NO HOPE, NO GOD

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California, U. S. A. · Nov 11, 1930

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 57, No. 44.

No matter what section of the country you live in, you can hardly pick up a paper any day without finding one or more accounts of individuals who are committing suicide. It is true that in many of these cases ill health may have so deranged the mind that the individual is lost to any sense of what he is doing. In other instances, financial reverses and disappointments in life in general cause them to give up in despair, and destroy their own lives.

A group of leaders of the hobo world, including James Eads Howe, millionaire hobo from Los Angeles, who recently convened in Washington to seek means of solving the unemployment problem in the United States. Unemployment figures throughout the world have reached the staggering totals of 2,000,000 for England, 3,000,000 for Germany, 16,000 unemployed and 40,000 partially unemployed for Belgium, 40,000 for Italy, and from 4,000,000 to 6,000,000 for the United States.

But the basic trouble in practically all such cases is the fact that these individuals do not know God for themselves; they do not have the saving grace of the hope that comes only through a companionship with God, and the hope that is inspired by the fact, that no matter what conditions may be in this life, there is the hope beyond, that God Himself, after He has tested and tried us, will give us the blessings of an immortal happiness, where no discouragement and no despair may ever enter. In his Ephesian letter, the apostle says, “Wherefore remember, that once ye, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands; that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” Ephesians 2:11, 12.

How sad and how comfortless those words are, “no hope and without God”! Apart from God and apart from the Bible, the individual may go along for a while in apparent happiness, if he has health, and plenty of means, and everything seems to be going merrily on; but down in his heart all the way through there is a longing for something that can be satisfied only by a knowledge of God and companionship with Him. It is God through His presence in the life that fills the soul with hope, and places us where we do not give way to the despair that comes from disappointment. The Christian has the same disappointments to meet that are met by the people of the world, but his heart is buoyed up by hope; he knows Him in whom he has believed, and trusting in Him he goes forward, knowing that the God who created the great universe has power to take care of him. Hence, no situation, however complex or however despairing, can ever daunt his courage or cause him to give up the struggle.

But apart from this experience, the individual is in the situation described by the apostle: “If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.” 1 Corinthians 15:19. There is a thought in this text that a casual reading may fail to bring to our attention. There are many individuals who have hope in Christ in this life, but who have not entered into the real experience of getting victories through companionship with Christ, through living in His presence, and through being inspired with the courage, the faith, and the consolation that can come only from this intimate companionship. The individual with a superficial Christian experience is unable to cope with the real problems of disaster and calamity that come upon men and women in various ways, and which create the despair in their hearts that results in suicide. We must have that hope in Christ that reaches beyond this life and lays hold upon the actualities of eternity. This life is so fleeting, it is so full of disappointments, that only that soul can be completely happy who is all the time trusting in Christ and seeking Him for power to follow His steps.

The Christ was tempted and tried by all kinds of discouragements, and finally came to the climax of suffering the excruciating agonies of crucifixion. But His hope in His own heavenly Father held Him through to the end, so that He had power to suffer it all and to die in order that we might be inspired with the same hope and confidence that, through the sufferings and the atonement of this mighty Christ, will set us free from sin and give us immortality in the great eternity beyond.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul says, “In hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” Romans 8:24, 25. The marginal rendering for “patience” in the Revised Version is “steadfastness.” It is only hope, then, that can inspire the patience, the steadfastness, that will hold us true and keep us despite every kind of suffering and disappointment. Because we know that if we are called upon to suffer, the God of hope has a great purpose in it, and we can trust Him to work it out to His glory and for our everlasting joy. With such a hope, no individual can be defeated through despair, disappointment, and perplexity.

The way in which this hope is developed in the heart is also very clearly presented to us in another word of the apostle, as follows: “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Romans 15:4.

How beautifully helpful is this wonderful statement! It is “through comfort of the Scriptures” that we “have hope.” In this time, when the teaching of the world leads men to distrust the Bible, leads them to neglect the word of God, the foundation is laid for the despair that ends in so many suicides. It is

the Scriptures that give us comfort; it is the promises of God that fill the soul with courage; it is through the Scriptures that we learn the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and learn to enjoy that companionship with Him that is so beautifully expressed in the words, “To whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27. “Christ in you”! What words of power these are! And not only “Christ in you,” but He is “the hope of glory.” With this companionship, with this blessed hope, no day becomes so dark, no storm cloud becomes so dense, no situation becomes so overpowering, that the soul is crushed. This mighty hope is the anchor of the soul, and holds in every storm. Therefore let “the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13.