expressions, of our hope of that unspeakable blessedness.