the divine facts
concerning Jesus from which hope springs. And faith further breeds hope
because it kindles joy and peace, which are the foretastes and earnests
of the future blessedness. On the other hand, the very opposite
experiences work to the same end, for 'tribulation worketh patience, and
patience experience, and experience hope.' Sorrow rightly borne tests
for us the power of the Gospel and the reality of our faith, and so
gives us a firmer grip of hope and of Him on whom in the last result it
all depends. Out of this collision of flint and steel the spark springs.
The water churned into foam and tortured in the cataract has the fair
bow bending above it.

But this discipline will not achieve its result, therefore comes the
exhortation to us all, 'Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and
hope to the end.' The hope of the Gospel is the one thing that we need.
Without it all else is futile and frail. God alone is worthy to have the
whole weight and burden of a creature's hope fixed on Him, and it is an
everlasting truth that they who are 'without God in the world' also
'have no hope.' Saints of old held fast by an assurance, which they must
often have felt left many questions still to be asked, and because they
were sure that they were continually with Him, were also sure of His
guidance through life and of His afterwards receiving them to glory. But
for us the twilight has broadened into day, and we shall be wise if,
knowing our defencelessness, and forsaking all the lies and illusions of
this vain present, we flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before
us in the Gospel.

'ALL POWER'

'Strengthened with all power, according to the
might of His glory, unto all patience and
longsuffering with joy.'--COL. i. 11 (R.V.).

There is a wonderful rush and fervour in the prayers of Paul. No parts
of his letters are so lofty, so impassioned, so full of his soul, as
when he rises from speaking of God to men to speaking to God for men. We
have him here setting forth his loving desires for the Colossian
Christians in a prayer of remarkable fulness and sweep. Broadly taken,
it is for their perfecting in religious and moral excellence, and it is
very instructive to note the idea of what a good man is which is put
forth here.

The main petition is for wisdom and spiritual understanding applied
chiefly, as is to be carefully noted, to the knowledge of God's _will_.
The thou