Hope in Dark Times

[LadyCalvinist]

I was reading the Banner of Truth arcticle "Hope in the Face of Hostility" July 24, 2020 and I though it helpful.

Hope in Dark Times​

The great nineteenth-century preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), has been described as ‘the last of the Puritans’.20 In 1865, when addressing a meeting of the Baptist Mission to Ireland, he preached on the taking of Jericho. He commented that many get disheartened and wonder why God allows unbelief to prevail for so long, in so much of the world. He encouraged his congregation with these words:

When I have read some masterly tragic poem, and verse after verse has dwelt upon the horrible portion of the tale, did I wish it shortened? Would I have had the author leave out one of those dark verses? Not I. It is true when the poem ended with a shout of victory, and with the tramp of martial men through the city, when they returned in triumph, our heart leaped; we rejoiced when we came to that last stanza, but we wished not the poem shortened; we never wanted to have any of those verses blotted out. God is writing a great poem of human history, the subject is the victory of truth, the destruction of Anti-Christ. Let the history be long. Who wants it shortened? Who wants a brief story on so exceedingly interesting a subject as this, from so great an author? Nay, let it drag on what some may call its weary length, we are sure that when we come to read it, as God will write it, we shall wish the story longer. We will not complain of its extent, for the result is we shall see more of God, and learn more of his mind.21

We can be tempted to ask the same today. Why does evil seem to triumph?

Come the end, we won’t want God’s story shortened. He will be exalted in the earth (Psalm 46:6). Truth will prevail. We need to keep praying, keep working, and keep telling the truth. The Puritan Hope is a wonderful reminder that God has an inexorable plan to glorify his Son among all nations, and his purpose cannot be thwarted.

 

[py3ak]

That's really nice, Diane. I have often had that feeling at the end of a long book, even if it was harrowing; it's too bad there wasn't more of it.

 

[LadyCalvinist]

I felt that way when I read Dickens "David Copperfield." I just did not want it to end.