Hope by William Covert

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 28, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 16.

Hope

By William Covert

GOD gives man hope through the agency of the Holy Spirit in his heart, and so all the divine attributes are installed by the working of this gentle but mighty power. Rom. 5:5.

Hope is a compound of desire and expectation. The element of desire seeks among apparent possibilities for things that will satisfy the longings of the heart, while expectation is built up out of evidences that are manifested in the cases we study. One desires things which he thinks would bless him, and he expects them when a train of circumstances seems to be making their accomplishment sure.

Hope has eyes looking into the future, and an anchor line fastened by Jesus to the very hold of heaven. It is hope that puts courage into the soul, and that gives mental nerve by which all the wonders of God's graces are done. Hope looks with glad eyes into the to-morrow, and with courage in the present, makes preparations for all the good things which now are, and also that which is to come.

It is hope that fights our battles, and hope that wins our victories.

Without hope all is vanity, and life is but a prolonged death. Indeed, it were a better state to be unconscious in death than to exist when hope is extinct.

Paul writes of a "blessed hope," and truly all that can be called by that sweet word is of the blessed kind. None other can truly be hope.

The child of hope is the child of God, and God's children live by the power of His word, which lies at the foundation of all hope.

WILLIAM COVERT.