I.Faith, the fundamental principle of Christianity. It is not mere belief, but trust. It is faith that gives to Christianity its whole name, character, and nature. And faith gives a man a new relationship to God. It makes him son of God and joint-heir with Christ. Therefore, the man who has faith in Christ will be a good living man, showing his faith by his works.
II. Hope, the consequence of faith. If a man believes in the Son of God, he shall not perish, but have everlasting life. If we firmly believe this promise it will give us hope of its fulfilment. Hope is the anchor that sustains the Christian in all the storms of time, the chain that connects him with the future amid all its difficulties. What would life be without it, even in a worldly sense? The anticipation of something better bears us up amid many of the world’s trials. But even the best of our worldly hopes is of a transitory and uncertain character, but the heavenly hope is sure and steadfast. Hope is not only a privilege and a blessing; it is part of a Christian’s duty. A man who sits down and desponds loses the very anchor of his ship.
III. Charity. First, faith the root and trunk, then hope the branches, then charity the fruit, the highest development of the Christian character, the practical part of Christianity. Faith is the inward union of the soul with Christ; hope is the support which gives us strength to battle with the present; charity the outward manifestation of what we feel within. Only realise that the gospel is love, and then you realise itsbeauty and realise its glory. (J. J. S. Bird, B.A.)
Faith, hope, and charity
I.The nature or each or these graces.
1. Faith. Now faith means belief; and evangelical and saving faith is believing the gospel. The gospel contains an account of man’s ruin by sin, and of his redemption by Christ, and these things, when believed, produce an important effect upon our state and character.
2. Hope is the desire, combined with the expectation, of some future good; and Christian hope is the desire and the expectation of all the good which is promised to believers in the Word of God.
(1) Its objects include all the blessings belonging to the kingdom of grace and of glory. As Christians we have much in possession, but more in prospect.
(2) Its foundation is the gospel of Christ. The reason which we have for the hope that is in us is derived from the exceeding great and precious promises which God has given to us in His Word, the fulfilment of which is secured to us by the blood of Christ, by the oath of God, and by the faithfulness of the Divine character. We hope therefore because we believe.
(3) Its influence. It encourages our prayers; for the hope of receiving inspires confidence in asking. It promotes our holiness; “for every man that hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself, even as He is pare.” And it is a source of peace and consolation and joy.
3. Charity or love.
(1) Love to God includes in it gratitude to Him for His goodness; approbation of His character; cheerful obedience to His commands; desire for the enjoyment of His favour, and for increasing conformity to His image.
(2) Love to our fellow-creatures in general is “goodwill to men.”
(3) Love to the brethren is love to Christians as such. It includes approbation of their characters as well as benevolence to their persons.
II. The union which subsists among the three. They are united.
1. In their source. Diversified as they are in their nature and operations, they have each their source in God. The heart of man, which is naturally “deceitful above all things,” etc., cannot be the fountain of streams, so pure and hallowed as these three. Faith, we are told, is “the fruit of the Spirit” and “the gift of God.” Hope has the same Divine origin, for it is “the God of hope, who fills you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” And love is equally of God, for “God is love,” and it is His love which is shed abroad in our hearts. And as “these three” are thus united in God, their source and giver, it is from God alone that you are to seek them, by earnest and by persevering prayer.
2. In their residence--the heart. The body, the soul, and the spirit are not more necessary to compose a living and a perfect man than are faith and hope and love to constitute a living and a perfect Christian; for were any one of these three wanting, there would be a fatal deficiency in the character. He therefore, by whom that character is formed, begins it by the gift of faith, but completes and perfects it by the addition of hope and love. There is not one of them with which a Christian can part. You cannot, e.g., part with faith; for we are saved by faith, and without faith it would be impossible to please God. You cannot part with hope; for without hope we should be of all men the most miserable. And you cannot part with love; for that would be to lose the very image of God; for “he that loveth not knoweth not God.” As therefore in an arch you cannot part either with the foundation-stones or with the key-stone in the centre, without ruin to the whole fabric, so you cannot part with any one of these three graces without becoming absolutely “nothing.”
3. In their influence.
(1) To purify the heart, for our hearts are “purified by faith”; “every man that hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself, even as He is pure”; no man can love God without becoming “a partaker of His holiness.”
(2) In prosperity, in supplying the Christian with sweeter pleasures than earthly things can yield, and in keeping him unspotted from the world. His faith beholds an inheritance, “incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away”; his hope seeks fruition in “joy unspeakable and full of glory”; and his love leads him to choose God as his invaluable portion, and to declare, “whom have I in heaven but Thee?” etc.
(3) In adversity, in bringing strength and consolation to the soul.
III. The superiority of charity to both faith and hope, “The greatest of these is charity.” The epithet of “great” belongs, to each, and they are far superior to natural talents and even to miraculous endowments. Love is the greatest of the three, because--
1. It is the only grace which is exercised by God Himself.
2. It is the grace for the sake of which faith and hope are produced and exercised. Love is the sacred temple which faith and hope are employed in building, and needful as their presence and exertions are now, whilst the temple is rising, yet when the topstone is brought forth, and when the cloud of glory has filled the holy place, their assistance will no longer be required, and they may rest from their labours.
3. It is capable of putting forth greater energies, and of performing greater achievements.
4. It is eminently and almost entirely a social grace. Faith and hope are in a great measure personal graces.
5. It alone is eternal in its duration. Faith, like the venerable lawgiver, ascends Mount Pisgah, views the promised land, and dies. Hope, bright and cheering as the morning star, grows dim, and fades, amidst the splendours of the rising and meridian sun. But Charity, immortal in her existence as the soul she inspires, and as the God from whom she came, ascends, like Elijah, in a charier, of fire, and is translated to the realms of life and joy. (T. Alexander.)
Faith, hope, and charity
Let us then inquire--
I. What faith, hope, and charity are.
1. Faith has respect to things either unseen or future.
2. Hope is desire and expectation of good.
3. Charity is love to God and love to man. There may be in our text a special reference to love to man, including the love of complacency towards the good, and a love of compassion towards even the vilest of the vile.
II. The excellence of faith and hope.
1. Faith is excellent contemplated--
(1) Intellectually. The power of realising existing objects and past and future events is a power of incalculable value, without which man would not be man. Most of our knowledge is obtained through the medium of books and oral instruction, which we have read and heard and have believed. Even common conversation owes much of its interest to the faith which we have in one another. In commerce the importance of a promise to pay and of believing that promise is most apparent. Trial by jury, on which the question of life or death often depends, would be useless were faith in civil society impossible.
(2) Morally.
(a) A man “whose word is as good as his bond” is universally and deservedly esteemed. He is a man who can be believed.
(b) But the moral excellence of faith is most of all apparent in its reference to God. Faithfulness as clearly belongs to God as either justice or mercy; and when we trust in Him without fear, we “give to Him the glory due to His name.”
(c) Faith exerts a beneficial interest on the entire character of man as exposed to temptation. For his conflict the moral soldier is furnished with “the shield of faith”. “This is the victory that over-cometh the world,” etc.
(d) It is essential to our salvation. It is to a Christian what grasping the hand of a friend would be to a drowning man.
2. Hope is excellent, because--
(1) It is the next best thing to actual possession (Rom_8:24). It is the earnest of heaven.
(2) It neutralises if not annihilates the misery which great affliction might otherwise create; “these light afflictions, which are but for a moment,” etc.
III. The surpassing excellence of charity.
1. It is more disinterested than either faith or hope.
2. It is the perfection of man.
3. It is eternal.
4. Although charity is before faith and hope in point of excellence, faith is first in order of time. (J. Burder, M.A.)
Faith, hope, charity
1. It is proof of the importance of this Divine trio that they are universally necessary. Excellent and wonderful are the gifts of healing, etc.; precious and indispensable are those more ordinary gifts through which the edification of Christ’s body is provided for; but they are not gifts of which it can be said that a man must possess them in order to be saved.
2. The practical value of these three gifts is enhanced by the fact that they are universally attainable. Miraculous gifts might, even in the age of miracles, be sought without success; and they were withdrawn long ago. But of the gifts of faith, hope, and love, we can say that “every one that seeketh findeth,” and it is a man’s own fault if he has them not.
3. There is a remarkable pairing and grouping of these graces in the Scripture (1 the 1:14: Eph_6:23; Gal_5:6). Observe also the coupling of faith and hope (1Pe_1:21; Col_1:23). We also find them grouped all together (Col_1:3-5; 1Th_1:3).
4. The admirable nature of these graces is proclaimed by the functions assigned to them as part of the Christian’s heavenly armour (Eph_6:16). Consider them--
I. In a general way.
1. Love has the first place in point of time. There was a time when there was, and could be, no faith and no hope; but the gospel tells us of an everlasting love. What is declared of the Word is true of love (Joh_1:1).
2. While love can, and does, dwell wherever faith and hope find a home, it makes its chief abode in a quarter to which they have no access. But love takes a higher flight. God neither believes nor hopes; but God loves.
3. All three are springs of human action. But love is more; it is a spring of action on the part of God. Faith and hope beget great deeds; but they are only the deeds of men after all. Love awakens to action the powers of omnipotence, and God arises at its summons.
II. As graces which are found in every real Christian’s heart. When thus considered, love is the greatest of them all.
1. It excels in respect of its success and range. The Christian’s love is the companion of his faith and hope in all their exercises, and goes forth upon the object on which they lay hold: but it is also the companion and follower of God’s love, and makes for the objects of Divine regard.
2. It carries off the palm among the graces, because it imparts a likeness to God. God is love. “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.”
3. The disinterestedness of love gives it pre-eminence. Love’s office is to give. Faith and hope are exercised in the reception and anticipation of benefits. Love “seeketh not her own.”
4. The greatness of love may be estimated by its relation to holiness. Faith, indeed, is a holy principle, and holiness is the result of its influence and operation. So hope also is a holy principle, purging away the defilement of sin. Every man that hath it in him, purifieth himself, as Christ is pure. But love is holiness itself--the end for which these means and instruments are employed.
5. Love is greatest in respect of the ultimate importance of the part it has to act.
(1) There are various respects in which faith and hope are greater than love. Take the case of a man convinced of his guilt, and longing for pardon and acceptance with God. Love can do nothing there. When the jailer cried, “What must I do to be saved?” it was faith that was summoned to the rescue. Take the ordinary case of God’s people on earth, exposed to danger from the world. Love would be borne down and put to death, did not faith cover love with the buckler of its protection. Or take the case of one who is visited with protracted trials and afflictions. Is it love that will keep him from despair? No. That is the office of hope.
(2) But then the offices of faith and hope now glanced at do not last for ever. The time is coming when there will be no such work as we have spoken of for faith and hope to do. We do not say that faith and hope will then disappear. For the redeemed will always trust in God, and look to Jesus; and in viewing the eternity that stretches out before them, they shall be animated by a hope on which there will never be a cloud. But faith and hope will not continue in the front of the scene. They will then confess themselves to be but the handmaids of love, and will make way for love by withdrawing into the shade: Having nursed and defended love in her infancy, and watched over her ripening years, and having, at last, conducted her to the steps of her destined throne, their work is comparatively finished. Then will be the glorious reign of love. (A. Gray.)
Faith, hope, love
I.The specific nature of each.
1. Faith. As to its origin, it is the gift of God; as to its operation, it is the work of the Spirit; as to its object, it fastens on Christ; as to its exercise, it is the disciple’s own act the Scriptures make much of faith--“Precious faith”; “Thy faith hath saved thee”; “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Faith is the first stone of the building, but it is not the, foundation. Our help is laid on One that is mighty. But beware how you come to Christ. Any work of yours, by way of recommending you, will be a non-conductor through which the light of life from the Saviour cannot run (Gal_5:2).
2. Hope is adapted to a transitory, imperfect state. Its office is to diminish the sorrows of the present by drawing on the stores of future joy. It is the tenant, not of a heart that was never broken, but of a heart that has been broken and healed again. A pure, bright star fixed in heaven, it reaches with its rays the uplifted eye of the weary pilgrim. But stars shine not in theday; the darkness brings them out. So grief summons hope to the aid of the sufferer. When the ransomed rise from the sleep of the grave, this gentle star, which had often soothed them in the night of their pilgrimage, will nowhere be found in all the upper firmament; for in presence of the Sun of Righteousness hope, no longer needed, no more appears.
3. Love. Some fragments of this heavenly thing survive the fall and flourish in our nature. It is beautiful even in ruins. We shall learn more about its nature when we are called to consider its magnitude.
II. The mutual relations of all. Hitherto we have spoken of them as three rings lying beside each other; now we speak of them as three links within each other, so as to constitute a chain.
1. The relation between faith and hope. Faith leans on Christ, and hope hangs by faith. There is, indeed, a species of hope which has no connection with faith. If in a place of danger you saw a chain whose uppermost link was surely fixed in the living rock, and whose lowest link--a goodly, iron ring--was vibrating invitingly near, you might be induced to venture your body’s weight upon its seeming strength. If that lowest link were not within theone above it, but only attached externally by some brittle twig, you would exchange the slippery place of danger for the plunge into inevitable death. It is like the fall of sinner who has risked his soul for the great day on a hope not linked to faith.
2. The relation between hope and love. Hope leans on faith, and love on hope. Love will languish unless blessed hope be underneath. Love’s manifold efforts, stretching out in every direction and leaving no space unoccupied, are like the branches of a fruit tree. A single stem supports and supplies them all, while itself in turn is supported and supplied by the root. So hope, itself sustained by faith, sustains love in its turn. Hope in the heart of the Man of Sorrows bore Him through His labours of love (Heb_12:2). Hope is the mainspring of labouring love--hope in the Lord, first for yourself, and then for your neighbour.
III. The superior magnitude of the last.
1. In its work on earth. It is the only one of the three that reaches other men and directly acts upon them for their good.
(1) “Thy faith hath saved thee,” but what can it do for thy brother? It operates by sustaining and stimulating other graces--“Faith worketh by love.”
(2) Hope in like manner begins and ends in the heart of a disciple. The less that your hope, as such, protrudes itself on the notice of mankind, the better for its own health; but the more it swells within your breast, the more of love will it send forth to bless the world.
(3) On the contrary, it is the nature of love to come out. Unless it act on others it cannot be. Love teaches the ignorant, clothes the naked, feeds the hungry, and is the fulfilling of that law which came latest from the Lord’s own lips: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel unto every creature.”
2. In its performance in heaven. (W.Arnot, D.D.)
Faith, hope, love
1. What a happy grouping, so familiar now that nothing seems more commonplace; but what an inspiration it was when it first flamed out of the soul of the great apostle!
2. We cannot forget that he had the advantage of Greek culture, so it is natural to suppose that he was led to the conception by the three graces. But what a contrast between the Greek and the Christian graces! The one represented chiefly the charms of outward beauty, winsomeness, gleefulness; the other were not mere embellishments of life, but its central forces, the deep springs of all that was true and beautiful and noble in character. Was not that a most significant change? The word “grace” retains its Greek as well as its Christian meaning in our language. We often use it in theold sense, e.g., “grace in every movement of the body,” or “done with a very good grace”; but just think in what a different region of thought and life we are when we speak of grace in its profound Christian sense. There are those who have real grace in the heart, whose manners do but scant justice to that which is within them; and there are those who have succeeded in cultivating outward graces of manner, but are utterly devoid of grace within. Give us both the outward and the inward, if it be possible; but if it must be only one, let it be that which is real and deep and true.
3. But we must look at the triad of Christian graces. The apostle says that they abide while other good things pass away.
4. The contrast in regard to abiding is not between the graces among themselves, but between gifts and graces (1Co_13:8). This contrast between knowledge, as transitory, is especially interesting now that there is a disposition to speak of faith, etc., as the shadowy things which are rapidly vanishing away, while knowledge is the substantial thing which is sure to hold its ground. Is not faith giving way to agnosticism? Is not hope fading before pessimism? And is not the old idea that love is creation’s final law giving way to the new philosophy which resolves everything into matter and force?
5. Is there any way of testing which is right? If only we could project ourselves forward, say, for 2,000 years, how very satisfactorily we could settle the matter! Would a learned man of the nineteenth century pass for a learned man of the thirty-ninth? Or would he be only as a child? But will not faith, etc., be as powerful and healthful factors in life as they are now? But we must not prophesy. But what if we look 2,000 years back? Where would the wise man of the apostle’s time be alongside of our mighty men of science to-day? Imagine a conversation between Pliny, the elder, and Professor Huxley on biology. The great naturalist of the first century would have to go to school for twenty years before he was ready to begin. Would the apostle Paul have to go to school for twenty years before he could begin to talk with an advanced Christian of the nineteenth century on faith and hope and love? The learning of the time was not at all to be despised. Nor did the apostle at all despise it; only he recognises the fact that it is partial--that in course of time it will be obsolete. We may be sure that this would by no means please the gnostics of the day, as they called themselves. These learned men believed they had reached theultimate truth. The apostle did not undertake to pronounce on the truth or falsehood of what they taught; only he plainly indicated that it would by and by be out of date, whereas the heavenly faith and hope and love which it was his high calling to set before men would last. Where are thegnostics now? I don’t suppose there is one left in all the world. But faith, etc., inspire as many men now as they did then, and thousands of thousands more!
6. And many other knowledges have passed away besides that of St. Paul’s day in the course of these nineteen centuries. A very striking illustration of this is to be found in the “Paradiso” of Dante. The science of his time is so completely out of date that, without a special study of it, it is impossible to understand what he means at all when he is trying to expound it; and after you do find what he means it is not of the slightest use or permanent value. Ah, but when he soars on the wings of faith and hope and love, we soar with him yet. And they were the same as the apostle’s, only they were not entangled with the errors of the times. A most signal token this of an inspiration far transcending that of Dante. And here we can go back far more than eighteen centuries. Look at Genesis. There is the very oldest book in all the world. Is it obsolete? Compare it with the work of Dante in this respect, and what a contrast! People talk of the conflict between science and faith. There is no such conflict. It is only the conflict between old science and new. All our troubles with scientific opinions have come from our leaving the lofty regions of faith, etc., and descending into the troubled area of shifting scientific knowledge the holy men of old who spakeas they were moved by the Holy Ghost, kept quite clear of all these questions. You don’t find them pronouncing opinions on scientific subjects. They kept themselves to their own faith and hope and love.
7. The knowledge that many of us are ambitious, and rightly ambitious, to acquire will no doubt be of great service for many years to come; but faith, hope, and love are just as needful and serviceable for these years; and then their value by no means ends with these years, but lasts on and on for ever. They are the coin current in eternity. Without them we shall be paupers for eternity, however wise and learned and well-equipped for time. (J. Monro Gibson, D.D.)
Faith, hope, charity
These three graces form the essential elements of the Christian character. They are principles implanted in the heart of every true Christian by the Holy Spirit, and always exemplified in his outward walk andconversation.
I. The nature and effects of faith, hope, and charity.
1. Faith, in its general signification, is credit given to testimony. It is a principle upon which we are continually acting in the ordinary concerns of life. Now the faith spoken of in the text is precisely the same principle, only having a different object and resting upon higher testimony. We cannot penetrate the recesses of the Divine counsels. Faith is a cordial assent to the truth of all the declarations of God’s Word. “Entering into the daily habits and experience of the Christian, thisprinciple is the spring of his most holy tempers, exertions, attainments, and consolations. He lives--he walks--he stands--he perseveres--he fights--he conquers and triumphs, by faith.”
2. Hope is a lively expectation of obtaining those things which we desire; and when we are led by faith to a knowledge of our real condition, we shall obviously desire nothing so much as deliverance from that condition. The principal object of hope will, therefore, be the attainment of eternal salvation through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Hope differs from presumption. When thus grounded upon the everlasting covenant which hasbeen confirmed by the oath of Jehovah, it does afford strong consolation to the true Christian.
3. Charity, like faith and hope, is a stranger to the natural heart. And oh! what a splendid character does it present to us! “How glorious is it as an emanation of Divine goodness when compared with the usual habits of men; when viewed in contrast with the habitually selfish doings of many men, who even profess and call themselves Christians!” It is, at the same time, a character so elevated, that it needs a certain measure of Christian grace to perceive and to loveits excellencies.
II. In what the superiority of charity consists.
1. It is more excellent in its nature. Perfect excellency can be found only in God Himself. It is by this grace, then, that the restoration of the Divine image takes place in our hearts.
2. It is more advanced in order. That is, it ranks higher in the scale of attainment. We must possess faith and hope before we can be actuated by the principle of love. They are the means; this is the end. It is the prize itself of which faith and hope must gradually put us in possession. A magnificent edifice cannot be erected without scaffolding; yet the building is greater than the scaffolding, being the sole end for which that is necessary: and when it is finished the scaffolding is removed as an useless encumbrance.
3. It is more expansive in its exercise. There is a degree of selfishness in faith and hope. They benefit him only who possesses them.
But love, like the sun in the firmament, diffuses its blessings far and wide, and sheds a kindly influence all around.
1. Let us, in conclusion, first, use these graces as a test of our state.
2. Let us seek to abound more in them. (R. Davies, M.A.)
Hope
1. Why should hope be placed on a level with faith and charity? We can understand why faith should be so singled out; it is the foundation of religion, the bond between the creature and God. Still more can we understand it of charity, for charity is the likeness of God. But hope is thought of at first sight as a self-regarding quality, and something delusive and treacherous.
2. But it is not really strange that St. Paul should raise hope to a Christian temper of the first order. St. Paul was a student of Scripture, and what is on the very surface of the Bible is the way in which, from first to last, it is one unbroken, persistent call to hope. Hope, never destroyed however overthrown; hope, never obscured amidst the storm and dust of ruin, is the paramount characteristic of the Old Testament, all leads back to hope; if ever it dies, it revives again larger and more confident than before.
I. Hope elevates and strengthens and inspires. This is why it is one of the greatest elements of the religious temper. There may be a faith almost without hope, a faith which believes though it can see nothing in God’s truth and goodness; “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” But hope is the energy of vigorous faith, the strong self-awakening from discouragement and despair. What gives its moral value to hope, is that, in its higher form, it is a real act and striving of the will and moral nature. Like the highest forms of courage, it is a refusal to be borne down and cowed by evil, a refusal to dwell on the dark side of things. It is thus that hope plays so great a part in the spiritual life, that it fights with such power on the side of God; for it not only receives, welcomes, trusts in God’s promises, but it throws into them life and reality.
II. Hope is a great instrument of spiritual and moral discipline. We are saved by hope. Long waiting is God’s appointed order for the generations of men. All kinds of fortunes befall the Church, befall us all who are going through our trial time, and we often are tempted to be tired, and oppressed, and out of heart. There must often be much to distress and alarm us, evils which seem without remedy, defeats which seem final. To hope seems to us then like deluding ourselves. And yet how often has it happened in the upshot of things that, if in the very darkest times of history any one had been bold enough to hope, he would have been amply justified! We need not blind ourselves to facts; we have our part to do, and we must deal with it as we may, and as we ought. But the God of hope calls to us out of the darkness, and we are unfaithful to Him if in our wilfulness we shut our ears to His voice and dwell despondingly on the future which is in His hands.
III. But all that here invites and demands hope is but little to that which is to be when all here shall have been past and over.
1. We may dare to look forward to be sinless. Think of what you know of your own conscience, of your own temptations, of your own fall, of your own struggles for forgiveness and restoration, and then think what it will be to have left all that behind.
2. Then, whatever the function and employment of that perfect state may be, whatever work God may have for us to do, we shall have the will and the power to do it as the angels do. The divided service, the broken purpose, the double mind, the treacheries of the will, the blindness of sell-deceit, the laggard indolence, all that now mars and cripples our sincerest obedience, will then have been purged away, and in all the fulness of truth we shall know how to serve Him with our whole heart.
3. There, in infinite measure, will be all that calls for human affection, and there human affections will he raised to new powers and strength, transfigured, purified, glorified; and there, in ways we cannot dream of now, we shall be brought near to Christ, and be like unto Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (Dean Church.)
Hope
1. The root of the word in Anglo-Saxon means, to open the eyes wide and watch for what is to come, as we have seen children do when they expect to see some wonder or receive some gift. Indeed, there is another word closely akin--the word expect, watching for what is to come, the obverse of inspect, looking at what has come.
2. These meanings are the delicate dividing line between Faith and Hope. While Hope expects, Faith inspects; while Hope is like Mary, looking up-ward, Faith is like Martha, looking at-ward; while the light in the eyes of Hope is high, the light in the eyes of Faith is strong; while Hope trembles in expectation, Faith is quiet in possession. Hope leaps out toward what will be, Faith holds on to what is; Hope idealises, Faith realises; Faith sees, Hope foresees.
3. And so it comes that in religion faith is conservative, while hope is progressive. Passing on the Rhine through the fog and mist of Holland as through a stagnant sea, you stretch upward league after league; and as you go the country gradually changes, the air grows clearer, the prospect finer. But the higher you go, the harder is your going. So at last you come into Switzerland, where all about you is a vaster vision, and within you an intenser inspiration than can ever be felt on the foggy flats below. It is the difference between faith alone and faith and hope together.
4. Consider hope, however, as a positive matter. Why, you say, hope is the most intangible thing a man can entertain. “Hope,” says Owen Feltham, “is the bladder a man will take wherewith to learn to swim; then he goes beyond return, and is lost.” But what says Paul? He makes our life a battle, and every man a soldier, and it is not enough that the heart be protected by the shield of faith, the head must be guarded also by the helmet of hope: the one is as indispensable as the other. And a brief glance at the life about us will soon convince you that the man is right, that as Dr. Johnson said, our powers owe very much of their energy to our hope; and whatever enlarges hope exalts courage; and, where there is no hope, there is no endeavour. Here is Cyrus Field conceiving the idea of binding the Atlantic with a cord. In carrying out his idea, the man has two servants to help him--the faith that it can be done, and the hope that he shall do it. With these aids he goes to work. Faith steadies him; hope inspires him. Faith works; hope flies. Faith deliberates; hope anticipates. Faith lets the cable go, and it breaks, and is lost. “Nay, not lost,” cries hope, and fishes it up again. Here is Garibaldi conceiving the idea of a new Italy. He has faith and hope. Austria, Naples, and Rome are against him. But no man knows, or can know, what faith and hope together can do in a man of the pattern of Garibaldi. What they have done for Italy will go ringing down the ages. Very curiously, if you will again, you can see the power of faith without hope illustrated in China. When our ancestors were savages they had advanced about where they are now. But who shall say that China, with the noble qualities no doubt she has, might not have had a peerless place in the world, had she held herself hopeful and expectant, continually, toward every new idea and discovery?
5. And this fact of hope and its influence has some important applications.
(1) To religion. It is entirely essential “to remember that, when this man tells his friends to take for a helmet the hope of salvation, he meant the hope he himself was rushing through the world to proclaim. In the England of John Wesley numbers of men were his peers in faith. But Wesley had more hopefulness in his little finger than any other man of them had in his whole body. And so wherever Wesley went men caught the contagion of his great hope, and then ran tirelessly as long as they lived, kindling over all the world.
(2) To life generally. Young men and women, with this life mainly before you, get this hope. Make sure that there is not a day but brings you nearer to some Divine surprise of blessing, some great unfolding of God’s wry glory. Men and women in middle life, with the bloom gone from some things that seemed very beautiful as they lay glistening in the dew of the morning, whatever you do, never let a painful inspection rob you of a great expectation. If, as you live, you try to live faithfully, then, as the Lord liveth, try to live hopefully, or you will miss the better half of your living. (R. Collyer, D.D.)
Love
1. In the text the word is translated charity. In Wickliffe’s time, however, love and charity were as nearly related as charity and benevolence are now. This can be understood if we will remember that charity and dear, in the sense of precious, belong to the one root. They spring from what was common enough when they were born--dearth or scarcity. Food was then precious, much esteemed, much loved. Then good bread was dear, not as it is now to us in money value merely, but in this primitive value of something to love, a small piece being given to the children sometimes on a Sunday, as a very precious thing.
2. What, then, is this love? It is a word traceable to many different roots. That could not be otherwise. Love would naturally be one of the very first things the most abject savages must find a name for, after getting a word to express each of the bare needs of life. The first time the man of the forest tried to win a maiden in some higher way than by carrying her off by force, he would need the word. The first time the mother had to tell of the mysterious glow in her heart toward her babe in its helplessness, she would need the word. And so love, in one root, is longing; in another, goodness; in another, preference; but, to me, the right rests at last in the Teutonic word leben--life. “This is life,” these children of nature said, when they first began to be conscious of this glowing wonder in their hearts. “You are my life,” the man said when he went to win the maiden; and the mother, when she caught her nursling to her heart. Love is to live; and not to love is not to live. And it was exactly the definition of John, when he wanted to tell of the nearest and dearest of all the relations the soul can hold to God.
3. And so, while faith is inreaching, and hope outlooking, love is inbeing. By faith I stand; by hope I soar, by love I am. Faith assures me, hope inspires me; love is me, at my best.
4. And it is only as we keep, close to this idea and fact that we can prevent love being confounded with other and baser things, that, getting mixed up with it in our own language, act like the baser metals mixed up in the coinage of a country, giving the real gold and silver a lower relative value, and debasing the whole fair standard of commonwealth. Love, for example, is not lust. Because love, for whatever may in itself be good, adds just so much as there is in what I love to life; while lust for that very thing exhausts life. When the young man, living in a room, eating in a restaurant, and troubled about more things than ever Martha was, feels at last how contracted and poor such a life is at the best, and says in his heart, “This is not living: I must get me a wife,” whatever may be his idea of the wife he wants, the word he uses to describe his condition reaches away into the truth. It is not living: it is just half living, and probably not that. His heart is crying out for the rest of his life. But there is that calling itself love which is lust--something that seeks not a life, but an appanage to life, and reaps for its sowing a harvest of gray ashes. Love informs life; lust exhausts it. Love is the shining sun, lust is the wandering star.
5. But, beside such special applications, there is no direction in which we can turn but this spirit meets us with its sweet, solemn face. Consider the lesson we have learned in our war. When we plunged into that red sea, the gentlemen of England were looking on. The few said we should hold our own; the multitude said we had gone under. What made this difference? The few loved us, so that Faith stood square, and Hope plumed her wings, and they became the glad ministers of their leader and guide. The many did not love us. They had no faith in us and no hope for us, because they had no love. When a man really loves, it piles great stores of love into his heart; so that he may even come to some dreadful pass where faith and hope fail him, and yet love shall carry him through. When the father wants to put his son on the way to success, if he is a wise man, he most anxiously tries to find out where the lad’s love lies; for there, he knows, he will have faith and hope, because the love will be a perpetual inspiration; while, to put him to what he can never love, will only exhaust and disgust him, until at last it is given up in despair. (R. Collyer, D.D.)
The three Divine sisters
When those three goddesses, say the poets, strove for the golden ball, Paris adjudged it to the queen of Love. Here are three celestial graces striving for the chiefdom; and our apostle gives it to love. Not that other daughters are black, but that Charity excels in beauty (Pro_31:29). All stars are bright, though “one star may differ from another in glory.” These are three strings often touched: faith, whereby we believe all God’s promises to be true, and ours; hope, whereby we wait for them with patience; charity, whereby we testify what we believe and hope. He that hath fallen cannot distrust; he that hath hope cannot be put from anchor; he that hath charity will not lead a licentious life, for “love keeps the commandments.” Let us treat them--
1. Comparatively.
1. Faith is that grace which makes Christ ours, and all His benefits. God gives it (1Co_12:9); by the Word preached (Rom_10:17); for Christ’s sake (Php_1:29). This virtue is no sooner given of God, but it gives God (Rom_8:32). “Without this it is impossible to please God “ (Heb_11:6). Let us not otherwise dare to come into His presence.
2. Hope is the sweetest friend that ever kept a distressed soul company; it beguiles the tediousness of the way, all the miseries of our pilgrimage.
(1) It holds the head whilst it aches, and gives invisible drink to the thirsty conscience. It is a liberty to them that are in prison, and the sweetest physic to the sick. St. Paul calls it an anchor (Heb_6:19). Let the winds blow, and the storms beat, and the waves swell, yet the anchor stays the ship. It breaks through all difficulties, and makes way for the soul to follow it. It teacheth Abraham to expect fruit from a withered stock; and Joseph in a dungeon to look for the sun and stars’ obeisance. Though misery be present, comfort absent, though thou canst spy no deliverance, yet such is the nature of hope, that it speaks of future things as if they were present (Rom_8:24).
(2) These are the comforts of hope. Now, that you may not be deceived, there is a thing like hope, which is not it. There is a bold and presumptuous hope, an ignorant security and ungrounded persuasion, the very illusion of the devil, that how wickedly soever a man shall live himself, yet still he hopes to be saved by the mercy of God. Against this hope we shut up the bosom of consolation.
3. Charity is an excellent virtue, and therefore rare. The proper and immediate object of our love is God. This is the great commandment, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,” etc. The subordinate object is man, and his love is the effect of the former cause, and an actual demonstration of the other inward affection. Love is the abridgment of the law, the new precept of the gospel. Luther calls it the shortest and the longest divinity: short, for the form of words; long, yea, everlasting, for the use and practice; for “charity shall never cease.”
II. Comparatively.
1. The distinction between faith and hope is nice. I will reduce the differences into three respects.
(1) Of order: Paul gives faith the precedency (Heb_11:1-40.). Hope may in some sort be said to be the daughter of faith. For it is as impossible for a man to hope for that which he believes not, as for a painter to draw a picture in the air. Indeed, more is believed than is hoped for; but nothing is hoped for which is not believed.
(2) Of office: faith is the Christian’s logic; hope his rhetoric. Faith perceives what is to be done, hope gives alacrity to the doing it. The difference between faith and hope is that between wisdom and valour. Valour without wisdom is rashness, wisdom without valour is cowardice. Faith without hope is knowledge without valour to resist Satan; hope without faith is rash presumption and an indiscreet daring.
(3) Of object: faith’s object is the absolute word and infallible promise of God: hope’s object is the thing promised. Faith looks to the word of the thing, hope to the thing of the word. So that faith hath for its object the truth of God; hope, the goodness of God. Faith is of things both good and bad, hope of good things only. A man believes there is a hell as truly as he believes there is a heaven; but he fears the one, and hopes only for the other. In some sense hope excels faith. For there is a faith in the devils. Hope, a confident expectation of the mercy of God; this they can never have. This is the life of Christians, and the want makes devils (1Co_15:19).
2. Charity differs from them both. These three Divine graces are a created trinity; and as there the Son is begotten of the Father, and the Holy Ghost proceeds from them both; so a true faith begets a constant hope, and from them proceeds charity. “Thus is God’s temple built in our hearts,” saith Augustine: the foundation whereof is faith; hope the erection of the walls; charity the perfection of the roof. In the godly all these three are united. We believe in God’s mercy, we hope for His mercy, and we love Him for His mercy. Faith says, there are good things prepared: hope says, they are prepared for me: charity says, I endeavour to walk worthy of them.
III. Superlatively. “The greatest of these is charity.”
1. Objections.
(1) The principal promises are made to believers. So no less a promise is made to lovers (Rom_8:28). “God,” saith the Psalmist, “is near to those that call upon Him,” but He is within those that love Him (1Jn_4:17).
(2) If charity be greater than faith, then is not man justified by faith only. Inconsequentillation! St. Paul commends not love for the virtue of justification. A prince doth excel a peasant: shall any man therefore infer that he can plough better, or have more skill in tillage? A philosopher doth excel a mechanic, though he cannot grind so well as a miller, or limn so cunningly as a painter. Faith is able to justify of itself, not to work of itself (Gal_5:6). The hand alone can receive an alms, but cannot cut a piece of wood without an axe or some instrument. Faith is in the Christian’s hand: add love to it, and it worketh by love. So that the one is our justification before God, and the other our testification before men.
2. Wherein consisteth this high transcendency of charity?
(1) For latitude, love is the greatest. Faith and hope are restrained within the limits of our particular persons. “The just man lives by his own faith,” and hopes good to himself; but love is like the vine (Psa_80:8), or the sun in the sky, that throws his comfortable beams upon all, and forbears not to warm even that earth that beareth weeds.
(2) For perpetuity. Faith lays hold on God’s gracious promise for everlasting salvation; hope expects this with patience; but when God shall fulfil His word, and us with joy, then faith shall be at an end, hope at an end, but love shall remain between God and us an everlasting bond.
(3) For the honour and likeness it hath unto God. Faith and hope make not a man like God, but charity doth.
(4) In respect of its titles, charity excelleth. It is the new commandment: faith was never called so. It is the bond of perfection: faith is not so termed. It is the fulfilling of the law: where hath failed such a title?
(5) Charity is more noble, for it is a better thing to give than to receive. Faith and hope are all of the taking hand.
(6) For manifestation. Faith and hope are things unseen, and may be dissembled, but charity cannot be without visible fruits; therefore the only trial of faith and hope is by charity. Conclusion: Why speaks Paul of no more than three? St. Peter mentions eight (2Pe_1:6), and St. Paul in another place nine (Gal_5:22). Why are all these left out here? Becausethey are comprehended under these three: as to the trade of a stationer, some are required to print, some to correct, some to fold, others to bind, and others to garnish; yet all belongs to one trade There be many rays, and but one sun.
2. As these three fair sisters came down from heaven, so the devil sends up three foul fiends from hell: against faith, infidelity; against hope, desperation; against charity, malice. He that entertains the elder sister “is already condemned” (Joh_3:18). He that embraceth the second, bars up against himself the possibility of all comfort, because he offends the mercy of God, and tramples under foot that blood which is held out to his unaccepting hand. He that welcomes malice, welcomes the devil himself. (T. Adams.)
The three sisters
If I were to sketch a picture of these three sisters, I should not make--as is often done--three graceful figures, beautiful in countenance and expressive in form and attitude, twining their arms together. That may be very artistic and imaginative; it is not very practical. I should rather paint them as in one room together. Faith, bending over a book--the Book of God--her face all glowing with hallowed emotion, yet full of the deep calm of Divine, inward peace, as she reads the “exceeding great and precious promises.” Hope, sitting in the window-seat, and gazing, with earnest, dreaming eyes, and face serenely bright, upon the setting sun; watching intently, as the amber clouds open their gates, and, in fancy, admit her into the city of everlasting light. Love, turning her tender looks now on the one sister, and now on the other, and smiling a smile caught from Christ, as she thinks of the widow and the fatherless, cheered and comforted by the garments at which her hands are working. (R. Tuck, B. A.)
The three graces
I.Their excellence..
1. Faith. It unites to Christ. It secures our justification. It is the great power in our present life: “The just shall live by faith.”
2. Hope. It brightens the present by brightening the future.
3. Love. What a wilderness the world would be without love!
II. Their continuance. It is better to have lost the extraordinary gifts than these graces.
III. Their relative value. Love the greatest.
1. It has longer continuance.
2. It is more useful to others.
3. It makes men like God in character. (Clerical World.)
The triple graces
Things and beings appear, in many cases, by some law of universal power and faithfulness, in groups and clusters--stars, e.g., and flowers, animals, etc. The same law gives existence to villages and towns. It is a rare thing when people like to live far away from others. The same element runs through all in religion. People of the same views, motives, and feelings collect together for sympathy and assistance. The same law governs politics, science, commerce. You will find virtues and graces in groups. Consider--
I. These triple graces in themselves, and some things wherein they differ. They are in the mind; apart from the mind they can have no existence. In themselves they are abstractions, which can have no existence but as parts or actions of some other fit subjects.
1. Faith is the confiding attitude of the mind, relying on stone object or resource believed by itself, by evidence or experience sufficient to sustain or meet its wants and wishes. It is the power of uniting weakness with strength, need with plenty, misery with happiness, man’s sinfulness and despair with Divine grace and merciful provision.
2. Hope is the soul turning its face to the good and happiness of the future. It is the vanguard of the soul, on its travel forward in the wilderness of life.
3. Charity is the attitude of the soul embracing the lovely and the pure. It is the cultivated state of the soil of the soul, like a well-weeded, pulverised garden, bearing rich and fragrant flowers. The soul in this state morally is both strong and happy; but to make it safe and broad it needs the light and evidence of faith, and the prophetic eye and encouragement of hope.
4. Though these graces belong to one system, they differ--
(1) In the way they view their objects. Faith seeks its object through the light of evidence, hope through the good and the happy, and charity through the beautiful and lovely.
(2) In the conscious sentiments they produce in the soul. Faith makes the soul strong and confident, hope sanguine and anxious, and charity satisfied and happy.
(3) In the soil they grow in, and the elements which feed and mature them. Faith grows in the soil of intelligence, and is fed by reason, evidence, and experience; hope grows in sympathy with the future, and a desire to know and possess its goodness, and is fed by its own intuitive faith and possession of the good and the happy; charity grows in tenderness, beneficence, and the social feeling of the soul for communion with the beautiful and lovely, and is fed by manifestation of love, faith, and hope.
(4) In their action, and the way they express themselves. Faith acts boldly, and expresses itself fearlessly; hope acts more timidly, and expresses itself with patience and submission; charity acts calmly, expressing itself with chastened sweetness and joyful exaltation.
(5) In the service they render to the soul. Faith educates its intelligence, and would perserve it from dull blindness and superstitious ignorance; hope sustains and encourages it in the dark day and weary night of its earthly abode; and charity educates it, in all its sentiments, into refinement and beauty, so as to make it a happy companion to itself and others.
II. In their union and necessity.
1. They are united,
(1) In their source. Every good gift finally must be traced to one common fountain of Divine goodness.
(2) In common sympathy and attachment. They are made for one another; they could not live apart.
(3) In their work and end. What one cannot do the other does; and what they cannot do separately they complete unitedly.
(4) In the means of their strength and advancement--the Spirit of God, through the provision of the economy of grace.
2. Their necessity in the system of Christian life. They are needful--
(1) As means by which the soul of man can apprehend the different sides in the economy of truth and Divine provision.
(2) To develop and perfect the soul in its various sides and powers.
(3) From the demands made upon man.
(a) For daily duty.
(b) For warfare and defence.
III. The pre-eminence of charity. It is the greatest--
1. In the quality of its nature. It has a refinement and purity which is not to be found in the same manner and degree in the others. “God is love.” Love is the Divine nature in man.
2. In the sway of its power. Faith is power, and has done mighty works; so is hope, and has long and far walked over arid and thorny lands to its Canaan of good; but when faith falters and hope faints, love supports and comforts still.
3. As a source of comfort and happiness to the soul. The company of love is always sweet.
4. As it approaches the nearest to God. God is in the hand of faith, He is in the eye of hope, but He is in the heart of love.
5. In useful results.
6. As the greatest advancing power. No one can advance in anything much unless he loves it.
7. In attraction and motive. Love drives no one away; it draws to itself even those who are void of any impelling motive in themselves.
IV. The abiding character of these graces. There is a prevalent belief that faith and hope are only transient. But what is the evidence of such a belief? It is said that faith and hope will be done away with, because all will be seen in heaven. But surely I need it as a power of confiding trust, when I see the object as well as when I do not see it. Is hope also not requisite relative to the continued safety and duration of the good we possess, as much as the possession of the unseen? But we cannot accept of the assertion that all will be seen and possessed at once in heaven. Can all the future be packed into one moment? Can all its objects and visions be contracted into one small point? It is again said, but all will be safe. But do I not want faith to comfort me as well as to defend me, to unite me with God, as well as to put me under His shield? Do I not also want hope in the enjoyment of the good, as well as in the search after it? Nothing good we have will be taken from us, but perfected. In order to sustain this view, note--
1. These powers are essentially united together, so as to make one system of power in the mind.
2. They are alike powers of the soul. Christianity has not created them; it has only directed them to higher objects, purified their quality, and given them new direction and impetus. If one of them were to be done away with, the soul would be incomplete, and would be unfit to do its work and enjoy its blessings. If the triangle were deprived of one of its sides, it would no longer be a triangle; so if one of these triangular sides of the soul were done away with, it would no longer be the rational and responsible identical soul which man has in this world; he would not only be a different being, but a smaller and a less perfect one than now he is.
3. Faith and hope are essential to dependent and limited beings. We cannot think it possible for finite beings to exist without them, for the source of their being, and the comprehension of their good, are all outside themselves.
4. The continuance of faith and hope is needful for the perpetuation of love. Could you love a person or an object in whom or in which you have no faith? And is not your hope for the good and the beautiful a part of your love towards them?
5. It is difficult to think that happiness is possible in the absence of faith and hope.
6. They are among the noblest of the gifts of God, and such things are not given to be recalled or destroyed. (T. Hughes.)
The three graces
Whatever may be the path of our future experience we shall need asmuch as ever, perhaps more, the “abiding” sense of the presence and help of this holy and beautiful sisterhood of Christian virtues.
I. Faith. Faith has wings; but unlike the wings that Solomon gives to riches, faith is busy in gathering instead of scattering her treasures. Faith has wings because she is “a stranger and sojourner” on the earth. But although without a home here she has a home, and mounting up with the wings of eagles, she lives in a congenial clime, “seeing him who is invisible.” Matthew Henry says, “We cannot expect too little from man, nor too much from God.” But in God we can have faith. His wisdom is without the admixture of error; His heart infinitely kind; His power without restraint.
II. Hope. Faith has wings, and like the wings of the cherubim in Ezekiel’s vision, they are “full of eyes”; and these eyes are full of sparkling hope. By a strange paradox, the castles built by sense are vapoury visions, while the buildings of faith are substantial and enduring. Hope builds on faith, and faith builds on God, “that our faith and hope may be in God.” Faith is the child in the house, who knows his filial relationship though the parent is absent. Hope is the child at the window, expecting the parent’s return. A prisoner, detained in his cell for some supposable reason, after he had received his pardon, would be saved both by faith and hope; faith, in the word that announced his pardon would assure him of salvation; the prospect of release from his prison cell would be his bright hope; at the hour of his departure he would “receive the end of his faith”--full deliverance.
III. Charity.
1. Love is “greatest” by reason of its dignity. Both faith and hope are receptive in their character; but love is communicative, therefore is it “greatest,” for “it is more blessed to give than to receive”!
2. Love is “greatest” by reason of age--it is the eldest. Love can say--before faith and hope were “I am.” It was the flower of Eden, but its first growth was not there, for it was transplanted from the garden of heaven, and blossomed in the bosom of God “from everlasting.”
3. Love is “greatest” by reason of its strength. “Love is strong as death.” How firm a hold does death take of its captives! This aspect of love has several relations.
(1) There is God’s love to us. When we see this we are taken captive by love at its will. It is a power magnetic. We
