Our Hope

I am aware that this truth is one which has been fearfully abused and
perverted. It has been brought into great disrepute by the fanaticism,
enthusiasm, and extravagance of some professing Christians. Mere
animal excitement has been mistaken for the work of the Holy Spirit.
The over-wrought feelings of weak and nervous people have been
prematurely and rashly supposed to be the result of grace. Men and
women have been hastily pronounced "converted," who have soon gone
back to the world, and proved utterly "unconverted" and dead in sins.
And then has come in the devil. Contempt has been poured on religious
feelings of every description—their very existence has been denied and
scouted; and the result is that the very name of "feelings" in religion is
in many quarters dreaded and disliked.
But the abuse and perversion of a truth, must never be allowed to
rob us of the use of it. When all has been said that can be said against
fanaticism and enthusiasm, it is still undeniable that religious feelings
are plainly spoken of and described in Scripture. The Word of God tells
us that the true Christian has "peace," and "rest," and "joy," and
"confidence." It tells us of some who have the "witness of the Spirit"—of
some who "fear no evil"—of some who enjoy "assurance"—of some who
"know whom they have believed"—of some who "are persuaded that
they shall never be separated from the love of God in Christ." These are
the feelings for which I contend—this is that sober, inward experience
in which I see nothing extravagant, enthusiastic, or fanatical. Of such
feelings I say boldly, no man need be ashamed. I go further, and say that
no man has a "good hope" who does not know something, however
faintly, of these feelings in his own heart. I go further still, and say that
to hold any other doctrine is to cast dishonor on the whole work of the
Holy Spirit.
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