hope. A Christian has hope. As we read in Titus i. 2, "In hope of
the Gospel;" and God not only removed the burden, I found a joy I had never dreamed of in this world, and all the years since it has gone on increasing, with the exception of a short time when I fell under the blighting power of skepticism and agnosticism; all the rest of the time all these years the joy has grown brighter, brighter, brighter every year. Young men and women, if you want the deepest, sweetest, purest, most overflowing joy there is to be known on earth, come to Jesus Christ. 3. In the third place, not to be a Christian costs the sacrifice of hope. A Christian has hope. As we read in Titus i. 2, "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised." Oh, how magnificent that hope is, hope of eternal life! How sure it is, resting on the Word of God, who cannot lie. The world has no hope like that. The world holds out no hope that has any foundation. Hope for the future is more important than present possession. "Oh," some one says, "I do not believe that; give me the present and I will let the future take careof itself." Yes, you do believe it. There is not a man or woman here tonight that does not believe that hope for the future is more important than present possession. A man rays, "I do not believe it." Yes, you do; I will prove it to you in five minutes. Suppose you had your choice tonight between being a millionaire and having all that money can buy for tonight, with no hope for tomorrow, but with the rising of tomorrow's sun and the opening of tomorrow's banks to be proved to be an embezzler, and all your money swept away, and you cast into prison to spend the rest of your life there; or to be absolutely penniless tonight, but with the absolute certainty that with the rising of tomorrow's sun and the opening of tomorrow's banks you were to be a millionaire all the rest of your life, which would you choose? "Oh!" you say, "that's very easy; I would choose to be penniless tonight, with the certainty that tomorrow and all the rest of my life I was to be a millionaire." So would I, but that only shows that you believe that hope for the future is more important than present possession; and I would rather be the poorest child of God in the world tonight, with the absolute certainty that with the dawning of eternity I was to be for all eternity an heir of God and jointheir with Jesus Christ, than to be the richest man on earth tonight out of Christ, with no outlook for all eternity but to be cast into God's eternal prisonhouse of hell. A man out of Christ has no hope, even from the life that now is, that is at all sure. You say, "That is too strong; a man out of Christ may have no hope for the future, but if he is rich he has for the present life." You are mistaken. Come with me to New York City. We walk up Fifth Avenue; we stop before one of the most elegant mansions there; we go up the steps and are ushered through the hall down to the library at the end of the hall. You and I stand there on the threshold and look into the library. In it there are two men deep in earnest conversation. This is not an imaginary case, but an