Then, when he has, by brief, pregnant phrase, hinted the thoughts he means to prove, the writer proceeds to address to his readers an exhortation, which is repeated at the close of the long discussion on the priesthood of Christ, to which these sentences are the prelude. In doing so, he gives prominence to that feature of Christ's priestly character of which alone he has as yet spoken explicitly — His power to sympathize, acquired and guaranteed by His experience of temptation. He presents Christ to view as the Sympathetic One in golden words which may be regarded as an inscription on the breast-plate of the High Priest of humanity. To this strong assertion of Christ's power to sympathize is fitly
I THESS.-HEE. 2 2
33^ THE THRONE OF GRACE
appended the final exhortation : " Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and grace for seasonable succour."
I.
Confidence of Approach.
" Let us draw near with boldness."
1. The word " boldness " is somewhat incongruous ; it neither conveys the original nor does it correspond to our sense of propriety. The thought would be far more beautifully and far more naturally represented by a more literal translation — "Let us come with frank confidence" to the throne of grace. The word literally means, if we go to the etymology of it, " speaking everything." You can easily understand how naturally that becomes an expression for the unembarrassed, unrestrained, full outpouring of a heart. You cannot pour out your heart in the fullest confidence to a person you do not respect, but if you are with some one you entirely trust, how swiftly the words flow, and how very easy it is to tell out the whole heart. Just so with this great word of the writer of this Epistle, descriptive of the temper and disposition with which men are to go to God — with confidence, full, cheerful, and unembarrassed, and expressing itself in full trust, exactly as we have it in one of the Psalms : " Ye people, pour out your heart before him." Yes, let it all flow out, just as you would do to husband or wife, or lover or friend, or the chosen companion to whom you can tell everything.
2. We need not, however, discard the familiar word " boldness"; it is enough if we know what kind of boldness it is. Not the boldness of presumption ; for if we would " serve God acceptably " it must be " with reverence and godly fear." Not the boldness of self-will ; but ever praying — " Father, Thy will." Not the boldness of self- merit ; but saying, with Daniel, " "We do not present our supplica- tions before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies." It is the boldness of reliance on God's own nature and promise. He has bidden us pray, assured response, and promised help. He means what He says. So we may come with reliance,
HEBREWS IV. i6 339
though with reverence ; with earnestness, though with submission ; with confidence, though with penitence ; with the boldness of a child telling all its griefs and wants to a pitying parent — the boldness Jesus encouraged in the parable of the importunate widow, and rewarded in the case of the Syrophenician mother.
^ Prayer in the fullest sense — the prayer that is wrought in us by the Spirit and presented by the Christ of God ; prayer that wins the King's ear — is the last triumph of the life of grace. Prayer in the noblest sense implies a concentration of all man's united energies. Coleridge shortly before his death said these words to a friend who has recorded them : "I do not account a solemn faith in God as a real object to be the most arduous act of the reason and the will. Oh, no, my dear sir, it is to pray with all my heart and strength, with the reason and with the will, to believe that God will listen to your voice through Christ, and verily do the thing He pleaseth thereupon. This is the last, the greatest achievement of the Christian's warfare on earth. ' Teach us to pray, 0 Lord.' Here he burst into a flood of tears, and begged me to pray for him." The highest energy the human heart is capable of is to pray, like St, Paul, with the spirit and the understanding. But few may reach this victory, and it is deeply consoling to remember that it is a Throne of Grace before which we kneel, and that though our prayers may be marred and faultf ul, yet our Mediator interprets them in the ears of our loving Father, while the Spirit helps our infirmities and gives life and power to the failing, dying heart.^
^ To come boldly, it is to come frequently. At morning, at noon, and at night will I pray. We use to count them bold beggars that come often to our door. To come boldly, it is to ask for great things when we come. That is the bold beggar, that will not only ask, but also choose the thing that he asketh.^
11.
The Theone of Geace.
**Let us draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace."