OCR Text |
Show HAN'S DESIRES NOURISHED BY HOPE. Man is a creature composed of a body and soul. He lives by communion wit'n Cod, man. and nature. Religion is the link which unites man and God; in j society be communes with fcHowman, and with nature in property. To preserve pre-serve the rights of man in this threefold three-fold nature is the object of the political r.nd social order. They embrace what j should be the fundamental principles j of all governments, viz., religious free dom, the family, which is the basis of society, and freedom to acquire as well as protection in the possession of property. prop-erty. The freedom and safeguard guaranteed guar-anteed to each individual in these aspirations as-pirations of nature begets hope in the soul. No soul can lapse into a habitual i state of indifference regarding its own good in this life. Under the light of faith he hopes for heaven, or eternal I happiness. Desiring God, as our supreme su-preme good, makes hope a supernatural supernatu-ral virtue, which includes his love also. Under this aspect it may take in a part of man's selfish nature by desiring his own happiness and its own rood, only in God. This hope, the offspring of faith, the 1 unbelieving world would call a dream. But what tan the sceptic, who calls leligion a prejudice, and hope a folly, offer man who is beset with misery, and sees nothing but darkness in the future? To extinguish the' light of faith, and smother hope is to rob one of the only consolations they could have in time of sorrow. Life lived by communion com-munion with man has the same result. Each person in the battle of life has sor,i-thing in view. The propelling force that bears him along is hope. The child will tell the parents what he will do, when he is a man. Here is hope. School days are full of hope. University aspirants for graduating .honors live on hope. The old miner wasting his life away searching for a hidden treasure will express his hopes as did the intelligent, but gruff prospector, pros-pector, when asked by a minister of religion -how are Bingham mines now?" He answered, "Mining is like preaching." The preacher could not ree the parity and asked for an explanation. expla-nation. It was given. "Prospecting in those barren hills is very laborous. It requires considerable muscle and faith j-oo. in drilling w ith every strike of the hammer, and every time we use the pick we are full of hope. Without that hope prospecting would be a failure. So with preaching you give hope. All preaching points to happiness, and if man did not hope for that, preaching would be a failure. So it is in childhood, child-hood, in adult and old age, the span of life, beginning with hope, ends with hope." An eminent writer describing its qualities wrote "in all the serenity of her beauty, with her fair, glad eyes, and never fading beauty, hope is indeed the immortal child of heaven." |