The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hope of the Gospel, by George MacDonald

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Title: Hope of the Gospel

Author: George MacDonald

Release Date: December 24, 2004 [EBook #14453]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE HOPE OF THE GOSPEL

BY

GEORGE MACDONALD

CONTENTS

SALVATION FROM SIN

THE REMISSION OF SINS

JESUS IN THE WORLD

JESUS AND HIS FELLOW TOWNSMEN

THE HEIRS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH

SORROW THE PLEDGE OF JOY

GOD'S FAMILY

THE REWARD OF OBEDIENCE

THE YOKE OF JESUS

THE SALT AND THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

THE RIGHT HAND AND THE LEFT

THE HOPE OF THE UNIVERSE

_SALVATION FROM SIN_.

--and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from
their sins.--_Matthew_ i. 21.

I would help some to understand what Jesus came from the home of our
Father to be to us and do for us. Everything in the world is more or
less misunderstood at first: we have to learn what it is, and come at
length to see that it must be so, that it could not be otherwise. Then
we know it; and we never know a thing _really_ until we know it thus.

I presume there is scarce a human being who, resolved to speak openly,
would not confess to having something that plagued him, something from
which he would gladly be free, something rendering it impossible for
him, at the moment, to regard life as an altogether good thing. Most
men, I presume, imagine that, free of such and such things antagonistic,
life would be an unmingled satisfaction, worthy of being prolonged
indefinitely. The causes of their discomfort are of all kinds, and the
degrees of it reach from simple uneasiness to a misery such as makes
annihilation the highest hope of the sufferer who can persuade himself
of its possibility. Perhaps the greater part of the energy of this
world's life goes forth in the endeavour to rid itself of discomfort.
Some, to escape it, leave their natural surroundings behind them, and
with strong and continuous effort keep rising in the social scale, to
discover at