You see a question at the head of this page. In asking it I make no secret of my meaning. I want you to consider, “what is your hope about your soul?”
The sand is running quickly out of the glass. We are drifting on toward death, judgment, and eternity. A few more winters and we shall be gone. Surely you will not wonder if I cry aloud, as a spiritual watchman, and say, “what is your hope about your soul?”
“I hope” is a very common expression. Everybody can say, “I hope.” On no subject is the expression used so commonly as it is about religion. Nothing is more frequent than to hear men turn off some home-thrust at conscience by this convenient form of words, “I hope.”—“I hope it will be all right at last.”—“I hope I shall be a better man some day.”—“I hope we shall all get to heaven.”—But why do they hope? On what is their hope built? Too often they cannot tell you. Too often it is a mere excuse for avoiding a disagreeable subject. “Hoping” they live on. “Hoping” they grow old. “Hoping” they die at last,—and find too often that they are lost for ever in hell.
Reader, I ask your serious attention to the subject of this tract. It is one of the deepest importance. “We are saved by hope.” (Rom. viii. 24.) Let us, then, make sure that our hope is sound.—Have you a hope that your sins are pardoned, your heart renewed, and your soul at peace with God? Then see to it that your hope is “good,” and “lively,” and one that “maketh not ashamed.” Consider your ways. Shrink not from honest, searching inquiry into the condition of your soul. If your hope is good, examination will do it no harm. If your hope is bad, it is high time to know it, and seek a better.
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