1. We are to approach " with a true heart." Literally trans- lated, the words mean : " With a heart answering to the ideal " ; that is to say, in the excellent words of Bishop Westcott, " a heart which fulfils the ideal office of the heart, the seat of the individual character, towards God." The question thus comes to be, What sort of heart is that which realizes the ideal of worship, offering eloquent worship, blessing God with all that is within ? An undivided, sincere heart, doubtless, but always something more. Besides sincerity there must be gladness, the gladness that is possible when men worship a God whom they can utterly trust and love. Along with this gladness begotten of faith go enthusiasm, generous self-abandonment, spontaneous service, rendered not slavishly, in mechanical compliance with rigid rules, but in the free spirit of sonship, the heart obeying no law but its own devoted impulses.
1 W. H. Griffith Thomas.
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HEBREWS X. 19-22 401
^ The pure in heart shall see the truth, means that — given equal data, and the same intellectual advantage — the morally- better man will strike the truth more nearly, will be more happy in his guesses and ventures, since he is more in harmony with reality, more subtly responsive to its hints. Not only the mind but the whole soul is the organ of truth. He who, in his inward and outward life, puts Christ before all, even before his own life and the objects of his deepest affection, thereby admits His God- head with a conviction more vital than any of which the bare intellect is capable. It is from the whole soul, and not from the surface of the mind alone, that we must answer the question, •' What think ye of Christ ? Whose son is He ? " 1
2. Further, we are to draw near " in fulness (or, as the A.V. has it, " in full assurance ") of faith," that is, being fully assured that the way of " access to God " for sinful men has been opened up ; that God has solved His own problem ; and that in Christ, His representative and ours, the Son of God and Son of man, it stands a completed work, with its gate on this side the veil, for us as for Him — the cross ; and, through the veil, its goal — the cross crowned in glory. Assui-ed of this, let us draw near, none daring to make us afraid ; for should any arrest our course, and demand our right to enter within " the holiest," we can point them to the way, and to our hearts, sprinkled with the blood of Him who in our nature and in our name is set over the house of God. " Eor both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one : for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren." Without, on this side the veil, we carry the same right of entrance as that by which He reigns within.
^ By the words " full assurance of faith " we are not to under- stand a full assurance of our possessing faith, an assurance of our being already in a gracious state — although that is attainable just in this way of approach, and maintainable in the due, humble believing use of the means which God hath appointed for the attaining and maintaining of it — but the full assurance or the plenitude of faith that we have a right of access. If we would wish the full assurance that we have faith I know no better way, I know no other way, of obtaining it than by the full assurance that lies in direct believing what God testifies — direct believing, accepting, and resting on what God gives and lays before us as a ground of sure hope. Let us beware of all suspicions, evil
^ George Tyrrell, Oil and Wine. I THESS.-HEB. — 26
402 THE WAY OF ACCESS
surmisings, and doubtings. Not but that there are saints coming in with many such incongruities; but let believers know that whilst they complain of it as their calamity — and no doubt it is, and we ought to sympathize with them — yet it is their sin. God has a right to a full, an undoubting, unhesitating faith.^
3. Then we are to come with " our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience," which is synonymous with the conscience purged from dead works (ix. 14). The state described is that of a heart or a conscience which has experienced the full effect of Christ's sacrifice, taken in all the latitude assigned to it in a previous chapter, as embracing the pardon of sin, moral renewal, and deliverance from the dominion of a legal spirit. It is not so easy to decide what precisely is signified by the body " washed with pure water." The meaning is plain in reference to the Levitical type, but what is the corresponding fact in the spiritual sphere ? The common reply to the question is. Christian baptism. The suggestion is tempting, and even not altogether destitute of probability ; and yet one cannot help feeling that, if baptism had been in the writer's mind, it would have been easy and natural for him to have indicated his thought by the addition of a word. It is doubtful if this final specification serves any purpose beyond expressing the thoroughness of the cleansing process undergone by a Christian man who surrenders himself completely to the redeeming influence of Christ. The whole man, body, soul, and spirit, becomes purified, consecrated, transfigured, a veritable king and priest of God.