QUOTE : And of ancient paganism Paul already summed up the whole sad story in the double statement that it was without hope and without God in the world (Eph. 2:12), an exile from what is the noblest birthright of humanity. Now if this is so, how imperative becomes the duty of every true believer in the present age to cultivate the grace of hope; to make himself remember and to make others feel, not so much by direct<br />affirmation but rather by the tone of life, that the future belongs to us and that we belong to the future; that we are children of the world to come and that even now we allow that world to mould and rule and transform us in our thoughts, desires and feelings. If we could only learn again what Peter calls ‘to hope perfectly’ (1:13), what a witness of the reality of the Christian religion, what a powerfully attractive influence might proceed from this one manifestation of our spiritual life! People without such hope would feel the difference between themselves and us, and their regret at not having it might in many instances offer the first inducement to regain an interest in Christianity and inquire about it.