And, holding such a belief and faith, we must be hopeful.  And only next in importance to faith and love stands hope.  The hero must be hopeful.  And when times look dark about you, and they sometimes will, you must still hope.

“O it is hard to work for God,
To rise and take his part
Upon the battle-field of earth,
And not sometimes lose heart!

“O there is less to try our faith
In our mysterious creed,
Than in the godless look of earth
In these our hours of need.

“Ill masters good; good seems to change
To ill with greatest ease;
And, worst of all, the good with good
Is at cross purposes.

“Workman of God!  O lose not heart,
But learn what God is like;
And in the darkest battle-field
Thou shalt know where to strike.

“Muse on his justice, downcast soul! 
Muse, and take better heart;
Back with thine angel to the field,
Good luck shall crown thy part!

“For right is right, since God is God;
And right the day must win;
To doubt would be disloyalty,
To falter would be sin.”

Hope on, be strong and of a good courage.  For in the dark hours others will lean on you to catch your hope and courage.  To many a poor discouraged soul you must be “a hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”  Every power and force in the universe of environment makes for the ultimate triumph of truth and right.  Defeat is impossible.  “One man with God on his side is the majority that carries the day.  ‘We are but two,’ said Abu Bakr to Mohammed as they were flying hunted from Mecca to Medina.  ‘Nay;’ answered Mohammed, ‘we are three; God is with us.’”

And not only the race will triumph and regain the Paradise lost.  The city of God shall surely be with men, and God will dwell with them and in them.  But you and I can and shall triumph too.

We are prone to feel that the individual man is too insignificant a being to be the object of God’s care and forethought.  But we should not forget that it is the individual who conforms, and that the higher and nobler race is to be attained through the elevation of individuals, one after another.  God deals with races and nations as such.  But his laws and promises are made almost entirely for the individuals of which these larger units are concerned.

But there is another standpoint from which we may gain a helpful view of the matter.  I may be the meanest citizen of my native state, and my father may leave me heir of only a few acres of rocky land.  But, if my title is good, every power in the state is pledged to put me in possession of my inheritance.  They who would rob me may be strong; but the state will call out every able-bodied man, and pour out every dollar in its treasury before it will allow me to be defrauded of my legal rights.  And it must do this for me, its meanest citizen, else there is no government, but anarchy, and oppression, and the rule of the strongest.  And we all recognize that this is but right and necessary, and would be ashamed of our state and government were it not literally true.