SERMON XII.

GENUINE AND DELUSIVE HOPE CONTRASTED.

PSALM CXix. 116.

And let me not be ashamed of my hope.

WHAT a wretched world would this be without hope! but amidst all the ills that wait on man, (a mourner in his best estate,) a gracious God has kindly bid one bright ray of hope cheer the darkest picture of human life.

Wide as the world is the empire of hope, and its duration shall be commensurate with that of time. The soul of man, where reigns a well founded,. steady, lively hope of heaven, has already the sweetest foretaste of its enjoyments; and the human breast, to which hope is a stranger, almost partakes of the misery of hell.

The best of all portions in this life, is a good hope of a better. The most awful of all disappointments is that which relates to hope for eternity. There are many hopes which deceive and delude their votaries, and which will lead to everlasting despair; it behoves every one of us to examine whether we possess a true, scriptural, good

hope; a hope that will outlive all the storms it may have to encounter, and bear us safely and triumphantly into the haven of everlasting rest.

May the Holy Spirit assist us each in this impor tant work, while from the words of my text I point out,

I. Some instances in which hope makes persons ashamed;-and

II. Describe a good hope, the hope of a Christian; a hope that maketh not ashamed.

I. I begin by pointing out some instances in which a person is made ashamed of his hope.

First, Hope will make ashamed when it is su premely fixed on objects too low; worldly hopes are terminated on empty vanishing things gilded over with the thin appearance of good, and thése will assuredly disappoint their miserable votaries. It is natural, and it is lawful, that we should moderately desire such a portion of worldly good things as God in his infinite wisdom sees needful and best; for he "giveth us richly all things to enjoy," and "every creature" in itself “is good, and to be received with thanksgiving;" but if any thing below the sky is pursued as a chief object of desire and hope, it will assuredly be found uncertain, unsatisfying, and perishing. Nothing on earth can suit the large desires of an immortal mind; and the man who makes any created thing the object of his chief pursuit, will be perpetually

disappointed, flying from one object to another, eagerly pursuing some fancied good; like the child, eager to grasp the gaudy rainbow, which mocks his toil, and vanishes from his sight. He spends his money for that which is not bread, and labours for that which satisfieth not. Should he accomplish his wishes, and possess the object of his hope, it yields not the gratification it promised; he thought to possess a substantial good, and finds it a shadow, a bubble, no sooner grasped than broken. He is "ashamed of his hope," and leaves earth and all its enjoyments still bearing the royal preacher's motto; "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."

'Lean not on earth, 'twill pierce thee to the heart ;/
A broken reed at best, but oft a spear,

On whose sharp point hope bleeds and peace expires.' Secondly, Another instance in which hope makes ashamed, is when its foundation is weak and unstable. There is so much of impotence or deceit in all the means used to obtain worldly desires, that success is always doubtful and uncertain. An ardent imagination draws a luxuriant picture of whatever in human life is lofty, sublime, pleasing, or in fact in any way congenial with the particular dispositions of the mind; a wild unfounded hope flies over fields of difficulties, and hosts of improbabilities, and realizes all the gay chimera, scorning the sober dictates of reason which would examine the means of securing the promised good, and of encountering the intervening difficulties; but a

little time and a few fruitless endeavours after happiness, cool the wild enthusiast, and defeat his ill-supported and ill-directed vagaries. He sowed the wind, and he reaped the whirlwind; he is "ashamed of his hope."

A third instance (and infinitely the most important) is, when persons build their hopes of eternal happiness on an unscriptural foundation, and by everlasting disappointment and ruin are made ashamed of their delusive hopes.

From worldly disappointments men learn worldly wisdom; in future their hopes are more moderate, and their measures better concerted; but a soul once lost, a heaven once lost, is lost for ever; no opportunity is again offered for greater prudence and diligence; there is no work, nor knowledge, nor device in the grave, whither we all go, and where hope must terminate either in the full fruition of eternal blessedness, or in everlasting disappointment, despair, and woe.

Ah, how painful is it to a minister frequently to witness in the chambers of the sick and dying, on what unscriptural, what sandy foundations thousands build their eternal hopes, and are lulled into a false and fatal composure by their own ignorance and self love, by the artifices of the grand enemy of souls, and often, very often, by the false kindness of surrounding friends, who fear to tell them the truth, or perhaps know nothing of it themselves. They rush into their Maker's presence, with a lie in their right hand, never once suspecting the

safety and happiness of their state, till awakened by the worm that never dies, and the fire that is never quenched: that God is merciful, and will forgive sins of which (though you cannot altogether deny them) you have never felt the burden, sin unrepented of, and unforsaken; that you are better than many around around you; that you have never committed many heinous sins of which others have been guilty; and if you perish, what will become of thousands? that you have been decent and moral in your behaviour, regular in your attention to religious duties, just and upright in your dealings, charitable to the necessitous, forgiving and peaceable to all mankind.'

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These things are all excellent in their place: but, my beloved brethren, be not deceived; if these are made the grounds of your hope for heaven, they are refuges of lies, and will miserably fail you in the awful day of decision. character of others is not the standard by which you will be tried, and their misery will be no alleviation to yours. Oh then, let me intreat if you would be happy hereafter, look well to the foundation of your hopes now, and see that you take not up with any hope of which eternity will make you ashamed.

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II. With these, let us contrast the hope of the Christian; a good hope that maketh not ashamed. 'Christian hope is a firm expectation of all mised good things, so far as they may be for God's

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