Our Hope
BY J. C. RYLE "Good hope through grace." 2 Thess. 2:10 "The hope of the ungodly shall perish." Job 8:13 "For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?" Job 27:8
BY J. C. RYLE
"Good hope through grace." 2 Thess. 2:10
"The hope of the ungodly shall perish." Job 8:13
"For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?" Job 27:8
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Let us beware of supposing that any hope is good which is not founded<br />
on Christ. All other hopes are built on sand. They may look well in the<br />
summer time of health and prosperity—but they will fail in the day of<br />
sickness and the hour of death. "Other foundation can no man lay than<br />
that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. 3:11.)<br />
Church-membership is no foundation of hope. We may belong to the<br />
best of Churches, and yet never belong to Christ. We may fill our pew<br />
regularly every Sunday, and hear the sermons of orthodox, ordained<br />
clergymen, and yet never hear the voice of Jesus, or follow Him. If we<br />
have nothing better than Church-membership to rest upon we are in a<br />
poor plight—we have nothing solid beneath our feet.<br />
Reception of the sacraments is no foundation of hope. We may be<br />
washed in the waters of baptism, and yet know nothing of the water of<br />
life. We may go to the Lord's table every Sunday of our lives, and yet<br />
never eat Christ's body and drink Christ's blood by faith. Miserable<br />
indeed is our condition if we can say nothing more than this! We<br />
possess nothing but the outside of Christianity—we are leaning on a<br />
reed.<br />
Christ Himself is the only true foundation of a good hope. He is the<br />
rock, His work is perfect. He is the stone—the sure stone, the tried<br />
corner-stone. He is able to bear all the weight that we can lay upon Him.<br />
He only that builds and "believes on Him shall not be<br />
confounded." (Deut. 32:4; Isa. 28:16; 1 Peter 2:6.)<br />
This is the point on which all true saints of God in every age have been<br />
entirely agreed. Differing on other matters, they have always been of<br />
one mind upon this. Unable to see alike about Church-government, and<br />
discipline, and liturgies, they have ever seen alike about the foundation<br />
of hope. Not one of them has ever left the world trusting in his own<br />
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