the things which are seen are temporal; but the
things which are not seen are eternal._" (2 Cor. iv. 17, 18.) It is
blank unbelief to talk about comparison. The one is infinitely small and
pitiful; the other is infinitely great, beautiful, and glorious. "_What
things were gain to me_," when the visible things of earth and time
filled my sight, "those I have counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ." (Phil. iii. 7, 8.)
This is the Christian estimate. This is the true entrenchment of the
human spirit against all the floods of calamity which may beat around
the rock on which it builds its hopes. Be my lot what it may, my God, my
Father ordains it; and He has the power, the will to make every pain,
every wound, every heartache, every cross, every shock, the seed of a
harvest whose glorious wealth I cannot measure even in my dreams. The
power and the will, said I? His strongest promises, His profoundest
purposes, are engaged in the fulfilment of the hope which He kindles in
my breast, and which makes me master of the world. Nay, He has staked
His life, the very existence of His throne, upon it. He has subjected
you and me and the vast creation to vanity, "_in hope, the hope that the
creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the sons of God_." We have no true measure
of these sad scenes and experiences of earth--and they are sad enough,
nothing is to be gained by painting them as lighter than they are; but
we can measure them fairly when we get up into the higher region, strong
in faith, and share the thought and hope of God. _We are saved by hope._
Let us bless God for it, for the blessed and boundless future in which
the far-off interest of tears will be our eternal portion, and the
harvest of brave endurance and patient pain. "_Behold we count them
patient which endure._" And who are they? The world's weaklings and
fools. Listen to the bead-roll, and hush your moans for very shame.
Abel, Enoch, Noah head the line; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. "_These all died
in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar
off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that
they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such
things declare pl