HOPE is the desire and expectation of those. future good things which God has promised in his word. Faith believes the promise, hope desires its fulfilment. It is essential to hope, that its object be some good thing, either supposed or real; for no one can desire that which is evil, as evil: and its object must be something future; for who expects that of which he is already in possession? Desire, without expectation, is either mere wishing, or else despondency; expectation, without desire, is either indifference or dread: the union of both constitutes hope. The object of Christian hope is thus stated by the Apostles :- "Beloved, now are we the sons. of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; and every man that hath this hope in him" [in Christ] "purifieth himself, even as he is pure." Paul represents it as that which the whole rational creation has groaned after, ever since the entrance of sin into the world. "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits

of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."*

Rom. viii. 18-25. This passage has been thought to contain inexplicable difficulties, and to have been in the mind of the Apostle Peter when he spoke of the things hard to be understood in the writings of Paul. Upon this text some have raised the benevolent, but, as it strikes me, the groundless, hypothesis of the resurrection of the brute creation. If we are willing to be guided by the generally acknowledged canon of interpretation, of explaining a difficult passage by the context, we shall find a light which will conduct us through the intricacies of this text, and illuminate our course as we proceed. If we examine the context, we shall find, both from what precedes and what follows, that the Apostle is speaking of the future happiness of the righteous. The passage is introduced thus: "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us ;" then follows the expression," for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God;" or, as it might be rendered, "looketh for the revelation of the sons of God ;” i, e. the glory to be revealed, of which be had just spoken. Next comes a parenthetical description of the present earthly and temporal condition of the moral creation, and how it was brought into this condition. "For the creature was made subject to vanity;" i. e. to the misery of this present world, terminating in death; "not "willingly," not on account of their own personal transgression, "but by him who hath subjected the same;" i. e. Adam, their natural root and federal head. The expression, "in hope," ,"should be taken from the end of the twentieth verse, and placed at the commencement of the twenty-first; the conjunction (ort) should be translated "that," instead of

Christian hope is not a mere feeble and fluctuating expectation of eternal happiness, partaking more of the nature of uncertainty than of confidence; for it

"because ;" and the twenty-first verse, connected with the nineteenth, allowing for the intervening parenthesis, would thus read; "The earnest expectation of the creature looketh for the revelation of the sons of God; in hope that the creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption ;" i. e. death; to which the Apostle afterwards opposes "the redemption of the body," or the resurrection into the glorious liberty of the children of God. "For we know that the whole creation," or every rational creature, "groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they ; i. e. the whole heathen world; “but ourselves," the believers in the Gospel of Christ, "who have received the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, namely, the redemption of our body," the resurrection, and consequent full revelation, of our dignity and immortal glory as the sons of God.

Such is the meaning of this passage, in which the Apostle, to give importance to the subject of future glory, represents it as the object of longing desire to the whole rational creation, the various tribes of which are exhibited as lifting up their heads from beneath the bondage of misery and death, and directing an exploring eye and eager hope towards IMMORTALITY; as that alone which could relieve their sorrows, and satisfy their desires. They knew not with certainty that there was such a state; their notions were obscure and fluctuating; it was rather a wish than a belief: but it was that which they may be truly said to have groaned after, as what alone could compensate for the sorrows and the brevity of human life. It is no objection to this view of the passage, to say that the heathen could be scarcely said, in their state of ignorance, to hope to be delivered "from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God:" for things are frequently set forth by the sacred writers, not as they are actually contemplated by the persons in connexion with whom they are introduced, but as they are in themselves. Thus, Christ is

is, by a beautiful figure of speech, called a sure and stedfast anchor; and in other places, without a figure, it is called a lively hope, a good hope, and a confident one; and we are also admonished to go on to the full assurance of hope: expressions, especially the last, which amount to the highest degree of confident and triumphant expectation. Many Christians seem to err on this subject, by supposing that the grace of which we are now speaking, means nothing more than a state of mind, partaking of so much doubt, as leaves them very little above the level of absolute despondency. Hope must ever be in proportion to our faith; if the latter be weak, the former will inevitably be so too.

It will be perceived, that although these three

called the "desire of all nations;" not that all nations really desired him, but desired happiness, which his advent alone could introduce. So, in this case, every creature longs for that immortality, or future state of happiness, which is in itself, though not contemplated as such by them, the glorious revelation of the sons of God. This most striking and beautiful passage has no reference to the brute creation, as groaning under the effects of man's sin, and from which they will be delivered by a resurrection; no reference to any physical change to be produced during the Millennium in the material world, now by a bold figure represented as burdened and pained by human guilt; for what has this to do with the context, or with the design of the Apostle, which is to comfort believers under the sufferings of this, mortal state? but it relates to that glory, honour, and eternal life, which God has promised to them that love him; in reference to which he so sublimely affirms, "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." The view here given is that which is taken also by Hammond and M'Knight,

graces are, in some respects, very different, yet there are others in which they have points of strong resemblance. Faith has something of the expectation of hope, and hope something of the desire of love. Hope touches faith at the point of expectation ; love touches hope at the point of desire: and thus, like the colours of the rainbow, maintain their distinction, while, at the same time, they soften down into each other by almost insensible degrees.

But how are we to understand the Apostle, when he says, "there remain these three ?" He here alludes to the miraculous operations of the primitive church, and contrasts with their transient existence the permanent continuance in the Christian church of these cardinal virtues. Miracles were introduced to establish the credibility of the Gospel testimony, and having delivered their evidence, retired for ever; but faith, and hope, and love, are to remain as the very essentials of true religion. Particular forms of church government are only the attire which piety wears, or the habitation in which it dwells; but these graces are the body, soul, and spirit, of vital religion. When these are no longer to be found on earth, godliness may be said to be retired and gone.

But are these the only Christian virtues which have outlived the age of miracles, and which are destined still to live and flourish on the earth? Certainly not. Penitence, temperance; yea, whatsoever things are true; whatsoever things are honest; whatsoever things are just; whatsoever things are lovely; whatsoever things are of good report ;—are as permanent and as strong in their obligations, as