Faith is for beings without
the certainty of omniscience. Hope is for beings without
the strength of omnipotence. And Charity, as the apostle
describes it, affects the relations of beings limited and
imperfect to one another.
"Why is it that this Christian virtue of Hope is placed as
the central figure of the sublime group who are to accompany
the children of God through their unending life? It is because
without it Faith would be impossible and Charity would be
wasted.
"Hope is that attribute of the soul which believes in the
final triumph of righteousness. It has no place in a theology
which believes in the final perdition of the larger number
of mankind. Mighty Jonathan Edwards,--the only genius since
Dante akin to Dante,--could you not see that, if your world
exist where there is no hope and where there is no love, there
can be no faith? Who can trust the promise of a God who has
created a Universe and peopled it with fiends? The Apostle
of your doleful gospel must preach quite another Evangel:
And now abideth Hate, and now abideth Wrath, and now abideth
Despair, and now abideth Woe unutterable.
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