4. Through Christ the heavenly rest is as sure as it is desirable. How dim, after all, was the conception of heaven among the prophets of the Old Testament, and how it seemed sometimes to meet, and sometimes to elude, the aspirations of the psalmist. But now the " sure and certain hope " of heaven is a commonplace of religion which every child can tell, and it is so
1 M. E. Grant Duff, Notes from a Diary, 1S92-95, i. 77.
2 CJiui'les Kingsley : Memorials and Letters, ii. 355.
HEBREWS IV. 9, lo 333
because we know of Christ in heaven in His true humanity, and we have His unmistakable promise, " I go to prepare a place for you." Surely this is enough. We cannot know what heaven is except as the perfection of that which we have upon earth. All that we need to know is that there shall be perfect peace — peace with self, peace with men, peace with God. If ever the human imagination has dared to go beyond this in painting heaven, either to the ear or to the eye, it has always materialized and de- graded the very conception of heaven itself. No, it is enough for us to know that heaven is perfect happiness because Christ is there ; and to know that in His many mansions He has a place for each one of us. In that foresight there is a wonderful rest amidst all the trials and the sorrows of life. It has given peace to the sufferer in the hour of his agony : to the penitent in the weari- ness of his struggle ; to the soul which is athirst for light in its darkness and for righteousness in the face of evil. Man, as I have said, can never rest in the present. His whole life here, we grant, is a series of hopes and disenchantments. But what matters that if there is a sure and certain hope in the hereafter ? and how can that hope fail if Christ in heaven is preparing a place for us ?
0 birds from out the east, 0 birds from out the west, Have you found that happy city in all your weary quest? Tell me, tell me, from earth's wanderings may the heart find
glad surcease. Can ye show me, as an earnest, any olive branch of peace ?
1 am weary of life's troubles, of its sin and toil and care,
I am faithless, crushing in my heart so many a fruitless
prayer, 0 birds from out the east, 0 birds from out the west. Can ye tell me of that city, the name of which is Eest ?
0 little birds fly east again — 0 little birds fly west : Ye have found no happy city in all your weary quest. Still shall ye find no spot of rest wherever ye may stray, And still like you the human soul must wing its weary way. There sleepeth no such city within the wide world's bound, Nor hath the dreaming fancy yet its blissful portals found. We are but children crying here upon a mother's breast. For life and peace and blessedness, and for eternal Eest.
334 THE SABBATH REST
Bless God, I hear a still small voice above life's clamorous
din Saying, "Faint not, 0 weary one, thou yet may'st enter in, That city is prepared for those who well do win the fight, Who tread the winepress till its blood hath washed their
garments white. Within it is no darkness, nor any baleful flower Shall there oppress thy weeping eyes with stupefying power, It lieth calm within the light of God's peace-giving breast, Its walks are called Salvation, the city's name is Kest."
The Throne of Grace.
33S
Literature.
Alexander (W. L.), Sermons, 286.
Bruce (A. B.), The Epistle to the Hebrews, 167.
Hall (Newman), Gethsemane, 201.
Jay (W.), Short Discourses, i, 139.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions : 2 Timotliy, etc., 333.
Meyer (F. B.), The Way into the Holiest, 81.
Moody (A.), The Message of Salvation, 111.
Murray (A.), The Holiest of All, 171.
Nicoll (W. R.), Sunday Evening, 339.
Robertson (F. W.), Sermons, i. 99.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xvii. (1871), No. 1024.
„ „ My Sermon Notes, iv. 330.
Walker (R.), Sermons on Practical Subjects, 219. Wilmot-Buxton (H. J.), Sunday Lessons for Daily Life, i. 398. American Pulpit of the Day, iii. 198 (0. Perinchief). Christian World Pulpit, xii. 92 (H. W. Beeclier) ; xxxiii. 229 (H. W. Beecher) ; liii. 412 (J. S. Maver).
336
The Throne of Grace.
Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of need. — Heb. iv. i6.
In the closing sentences of this chapter the writer winds up the long exhortation to steadfastness by an inspiring allusion to the sympathy of the great High Priest, who has passed out of this time-world, through the veil of the visible heavens, into the celestial-world ; and he takes care that his last word shall be of a cheering character, and also so manages that the conclusion of this hortatory section shall form a suitable introduction to the next part of his discourse. For the third time Christ is designated a High Priest and there are ascribed to Him, as such, attributes which are to form the theme of the next great division of the Epistle, wherein the priestly office of Christ is elaborately discussed. The writer re-invites the attention of his readers to the High Priest of their confession, and in doing so uses words every one of which contains an assertion which he means to prove or illustrate, and which being proved will serve the great end of the whole Epistle — the instruction and confirmation of the ignorant and tempted.