In the fifteenth chapter of Romans,
thirteenth verse, the Apostle says: “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy
and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the
Holy Ghost.” The next thing then is hope.
Did you ever notice this, that no man
or woman is ever used by God to build up His kingdom who has lost hope? Now, I
have been observing this throughout different parts of the country, and
wherever I have found a worker in God’s vineyard who has lost hope, I have
found a man or woman not very useful. Now, just look at these workers. Let your
mind go over the past for a moment. Can you think of a man or woman whom God
has used to build His kingdom who has lost hope? I don’t know of any; I never
heard of such an one. It is very important to have hope in the Church; and it
is the work of the Holy Ghost to impart hope. Let Him come into some of the
churches where there have not been any conversions for a few years, and let Him
convert a score of people, and see how hopeful the Church becomes at once. He
imparts hope; a man filled with the Spirit of God will be very hopeful. He will
be looking out into the future, and he knows that it is all bright, because the
God of all grace is able to do great things. So it is very important that we
have hope.
If a man has lost hope, he is out of
communion with God; he has not the Spirit of God resting upon him for service;
he may be a son of God, and disheartened so that he can not be used of God. Do
you know there is no place in the Scriptures where it is recorded that God ever
used even a discouraged man. Some years ago, in my work I was quite
discouraged, and I was ready to hang my harp on the willow. I was very much
cast down and depressed. I had been for weeks in that state, when one Monday
morning a friend, who had a very large Bible class, came into my study. I used
to examine the notes of his Sunday-school lessons, which were equal to a
sermon, and he came to me this morning and said, “Well, what did you preach
about yesterday?” and I told him. I said, “What did you preach about?” and he
said that he preached about Noah. “Did you ever preach about Noah?” “No, I
never preached about Noah.” “Did you ever study his character?” “No, I never
studied his life particularly.” “Well,” says he, “he is a most wonderful
character. It will do you good. You ought to study up that character.” When he
went out, I took down my Bible, and read about Noah; and then it came over me
that Noah worked 120 years and never had a convert, and yet he did not get
discouraged; and I said, “Well, I ought not to be discouraged,” and I closed my
Bible, got up and walked down town, and the cloud had gone.
I went down to the
noon prayer-meeting, and heard of a little town in the country where they had
taken into the church 100 young converts; and I said to myself, I wonder what
Noah would have given if he could have heard that; and yet he worked 120 years
and didn’t get discouraged. And then a man right across the aisle got up and
said, “My friends, I wish you to pray for me; I think I’m lost;” and I thought
to myself, “I wonder what Noah would have given to hear that.” He never heard a
man say, “I wish you to pray for me; I think I am lost,” and yet he didn’t get
discouraged! Oh, children of God, let us not get discouraged; let us ask God to
forgive us, if we have been discouraged and cast down; let us ask God to give
us hope, that we may be ever hopeful. It does me good sometimes to meet some
people and take hold of their hands; they are so hopeful, while other people
throw a gloom over me because they are all the time cast down, and looking at
the dark side, and looking at the obstacles and difficulties that are in the
way.
