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secret path is the path of increased toil and dizzy climbing. The man who, while putting forth all his mental energy, wishes to find rest to his soul, must fight ten where the other fights only one. But with this difference, that he is sure to ivin. This is true. I believe some men have as truly vanquished fame, as others covetousness or pleasure. One is as hard as the other. One is as easy as the other. Eeligion can so lift a man up that the rain and floods can't shake his house. But even so much religion won't give a man leisure, though it gives him peace. The world can't understand the believer's life. With a worldling " drive " is either distraction or pain or oblivion. Not so with the believer. He may be " pressed out of measure beyond strength," but he is at rest. " Ye shall find rest unto your souls." ^
III.
The Rest that Christ Realized.
1. Among the exegetes there is a division whether verse 10 is to be understood generically: "Whosoever has entered into his rest has ceased from his works," or specifically of Christ : " He who entered upon God's rest, Himself entered upon rest from His own works." Note (1) the definite phrase, "He who entered" (not as E.V., " he that is entered ") ; (2) the emphatic pronoun, " Himself " ; (3) the historic tense, " entered upon rest " (not as E.V., " hath rested ") ; (4) the implied contrast with Joshua (v. 8) ; (5) that otherwise there is no mention of Jesus' experience or achievements between ch. iii. 1 and ch. iv. 14 ; and (6) that other- wise read the verse offers no logical support to verse 9, but interpreted thus supplies the ground on which the sabbath-rest is offered to Christ's followers. For these reasons it seems better to read the verse as stating that, just as after His work of creating the world was finished God rested from creative activity, so now that His work of redeeming the race is completed Jesus rests from redemptive activity.
After the creative act there came the Sabbath, when God
ceased from His work, and pronounced it very good ; so, after the
redemptive act, there came the Sabbath to the Eedeemer. He
lay, during the seventh day, in the grave of Joseph, not because
^ Letters of James Smetham, 166.
HEBREWS IV. 9, lo 327
He was exhausted or inactive, but because redemption was finished, and there was no more for Him to do. He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High ; and that majestic session is a symptom neither of fatigue nor of indolence. He ever liveth to make intercession ; He works with His servants, confirming their words with signs ; He walks amid the seven golden candle- sticks. And yet He rests as a man may rest who has arisen from his ordinary life to effect some great deed of emancipation and deliverance ; but having accomplished it, returns again to the ordinary routine of his former life, glad and satisfied in His heart.
2. The rest that Jesus realized was not for Himself alone, but for all who are identified with Him in mystic fellowship. He opened the way to all believers into that rest which the genera- tions struggled after. He could stretch forth His hands and say, " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." It is this that distinguishes Christ among the teachers, philanthropists, and deliverers of the ages, that He gives men the blessings of life and rest which they need, rather than endless " prescriptions " as to how such are to be obtained. In other words, He offered them His own life and peace ; and thus, by making them partakers of His Divine nature and subjects of His law, He taught them to be like Himself, meek and lowly in heart, and thus to find perfect rest unto their souls. Restlessness was the direct penalty of separation from God in the first place ; rest is the direct outcome of re-union with God in the person of Jesus Christ.
^ Yet let us draw a little nearer, and see more immediately from the pure fountain of the Scriptures what further excellences this Eest affordeth. And the Lord hide us in the clefts of the rock, and cover us with the hands of indulgent grace while we approach to take this view ! And the Lord grant we may put off from our feet the shoes of unreverence and fleshly conceivino-s, while we stand upon this holy ground ! And first, it is a most singular honour and ornament, in the style of the saints' rest, to be called the " purchased possession " ; that it is the fruit of the blood of the Son of God ; yea, the chief fruit : yea, the end and perfection of all the fruits and efficacy of that blood. Surely love is the most precious ingredient in the whole composition ; and of
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all the flowers that grow in the garden of love, can there be brought one more sweet and beautiful to the garland, than this blood ? Greater love than this there is not, to lay down the life of the lover. And to have this our Eedeemer ever before our eyes, and the liveliest sense and freshest remembrance of that dying, bleeding love still upon our souls, oh, how will it fill our souls with perpetual ravishments!^