---

The Book of Proverbs seldom looks beyond the limits of the temporal, but now and then the mists lift and the wider horizon is disclosed. Our text is one of these exceptional instances, and is remarkable, not only as expressing confidence in the future, but as expressing it in a very striking way. "Surely there is an end," says our Authorised Version, substituting in the margin, for end, "reward." The latter word is placed in the text of the Revised Version. But neither "end" nor "reward" conveys the precise idea. The word so translated literally means "something that comes after." So it is the very opposite of "end "; it is really that which lies beyond the end — the "sequel," or the "future" — as the margin of the Revised Version gives alternately, or, more simply still, the "Afterwards." Surely there is an afterwards behind the end. And then the proverb goes on to specify one aspect of that afterwards: "Thine expectation" — or, better, because more simply, "thy hope" — shall not be cut off. And then, upon these two convictions it builds the plain, practical exhortation: "Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long."

I. THE CERTAINTY OF THE HEREAFTER. My text, of course, might be watered down and narrowed so as to point only to sequels to deeds realised in this life. And then it would be teaching us simply the very much-needed lessons that even in this life "whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." But it seems to me that we are entitled to see here, as in one or two other places in the Book of Proverbs, a dim anticipation of a future life beyond the grave. Now, the question comes to be, Where did the coiners of proverbs, whose main interest was in the obvious maxims of a prudential morality, get this conviction? They did not get it from any lofty experience of communion with God, like that which in the seventy-third Psalm marks the very high-water mark of Old Testament faith in regard to a future life. They did not get it from any clear definite revelation, such as we have in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but they got it from thinking over file facts of this present life as they appeared to them, looked at from a standpoint of a belief in God, and in righteousness. And so they represent to us the impression that is made upon a man's mind, if he has the "eye that has kept watch o'er man's mortality," that is made by the facts of this earthly life, viz., that it is so full of onward-looking, prophetic aspect, so manifestly and tragically, and yet wonderfully and hopefully, incomplete and fragmentary in itself, that there must be something beyond in order to explain, in order to vindicate the life that now is. You sometimes see a row of houses, the end one of which has, in its outer gable wall, bricks protruding here and there, and holes for chimney-pieces that are yet to be put in. And just as surely as that external wall says that the row is half-built, and there are some more tenements to be added to it, so surely does the life that we now live here, in all its aspects almost, bear upon itself the stamp that it, too, is but initial and preparatory. You sometimes see, in the bookseller's catalogue, a book put down "volume one; all that is published." That is our present life — volume one, all that is published. Surely there is going to be a sequel, volume two. What is the meaning of the fact that of all the creatures on the face of the earth only you and I, and our brethren and sisters, do not find in our environment enough for our powers? What is the meaning of the fact that lodged in men's natures there lies that strange power of painting to themselves things that are not as though they were? So that minds and hearts go out wandering through eternity, and having longings and possibilities which nothing beneath the stars can satisfy, or can develop? The meaning of it is this: "surely there is a hereafter." God does not so cruelly put into men longings that have no satisfaction, and desires which never can be filled, as that there should not be, beyond the gulf, the fair land of the hereafter. Every human life obviously has in it, up to the very end, the capacity for progress. There may be masters in workshops who take apprentices, and teach them their trade during the years that are needed, and then turn round and say, "I have no work for you, so you must go and look for it somewhere else." That is not how God does. When He has trained His apprentices He gives them work to do. "Surely there is a hereafter." But that is only part of what is involved in this thought. It is not only a state subsequent to the present, but it is a state consequent on the present, and the outcome of it. To-day is the child of all the yesterdays, and the yesterdays and to-day are the parent of to-morrow. The past, our past, has made us what we are in the present, and what we are in the present is making us what we shall be in the future. And when we pass out of this life we pass out, notwithstanding all changes, the same men as we were. And so we carry ourselves with us into that future life, and "what a man soweth that shall he also reap." "Oh! that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their 'afterwards.'"

II. Now, secondly, my text suggests THE IMMORTALITY OF HOPE. "Thine expectation" — or rather, as I said, "thy hope" — "shall not be cut off." This is a characteristic of that hereafter. What a wonderful saying that is which also occurs in this Book of Proverbs, "The righteous hath hope in his death"! Ah! We all know how swiftly, as years increase, the things to hope for diminish, and how, as we approach the end, less and less do our imaginations go out into the possibilities of the sorrowing future. And when the end comes, if there is no afterward, the dying man's hopes must necessarily die before he does. If when we pass into the darkness we are going into a cave with no outlet at the other end, then there is no hope, and you may write over it Dante's grim word: "All hope abandon, ye who enter here." "The righteous hath hope in his death." "Thine expectation shall not be cut off." But, further, that conviction of the afterward opens up for us a condition in which imagination is surpassed by the wondrous reality. Here, I suppose, nobody ever had all the satisfaction out of a fulfilled hope that he expected. The fish is always a great deal larger and heavier when we see it in the water than when it is lifted out and scaled. But there does come a time, if you believe that there is an afterwards, when all we desired and painted to ourselves of possible good for our craving spirits shall be felt to be but a pale reflex of the reality, like the light of some unrisen sun on the snowfields, and we shall have to say "the half was not told to us."

III. And now, finally, notice THE BEARING OF ALL THIS ON THE DAILY PRESENT. "Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long." Why, if there were no future, it would be just as wise, just as blessed, just as incumbent upon us to "be in the fear of the Lord all the day long." But, seeing that there is that future, and seeing that only in it will hope rise to fruition, and yet subsist as longing, surely there comes to us a solemn appeal to "be in the fear of the Lord all the day long," which, being turned into Christian language, is to live by habitual faith, in communion with, and love and obedience to, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Surely, surely the very climax of folly is shutting the eyes to that future that we all have to face, and to live here ignoring it and God, and cribbing, cabining, and confining all our thoughts within the narrow limits of the things present and visible. "Surely there is an afterwards," and if thou wilt "be in the fear of the Lord all the day long," then for evermore "thy hope shall not be cut off."

(A. Maclaren, D.D.)

---

---

KJV: For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

WEB: Indeed surely there is a future hope, and your hope will not be cut off.