If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
—I Corinthians 15:19
2272 Hopeless Story Of Noah
And the Lord said unto Noah: “Where is the ark which I have commanded thee to build?”
And Noah said unto the Lord: “Verily, I have had three carpenters off ill. The gopher-wood supplier hath let me down—yea, even though the gopher wood hath been on order for high upon 12 months. What can I do, O Lord?”
And God said unto Noah: “I want that ark finished even after seven days and seven nights.”
And Noah said: “It will be so.”
And it was not so. And the Lord said unto Noah: “What seemeth to be the trouble this time?”
And Noah said unto the Lord: “Mine subcontractor hath gone bankrupt. The pitch which Thou commandest me to put on the outside and on the inside of the ark hath not arrived. The plumber hath gone on strike. Shem, my son who helpeth me on the ark side of the business, hath formed a pop group with his brothers Ham and Japheth. Lord, I am undone.”
And the Lord grew angry and said: “And what about the animals, the male and the female of every sort that I ordered to come unto thee to keep their seed alive upon the face of the earth?”
And Noah said: “They have been delivered unto the wrong address but should arrive on Friday.”
And the Lord said: “How about the unicorns, and the fowls of the air by sevens?”
And Noah wrung his hands and wept, saying: “Lord, unicorns are a discontinued line; thou canst not get them for love nor money. And fowls of the air are sold only in half-dozens, Lord. Lord, Thou knowest how it is.”
And the Lord in His wisdom said: “Noah, my son, I knowest. Why else dost thou think I have caused a flood to descend upon the earth?”
—Journal of Royal Institute of British Architects
2273 Any Hope Of Rescue?
Someone has said that if you could convince a man there was no hope, he would curse the day he was born. Hope is an indispensable quality of life.
Years ago the S-4 submarine was rammed by another ship and quickly sank. The entire crew was trapped in its prison house of death. Ships rushed to the scene of disaster off the coast of Massachusetts. We don’t know what took place down in the sunken submarine, but we can be sure that the men clung bravely to life as the oxygen slowly gave out.
A diver placed his helmeted ear to the side of the vessel and listened. He heard a tapping noise. Someone, he learned, was tapping out a question in the dots and dashes of the Morse Code. The question came slowly: “Is … there … any … hope?”
This seems to be the cry of humanity: “Is there any hope?” Hope, indeed, is the basis of all human existence in Christ!
2274 No Hope Carter
While attending college, I visited a psychiatric institution with a group of students to observe various types of mental illness. The experience proved to be very disturbing. I remember one man who was called “No Hope Carter.” His was a tragic case. A victim of venereal disease, he was going through the final stages when the brain is affected.
Before he began to lose his mind, this man was told by the doctors that there was no known cure for him. He begged for one ray of light in his darkness, but had been told that the disease would run its inevitable course and end in death. Gradually his brain deteriorated and he became more and more despondent.
When I saw him in his small, barred room about 2 weeks before he died, he was pacing up and down in mental agony. His eyes stared blankly, and his face was drawn and ashen. Over and over he muttered these two forlorn and fateful words: “No hope! No hope!” He said nothing else.
—Our Daily Bread
2275 Stocks Rise On Hope Alone Fails
On the third day of February 1970, Secretary of the Treasury David M. Kennedy made a speech in New York in which he said that the rate of interest, which had been rising for years, might soon drop. Immediately the stock market, which had been drifting downward for many months, jumped upward eleven points. But soon afterward the market dropped to its lowest point in seven years. A few days after Mr. Kennedy’s speech the New York Times ran this headline: “STOCK RISE ON HOPE ALONE FAILS TO LAST.”
2276 Case Of Baby Doe Tabor
Mr. Tabor is famous in Colorado history. He was a successful mining man, having made millions from his “Matchless mine” near Cripple Creek, Colo. He divorced his wife that he might marry the beautiful divorcee, Baby Doe. This illicit marriage became one of the outstanding social events of the early West. The President of the United States was invited to the wedding—and he came.
But soon misfortune overtook them, and Mr. Tabor lost his money. He died a broken-hearted and a poor man. Just before his death he gave “Baby Doe” this final admonition: “Have faith in the Matchless mine; never give it up; it will give you back all that I have lost.” Baby Doe, the now forlorn and aging widow, took him at his word. She lived near, and guarded the Matchless mine for the next 36 years of her desolate life, and stayed near the mine, in the face of repeated court ousters and crushing adversity.
In 1935 she died in a dilapidated shack near the mine, her hopes never realized. Her life was a dismal failure and she came to a sad end because she put hope and faith in the wrong object.
—Christian Victory
2277 No Hope On Sea Or Land
The 2,037-ton Portuguese coastal steamer, Save, with 53 crewmen, 300 Portuguese troops, and 200 Mozambique Africans aboard, grounded on a sandbar of East Africa during a storm. While rescue efforts were being made from the shore, fire broke out on the ship. The fire spread to the stores of ammunition and the whole ship exploded in flames.
Many of the passengers jumped into the sea—only to be attacked by sharks. Those who did manage to make the shore were threatened by lions roaring in a mangrove jungle nearby. A hopeless case.
2278 Pope’s Cry
Pope Pius V when dying cried out despairingly: “When I was in a low condition I had some hopes of salvation; when I was advanced to be a cardinal I greatly doubted it; but since I came to the popedom I have no hope at all.”
2279 Cape Of Good Hope
The southern tip of Africa used to be called “Cape of Tempests.” Its swirling seas and continuously adverse weather conditions caused sailors great anxiety and took many lives.
But a certain Portuguese, determined to find a safer route through those seas to the renowned Land of Cathy, discovered a safer passage round this promontory. And the area was renamed the “Cape of Good Hope.”
2280 Metastatic Cancer
In medicine, there is a condition known as “metastatic cancer” or “generalized carcinomatosis.” This is the term physicians use when a tumor has spread beyond its point of origin and all over the body. The patient is considered not suited for surgery. And although radiation and other palliative measures may delay it, the outcome is inevitable. There is no known cure at that stage.
See also: Discouragement ; Eph. 2:12 Rev. 9:6.