Faith, Hope and Love

Here we have the three essential graces required in making the trip from earth to heaven. If we closely examine these three we will find they contain every other grace written in the catalogue of Christian experience.

My purpose in presenting this subject is to call the reader's attention to the various offices which these three graces occupy, and also give a few thoughts on how to operate them, since it is possible to be in possession of a grace and not know how to use it.

Let us first notice that great factor, Faith. As some one has well said, "The world has yet to know what God can do with a man of faith," i. e., a man who implicitly believes in Him. Truly it will take eternity to reveal to us what a powerful factor faith was in our midst. Let us briefly observe a few of the exploits of faith. First, by faith the wall of Jericho fell down. By faith, Joshua stopped the sun for the course of a whole day. By faith, one hundred and eighty-four thousand of the Assyrians were slain. By faith, the dead were raised to life. By faith the heavens were shut up and gave no rain for the space of three years and six months. And besides all of these mighty exploits of faith, the Holy Ghost inspires Paul to exclaim, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

Observe a few of faith's offices. First: It is the perceiver and discerner of the invisible God. He is such a silent and invisible being, that blind unbelief cries out, "There is no God;" but faith, the perceiver and discerner of things unseen, sees Him in the blooming flowers and hears His voice in the musing winds, in the mighty deep, in the giant hills, in the murmuring streams, and traces His shining footsteps in the azure vault.

Second: Faith is the coupling that links man to God, and earth to heaven. We have all seen the sin-burdened, tear-bathed seeker at the altar, crying and pleading for pardon, but all heaven seemed silent to his plea; but as he was exhorted to give up all and believe on Jesus, all of a sudden he seemed to lay hold on a rope that was suspended from the sky; and O, the joy, peace, and assurance that came into his heart, which convinced every one present that he had found God. God was there all the time, but the connection between Him and the seeker had not been made, which was "Faith." I once heard of a lady who was an invalid for years. One day as she sat helpless in a chair her daughter said, "Mamma, have you ever read that passage of scripture that says, 'Jesus bore our sins and sicknesses on the tree' The old lady was silent for a few seconds, and her eyes seemed to suddenly come open to her privilege in Christ, so with the hand of faith she seemed to grasp the rope that hung down before her from heaven, and leaped out of the chair and shouted all over the room, a well, hearty woman. But her scoffing daughter criticized her, so she lost her hold of the rope and looked down, like sinking Peter, and resumed her place in the chair and remained an invalid until the day of death.

Third: Faith is the key that unlocks the storehouse to every blessing. If, while we were praying, we would there and then claim the thing we prayed for, the marked results would be felt in three worlds. But our great mistake is, we wait to feel and see, before we believe we have the desired petition. Jesus did not say, "After ye pray, believe that ye receive," but "when ye pray." Listen to His words: "Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11: 24). We are not to believe we will receive them, but that we do receive them, right then and there.

Fourth: Faith is the member that introduces us to the spirit-world. How could we bid our dying friends "Good-by," and tell them we will meet them in heaven, with such an assurance, if faith did not make the thing real to us Faith's eye looks clear by the casket, clear through the cold grave, clear through the rueful waters of chilly Jordan, and sees the shining gates of translucent pearl, the jasper wall, the city of gold, the Father's face brighter than a million suns, and the teeming billions of saints and angels, clothed in snowy white and waving palms of victory. O, hallelujah!

The second prominent factor, with its various offices, that I wish to mention, is Hope. Hope is the anticipating faculty of the soul. Faith is founded on this end of the promise, viz., the doctrines of the Bible. Hope is founded on what awaits the soul in heaven. Notice some offices of hope.

First: Hope is the anchor that holds the soul calm and steady during the times of storm. When the sun of God's face is veiled from view, and the black clouds arise, and the terrific winds of opposition and discouragement are blowing, the mighty anchor of hope keeps the soul ever headed heavenward.

Second: Hope sweetens present sorrows, present woes, and present anguish, with the promise of future joys. When everything on earth is swept away from the child of God, and all of his earthly prospects are tumbling to the ground, Hope mirrors to his gaze "a city without grief or grave, without marriage or mourning, and without sin and sorrow; where the sun never sets and the leaves never fade; where the wicked cease to trouble and the weary are at rest."

The third and chief factor used in the redemption of man is Love. Kempis says: "Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger, nothing higher, nothing broader, nothing more pleasant, nothing better either in heaven or earth." Notice some of the offices of love.

First, it arms and qualifies the soul to withstand all that earth, hell, men, or devils can forge against it. It causes the soul to shout in the fiery furnace, praise God in jail, pray for its enemies and die for its foes.

Second: Love is the alchemy that transmutes the human into the divine. We have all seen people get saved who were once cross, crabbed, impatient, blustery, and bossy; but after the change had taken place, and love was perfected in their souls, they were daily transformed into the mercifulness, gentleness, sympathy, and loveliness of the Son of God.

A third office of love: It is the wedding garment that prepares the soul to live with a holy God, in a sinless heaven. "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the clay of judgment" (1 John 4: 17).