“The Hope of Glory.”  A Christian gentleman was in the habit of visiting, from time to time, a poor afflicted widow woman who lived in his neighborhood.  She had once been very well off, and was the wife of a well-known and apparently successful merchant.  But finally he failed in business and died soon after, leaving her alone in the world, and without anything to live on but what she could earn by her own labor.

After awhile her health failed, and then she was entirely dependent for her support on the kindness of her Christian friends.  But she was always cheerful and happy.  “On going in to see her one day,” says this gentleman, “I found, on talking with her, that she was feeling very comfortable in her mind.

“‘Tell me, my friend,’ I asked, ’have you always felt as bright and cheerful as you seem to feel now?’

“‘O, no,’ she replied, ’very far from it.  When my husband died, and I was left alone in the world, I used to feel very sad and rebellious.  Many a time I was so sorrowful and despairing as to be tempted to take away my own life.  But, in the good providence of God, I was led to read the Bible, and to pray for help from above.  I became a member of the church.  But, for a while, I did not find much comfort in my religion.  And the reason of it was that I did not have very clear views of Christ as my Saviour, and of the wonderful things he has promised to do for his people in the future.

“’But, on one communion occasion, my minister preached on the words—­“Christ in you the hope of glory.”  That was a blessed communion to me.  I saw then, as I had never seen before, how that sacred and solemn service was intended by him to be to all his people, at one and the same time, the means of preserving in their minds the remembrance of the sufferings he has borne for them in the past, and also of keeping alive in their hearts the hope of sharing in the glory which he has prepared for them in the future.  And I have never had any trouble in my mind since then.  My communion seasons were always bright and blessed seasons to me as long as I was able to go to church.  And though I can no longer go up to the sanctuary and partake of the bread and wine, “the outward and visible signs” made use of in the heavenly feast; yet, blessed be God’s holy name, I can, and do partake in a spiritual manner of that which those signs represent.  I feel and know what it is to have “Christ in me the hope of glory.”  And this “satisfies my longing, as nothing else can do.”  I find peace and comfort in simply “looking unto Jesus.”  I have had much outward trouble and affliction since then.  I live alone.  There is no one here to help me.  Sometimes I have nothing to eat, and but little to keep me warm.  You see me sitting here now.  Thus I have to spend my nights.  My complaint is the dropsy, and this prevents me from lying down. But I would not exchange my place as a forgiven sinner, with “Christ in me the hope of glory,” for all the wealth and the honor that Queen Victoria could bestow upon me!’”