n the gospel of our
salvation to make us, unhindered by the limitations and unthwarted by
the antagonisms of this poor human life of ours. Unless there be a
heaven in which all desires shall be satisfied, all evils removed, all
good perfected, all ragged trees made symmetrical and full-grown, and
all souls that love Him radiant with His own perfect image, then the
light that seemed a light from heaven is the most delusive of all the
marsh-fires of earth, and nothing in the illusions of sense or of men's
cunning is so cruel or so tragic as the calling that seemed to be the
voice of God, and summoned us to a heaven which was only a dream.

II. And so, secondly, notice how this hope of our text is in some sense
the very topstone of the Christian life.

Paul has heard, concerning these people in Ephesus, of their faith and
love. And because he has heard of these, therefore he brings this
prayer. These two--the faith which apprehends the manifestation of God
in Jesus Christ, and the love which that faith produces in the heart
that accepts the revelation of the infinite love--are crowned by, and
are imperfect without, and naturally lead on to the brightness of this
great hope, Faith--the reliance of the spirit upon the veracity of the
revealing God--gives hope its contents; for the Christian hope is not
spun out of your own imaginations, nor is it the mere making objective
in a future life of the unfulfilled desires of this disappointing
present, but it is the recognition by the trusting spirit of the great
and starry truths that are flashed upon it by the Word of God. Faith
draws back the curtain, and Hope gazes into the supernal abysses. My
hope, if it be anything else than the veriest will-o'-the-wisp and
delusion, is the answer of my heart to the revealed truth of God.

Similarly the love which flows from faith not only necessarily leads on
to the expectation of union being perfected with the object of its warm
affection, but also so works upon the heart and character as that the
false and seducing loves which draw away, like some sluice upon a river,
the current of life from its true channel, are all sanctified and no
more hinder hope. Loving, we hope for that which, unless we loved, would
not draw desires nor yield foretastes of sweetness which, like perfumed
oil, feed the pure flame of hope.

The triad of Christian graces is completed by Hope. Without her fair
presence something is wanting to the completeness of her