Christ when 'we see Him as He is.'

I have only two things to say about this matter, and one of them is
this: of course, such strenuous effort of purity will only be the result
of such a hope as that, because such a hope will fight against one of
the greatest of all the enemies of our efforts after purity. There is
nothing that makes a man so down-hearted in his work of self-improvement
as the constant and bitter experience that it seems to be all of no use;
that he is making so little progress; that with immense pains, like a
snail creeping up a wall, he gets up, perhaps, an inch or two, and then
all at once he drops down, and further down than he was before he
started.

Slowly we manage some little, patient self-improvement; gradually, inch
by inch and bit by bit, we may be growing better, and then there comes
some gust and outburst of temptation; and the whole painfully reclaimed
soil gets covered up by an avalanche of mud and stones, that we have to
remove slowly, barrow-load by barrow-load. And then we feel that it is
all of no use to strive, and we let circumstances shape us, and give up
all thoughts of reformation.

To such moods then there comes, like an angel from Heaven, that holy,
blessed message, 'Cheer up, man! "We shall be like Him, for we shall see
Him as He is."' Every inch that you make now will tell then, and it is
not all of no use. Set your heart to the work, it is a work that will be
blessed and will prosper.

Again, here is a test for all you Christian people, who say that you
look to Heaven with hope as to your home and rest.

A great deal of the religious contemplation of a future state is pure
sentimentality, and like all pure sentimentality is either immoral or
non-moral. But here the two things are brought into clear juxtaposition,
the bright hope of Heaven and the hard work done here below. Now is that
what the gleam and expectation of a future life does for you?

This is the only time in John's Epistle that he speaks about hope. The
good man, living so near Christ, finds that the present, with its
'abiding in Him' is enough for his heart. And though he was the Seer of
the Apocalypse, he has scarcely a word to say about the future in this
letter of his, and when he does it is for a simple and intensely
practical purpose, in order that he may enforce on us the teaching of
labouring earnestly in purifying ourselves.

My brother, is that your type of Christianity? Is that the kind of
ins