In the second examination the Pilgrim has to define “Hope”. His answer is:
“Hope is sure expectancy of future bliss
to be inherited – the holy fruit
of the Divine’s own grace and man’s precedent worth.”
He then says it came to him from David the Psalmist:
“he who first instilled it in my heart
was highest singer of the Highest Lord”
And the promise the Pilgrim’s Hope gives to his soul is:
“The Old and the New Testaments
define the goal – which points me to the promise
of those souls that Our Lord has made His friends.
Isaiah testifies that every man
in his homeland shall wear a double raiment,
and his homeland is this sweet life of bliss”
Meaning the Unity of Body and Soul in Heaven.
