PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Hebrews
Edwards, Thomas Charles · 78,874 words · 111 reading sections
_Faith An Assurance And A Proof._
[211] Chaps. ii. 1-5; iii. 1, 6; iv. 11, 16; vi. [212] Chap. x. 19. [213] =meta alêthinês kardias= (x. 22). [214] =megan= (x. 21). [215] =apo syneidêseôs ponêras= (x. 22). [216] Lev. viii. 6, 30. [217] Eph. v. 26. [218] Chap. iii. 1. [219] =eis paroxysmon= (x. 24). [220] =ethos= (x. 25). [221] Matt. xxiv. 27.…
1,023 wordsSECTION 62_Faith An Assurance And A Proof._
Our author addresses men whose spiritual life was thus imperilled. Their condition is not that of the heathen world in its agony of despair. He does not call his readers, in the words of St. Paul to the jailer at Philippi, to trust themselves into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, that they may be saved. Yet he too i…
650 wordsSECTION 63_Faith An Assurance And A Proof._
_First_, we trust our own moral instincts. Malebranche observes that our passions justify themselves. How much more is this true of intellect and conscience! In like manner, some men have firm confidence in a world of spiritual realities, which eye has not seen. This confidence is itself a proof to them. How do I know …
719 wordsSECTION 64_Faith An Assurance And A Proof._
The somewhat peculiar form of the clause seems certainly to suggest that the Apostle ascribes the origin of the universe, not only to a personal Creator, but to that personal Creator acting through the ideas of His own mind. "The visible came into being, not out of things that appear." We catch ourselves waiting till h…
322 wordsSECTION 65_The Faith Of Abraham._
[246] Chap. iii. 12. [247] Chaps. iii. 19; iv. 11. [248] Chap. vi. 12. [249] Chap. x. 19. [250] 2 Cor. iii. 17; 1 Cor. ii. 16. [251] James ii. 17, 18. [252] =parrêsia=. [253] =plêrophoria=. [254] =hypostasis=. [255] =elenchos=. [256] Gen. i. 1, 3. [257] As if =mê ek phainomenôn= were for =ek mê phainomenôn=.…
665 wordsSECTION 66_The Faith Of Abraham._
Two points of surpassing worth in his faith suggest themselves. The one is largeness and variety of experience; the other is conquest over difficulties. These are the constituents of a great saint. Many a good man will not become a strong spiritual character because his experience of life is too narrow. Others, whose r…
650 wordsSECTION 67_The Faith Of Abraham._
His faith, thus sorely tried by God's long delay, is rewarded, not with an external fulfilment of the promise, but with larger hopes, wider range of vision, greater strength to endure, more vivid realisation of the unseen. "He looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose Architect and Maker is God."[262] In th…
718 wordsSECTION 68_The Faith Of Abraham._
Compare this faith with Abraham's. "These,"--Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,--"all _died_ in faith," or, as we may render the word, "according to faith,"--according to the faith which they had exhibited in their life. Their death was after the same pattern of faith. Enoch's contemplative life came to a fitting end in a deathles…
686 wordsSECTION 69_The Faith Of Abraham._
_Third_, the faith of Abraham is compared with the faith of Abel. In the case of Abel faith is more than a realisation of the unseen. For Cain also believed in the existence of an invisible Power, and offered sacrifice. We are expressly told in the narrative[271] that "Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offerin…
921 wordsSECTION 70_The Faith Of Abraham._
But let us once more repeat that the greatest faith of all is to believe, with Abel, that God is righteous, and yet to believe, with Abraham, that God can justify His own seeming unrighteousness, and also to believe, with the saints of Christianity, that the test which God imposed on Abraham will nevermore be tried, be…
511 wordsSECTION 71_The Faith Of Moses._
[258] 1 Peter iii. 20. [259] Chap. xi 8. [260] Chap. xi. 9. [261] Acts vii. 5. [262] Chap. xi. 10. [263] Rev. xxi. 10. [264] =technitês=. [265] =dêmiourgos=. [266] =aspasamenoi= (xi. 13). [267] Chap. xi. 14. [268] =xenoi kai parepidêmoi=. [269] =patrida=. [270] Chaps. xi. 16; ii. 11. [271] Gen. iv. 3. [27…
876 wordsSECTION 72_The Faith Of Moses._
The notable difference between the Moses of New Testament times and the Moses delineated in the ancient narrative renders it especially interesting to study a passage in which the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews takes us back to the living man, and describes the attitude of Moses himself towards Jesus Christ. Step…
651 wordsSECTION 73_The Faith Of Moses._
3. Faith is a discipline of the man for the work of life. 4. Faith renders the man's life and work sacramental. 1. The initial stage in forming the servant of God is always the same,--a vague, restless, eager groping in the dark, a putting forth feelers for the light of revelation. This is often a time of childish mi…
654 wordsSECTION 74_The Faith Of Moses._
2. Faith chooses the work of life. The Apostle has spoken of the faith that induced the parents of Moses to hide their child three months. Some theologians have set much value on what they term "an implicit faith." The faith of Moses himself would be said by them to be "enwrapped" in that of his parents. Whatever we ma…
739 wordsSECTION 75_The Faith Of Moses._
Do we seek the motives that determined his choice? The Apostle mentions two, and they are really two sides of the same conception. _First_, he chose to be evil-entreated with the people of God. The work of his life was to create a spiritual nation. This idea had already been presented to his mind before he refused to …
716 wordsSECTION 76_The Faith Of Moses._
As the crisis in his own spiritual life fitted him to be the leader of a great national movement, so also his conception of that movement became a help to him to overcome the sinful temptations of Egypt. He saw that the pleasures of sin were but for a season. It is easy to supply the other side of this thought. The joy…
652 wordsSECTION 77_The Faith Of Moses._
The lesson taught to the Hebrew Christians by the decision of Moses is loyalty to truth and loyalty to Jesus Christ. 3. Faith is a discipline for the work of life. Moses has made his final choice. Conscience is thoroughly awake, and eager aspirations fill his soul. But he is not yet strong. Men of large ideas are ofte…
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4. Faith renders the work of life sacramental. The long period of discipline has drawn to a close. The self-confidence of Moses has been fully subdued. "He supposed that his brethren understood how that God by his hand was giving them deliverance." These, says Stephen, were his thoughts before he fled from Egypt. Very …
731 wordsSECTION 79_A Cloud Of Witnesses._
[281] John i. 17. [282] Acts vii. 37. [283] John v. 46. [284] Exod. ii. 2; Acts vii. 20. [285] Acts vii. 22. [286] Exod. ii. 11. [287] After penning the above the writer of these pages saw that, in his view of the purpose of the sojourn in Midian, he had been anticipated by Kurtz (_History of the Old Covenant_). …
757 wordsSECTION 80_A Cloud Of Witnesses._
"By faith the walls of Jericho fell down."[291] When the Israelites had crossed Jordan and eaten of the old corn of the land, the manna ceased. The period of continued miracle came to an end. Henceforth they would smite their enemies with their armed thousands. But one signal miracle the Lord would yet perform in the s…
896 wordsSECTION 81_A Cloud Of Witnesses._
All these sturdy men of faith have had witness borne to them in Scripture. This honour they won from time to time, as the Spirit of Christ, which was in the prophets, saw fit to encourage the people of God on earth by their example. Are we forbidden to suppose that this witness to their faith gladdened their own glorif…
654 wordsSECTION 82_A Cloud Of Witnesses._
But the author adds another thought. Through the exercise of the better faith by us, the fathers also enter with us into the holiest place. "Apart from us they could not be made perfect." The priestly consecration becomes theirs through us. Such is the unity of the Church, and such the power of faith, that those who co…
376 wordsSECTION 83_Conflict._
[289] =hekaston= (xi. 21). [290] Gen. xlvii. 31. [291] Chap. xi. 30. [292] Chap. xi. 31. [293] Ruth i. 16. [294] Matt. i. 5. [295] Judges iv. and v. [296] Judges vii. 18. [297] Judges xi. 35. [298] Judges xiii. 7; xvi. 28. [299] Robertson, _History of the Christian Church_, book ii., chap. vii. [300] Chap. x…
889 wordsSECTION 84_Conflict._
In the twelfth chapter the two aspects of faith exemplified in the saints of the Old Testament are urged on the Hebrew Christians. Now practically for the first time in the Epistle the writer addresses himself to the difficulties and discouragements of a state of conflict. In the earlier chapters he exhorted his reader…
870 wordsSECTION 85_Conflict._
Then comes the actual contest. Our author says "contest."[337] For the conflict is against evil men. Yet it is, in a true and vital sense, not a contest of the kind which the word naturally suggests. Here the effort is not to be first at the goal. We run the race "through endurance." Mental suffering is of the essence …
768 wordsSECTION 86_Conflict._
Even in the gainsaying of men there was an element which He did not despise, but endured. He understood that their gainsaying was against themselves.[343] It would end, not merely in putting Him to an open shame, but in their own destruction. This caused keen suffering to His holy and loving spirit. But He endured it, …
667 wordsSECTION 87_Conflict._
Furthermore, the fathers of our bodies kept us under discipline, and we not only submitted, but even gave them reverence, though their discipline was not intended to have effect for more than the few days of our pupilage, and though in that short time they were liable to error in their treatment of us. How much more sh…
1,130 wordsSECTION 88_Mount Zion._
[329] =hypomonê= (x. 36). [330] Chap. xii. 14. [331] Chap. xiii. 13. [332] Chap. iv. 3. [333] Chap. ix. 15. [334] Chap. x. 19. [335] =onkon= (xii. 1). [336] =euperistaton=. [337] =agôna=. [338] Chap. xii. 2. [339] =archêgon= (ii. 10). [340] =teteleiôken= (x. 14). [341] =prodromos= (vi. 20). [342] =teteleiô…
767 wordsSECTION 89_Mount Zion._
Our author began with the fact of a revelation of God in a Son. But a thoughtful reader will not fail to have observed that this great subject seldom comes to the front in the course of the argument. Reading the Epistle, we seem for a time to forget the thought of a revelation given in the Son. Our minds are mastered b…
789 wordsSECTION 90_Mount Zion._
From this essential difference in the nature of the revelations a twofold contrast is apparent in the phenomena of Sinai and Zion. Sinai revealed the terrible side of God's character, Zion the peaceful tenderness of His love. The revelation on Sinai was earthly; that on Zion is spiritual. There can be no question that…
692 wordsSECTION 91_Mount Zion._
If we turn to the other picture, we at once perceive that the thoughts radiate from the holiest place as from a centre. The passage is, in fact, an expansion of what is said in the ninth chapter, that Christ has entered in once for all into the holiest place, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle. The holiest…
1,275 wordsSECTION 92_Mount Zion._
The author's thoughts glide almost imperceptibly into another channel. We can refuse Him that speaketh, and turn away from Him in unbelief. But let us beware. It is the final revelation. His voice on Sinai shook the earth. The meaning is not that it terrified the people. The writer has passed from that thought. He now …
685 wordsSECTION 93Footnotes:
Let us therefore accept the kingdom. But beware of your peculiar danger, which is self-righteous pride, worldliness, and the evil heart of unbelief. Rather let us seek and get that grace from God which will make our royal state a humble service of worshipping priests.[384] The grace which the Apostle exhorts his reader…
295 wordsSECTION 94_Sundry Exhortations._
HEBREWS xiii. Let love of the brethren continue. Forget not to shew love unto strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; them that are evil entreated, as being yourselves also in the body. Let marriage be had in honour among all, and let the b…
808 wordsSECTION 95_Sundry Exhortations._
The constant going and coming of missionary brethren reminds the author of the ministry of angels, who are like the swift breezes, and carry Christ's messages over the face of the earth.[391] Sometimes they are as a flame of fire. When they were on their way to destroy the Cities of the Plain, Abraham and Lot entertain…
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It is well, as St. Paul said, for every man to be fully assured in his own mind.[399] A doubting conscience enfeebles a man's spiritual vigour for work. The Essenes found a remedy for morbidness in strictness as to meats and minute directions for the employment of time. St. Paul taught that an unhealthy casuistry would…
698 wordsSECTION 97_Sundry Exhortations._
The other interpretation is that we, Christians, have an altar of which we who serve the ideal tabernacle have no right to eat, inasmuch as the sacrifice is spiritual. "Our Christian altar supplies no flesh for carnal food."[410] But if the reference is to carnal food, the expression "We have no _right_ to eat" is not …
668 wordsSECTION 98_Sundry Exhortations._
The Apostle next exhorts them to obey their leaders, and that with yielding submission. The atmosphere is certainly different from the democratic spirit of the Corinthian Church. Yet it is not improbable that the safety of the Hebrew Christians everywhere from a violent reaction towards Judaism was due to the wisdom an…
657 wordsSECTION 99Footnotes:
He hopes to bring Timothy with him, unless his friend tarries long. In that case he will come alone, so great is his anxiety to see them. He sends his greetings to all the saints, but mentions the leaders. Brethren who have come from Italy are with him. They may have been exiles or fugitives who had sought safety duri…
278 wordsSECTION 100Index.
_The numerals refer to the pages._ Aaron, consecration of, 185; priesthood of, 79, 128. Abel's faith, 223. Abraham, faith of, 213; God's oath to, 101; promise made to, 9; seed of, 45. Adam, 220; the second, 36. Agnostics, 235. Acquittal of Christ, 168. Alaric, 272. Allegory of Melchizedek, 113. Altar, 323…
652 wordsSECTION 101Index.
Heaven, a sanctuary, 70; purification of, 163; a city, 218. Hebrew conception of God, 21. Heir, Christ the, 8. Herod, deification of, 96. Heroes of religion, 234. High-priest, the great, 69. High-priest, the, an embodiment of the old covenant, 69. Hofmann on Christ's humiliation, 44. Holiest place, the, 150 _…
655 wordsSECTION 102Index.
Priesthood, the foundation of Christ's power, 43; of Christ on earth, 169. Priest-King, the Son as, 17. Probation after death, 167. Progress, moral, 86. Promise, implies a threatening, 58; and oath of God, 104. Prophecy, in what respects defective, 5. Prophets, as preachers, 147; received their message through…
574 wordsSECTION 103Fifth Series, 1891-2.
_Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. 6d. each vol._ Colossians. By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D. St. Mark. By the Right Rev. the Bishop of Derry. Genesis. By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D. 1 Samuel. By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D. 2 Samuel. By the same Author. Hebrews. By Principal T. C. EDWARDS, D.D. Galatians. By Prof. G. G…
315 wordsSECTION 104Notices Of The Press.
1 Kings. By the Very Rev. the Dean of Canterbury. Philippians. By Principal RAINY, D.D. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. By Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A. Joshua. By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D. The Psalms. By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. II. The Epistles of St. Peter, By Prof. RAWSON LUMBY, D.D. 2 Kings. By the Very Rev…
745 wordsSECTION 105Outlines Of Christian Doctrine.
In the "Expositor's Bible" Series. _Seventh Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth 7s. 6d._ "Mr. Moule has made a very careful study of Paul's great doctrinal Epistle, and has entered thoroughly into its spirit."--_Scotsman._ "We do not hesitate to place it in the very front of the little group of volumes which are the best exam…
263 wordsSECTION 106London: Hodder & Stoughton. 27, Paternoster Row.
Editor of "The Expositor," etc. THE RECORD says:-- "_Few series of volumes gives us so much pleasure to review as the 'Expositor's Bible.' We never open a volume without expecting to find in it much that is inspiriting and much that is suggestive, and we are never disappointed. We have no hesitation in advising any C…
651 wordsSECTION 107London: Hodder & Stoughton. 27, Paternoster Row.
By the *Rev. Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, D.D.*, Headingley College, Leeds. "In this volume we have the mature results of broad and accurate scholarship, exegetical tact, and a firm grasp of the great principles underlying the Gospel of Paul presented in a form so lucid and attractive that every thoughtful reader can enjoy…
652 wordsSECTION 108London: Hodder & Stoughton. 27, Paternoster Row.
"Marked by sound exegesis, common sense, and a devotional spirit."--_Record._ "Every part of the book is replete with instruction and interest, and a unity of thought and purpose pervades it all."--_Glasgow Herald._ *The Gospel of St. Matthew* By the *Rev. J. MONRO GIBSON, D.D.*, Author of "The Ages before Moses,…
658 wordsSECTION 109London: Hodder & Stoughton. 27, Paternoster Row.
*The Epistles to the Thessalonians* By the *Rev. Prof. JAMES DENNEY, D.D.* "As an expositor we are able to say that Mr. Denney seems to have entered very fully into the spirit of the Apostle Paul, and to have succeeded in expressing very clearly, and impressing very forcibly, the general meaning of the Apostle's w…
651 wordsSECTION 110London: Hodder & Stoughton. 27, Paternoster Row.
"We have no hesitation in saying that for every-day working purposes expositors of the Book of Joshua will find this volume more helpful than many more critical and modernised works.... His expositions are usually fresh and interesting, and there is an eye for the practical in all he writes."--_Glasgow Herald._ *T…
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.