WE are expressly told that hope learned experimentally is one of the great lessons God teaches His people in the school of life. (Rom. 5:44And patience, experience; and experience, hope: (Romans 5:4).) The experience of the passage, “Experience (worketh) hope," is that of God. We often place our experiences of ourselves too much in the front. Our desire should be to experience who God is. The ways of God with His people are most varied, but they tend to a similar end. It is the sense of this fact that lends such delight to the reading of much of the Psalms, and often occasions the response in the heart to the words of a fellow-Christian. Chord replies to chord. Many realizations of God's goodness to him in varied circumstances led David to say to his downcast soul, “Hope thou in God." God never fails His people; He is true to His promises, and hope built upon Him is built upon an immovable foundation. As men grow older they are less disposed to hope in men, and the best of men may die before fulfilling the expectations built upon them. There is no absolute certainty in such trust. But in God there can be no failure. Thus the believer's hope in God makes not ashamed. No one who truly hopes on Him shall ever be confounded, or know disappointment.
As years go by, as the incidents of life teach us, by their very bitterness, the vanity and the vexation of spirit that surround us, we lift up our hearts the more gladly to our unchangeable God, and hope in His word.
There is great power, as well as comfort, for the soul in hope, and as the believer nears home the promises of God, like the lamps in the lighthouse, shine brighter and brighter before his eyes.
The lighthouse lamps show their brilliancy not only over the sea, they kindle their reflection not only in the eyes of the mariner, they brighten his heart, strengthen his hands, ' and nerve his spirit. In like manner, hope makes not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given us. The love of God in our hearts is our experience of that love placed there by the Holy Ghost. A very much to be coveted appreciation is this! “The love of God...in our hearts" makes the most trying, circumstance but a servant of good. Even as said the apostle, "Death is ours," for death without its sting is but a door opened into, everlasting blessedness.