Men found hope again in redemptive love.

They saw that any conception of God that dispirited and depressed men was perverted and false.

No man hath done more to establish this fact than him who long ago said: "Any presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ that does not come to the world as the balmy days of May comes to the unlocked northern zones; any way of preaching the love of God in Christ which is not as full of sweetness as the voice of the angels when they sang at the advent; any way of making known the proclamation of mercy which has not at least as many birds as there are in June and as many flowers as the dumb meadows know how to bring forth; any method of bringing before men the doctrine of salvation which does not make everyone feel, 'There is hope for me in God--in the divine plan, in the very nature of the organization of human life and society,' is spurious--is a slander on God and is blasphemy against his love." Hope hath her harvest also for teachers and reformers.

Often men think their work is squandered.

They seem to be sowing seed not upon the Nile, to find it again abundantly, but in midocean, to sink and come to naught.