You can't quit reading St Paul too soon, you can quit reading before you get to the end, or you will be very unhappy, and Angry. But you will have missed something—the point of it. You will be mislead and deceived. He does go on and on. But if you don't go on with him, to his conclusion, you will not want to go on at all, in life. Just look at today's Epistle. "Now suffering produce endurance". yeah, great, jus what I want. Endurance. Endurance in my miserable suffering—that makes it all better, that makes me want to live and be at peace and content. No, it makes me want to close the bible. and check out some New Age music that tells me I am great, and the suffering is all an illusion I can shed in an hour, and after a donation. But let Paul finish, stay with him, stick with him, suffer with him, endure with him and you will be happy and at peace and content. "Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character". Good, great, noble, worthy!!! I got enough character to last the rest of my remaining life. What I need is some happiness and joy and a sense of well-being. Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character—don't stop, "Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character—and character produces hope". There you are. Thanks be to God. That is what I want and need to continue.Continue with Paul to the end, and you will then continue living life and feeling it is worthwhile and be happy, regardless of that suffering that introduced all of this. Hope. But Hope is a rascal, isn't it—possibly misplaced or at least misapplied sometimes, an illusion sometimes, silly and sentimental often. Don't stop – this is Paul – plow on. His "hope" that he speaks of here, turns out not to be some meager hope that is wishful thinking, or hope that denies reality, or hope that wears a simpering smile, or hope that will finally let you down, or hope that was always stupidly misplaced. "Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character—and character produces hope". Remember the hymn: Lead on, O King Eternal? I say, well now, "Read on, O Christian pilgrim." "Suffering produces endurance, and endurances produces character—and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint". Yeah, if only. Be nice, wouldn't it? But true? "Hope does not disappoint", I wonder...Wait a minute: You can probably "stop thinkin' about tomorrow", but don't stop reading Paul. "Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character—and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint because God's love has been poured into our hearts, through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us". Ahhh. That kind of hope. I see. Not the wishful thinking, the unreal outlook, not the "oh, if only!" sort of minor, shiftless hope. But rather, hope that is there because God's love has been poured into our heats as a gift, and God's gifts are eternal. You see, that hope is not passing, or misplacef or a fantasy. That hope is real and eternal; Because it is of God and he is eternal, his love for us, and gifts to us, are eternal. And unchanging. OK, that kind of hope, hope from God, through the Holy Spirit. That I can count on. If suffering produces that, that hope, then I should and I can and I will rejoice in my suffering. Stay with Paul to the end, let him finish, and you will then begin—begin a new and perfect and happy and hope-filled life in God, when you read and realize and know in your heart and believe with all your soul, that there is this hope, this blessed, staffering hope that is nothing less than a gift to us, from God. It is true and lasting, and it will never disappoint. Bring on the suffering, we know full well, and believe with all our hearts what it produces: It "produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint because God's love has been poured into our hearts, through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us".