'prisoners of hope"

"We Believe" by Francis B. Sayre

In this faithless and materialistic age, those who believe in Christ's way of life must rekindle and strengthen their faith. We live in an age beset with discouragement and despair. The Christian cannot despair. We Christians are prisoners of hope.

We believe that the last word lies with God.

We believe, as Christ believed, that God is the supreme goodness. And we also dare to believe with Christ that God is supreme power. Therefore, we dare to believe in the ultimate and inevitable triumph of goodness.

Those who respond to God's advance by obedience and trust form the society of His children. To that society its members owe an allegiance above every other allegiance. By it all other loyalties are conditioned. Membership in the church of Christ demands specific action in life here and now.

For Christianity is not a dream. It is God's revelation of the only way of life that is finally practical, the only way that can satisfy the insistent needs of human nature. Above all else Christ was a realist. His way actually works. It solves and it heals. Such is the testimony of millions who have tried it. The world cannot function effectively until we learn to put Christ at the center of our lives.

[Ed note: Circa 1938. These paragraphs exist as a carbon copy typed on Jesse Halsey's personal 7th Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati stationery.  Generationally, it would seem the author is this Francis B. Sayre, although from an occupational standpoint the writing seems more aptly attributed to his son, the Very Rev. Francis B. Sayre, Jr. Authorship unresolved.]