STEADFASTNESS AND ACTIVITY IN GOD's SERVICE INCULCATED.
Heb. X. 23 — 25. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; {for he is faithful that promised ;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
CHRISTIANS in general do not sufficiently ad- vert to Christian principles as a ground of action. Whilst they acknowledge their obligation to serve God, they lose sight of those considerations which alone can render his yoke easy, and his burthen light. They bear in mind that Christ offered himself a sacrifice for sin ; but they forget, that his priestly office, which was but in part executed on earth, is still carrying on in heaven. Were this duly contem- plated, it would afford a stimulus to exertion which nothing else can give. In the fourth chapter of this epistle, the Apostle urges it as a motive to stead- fastness in our most holy profession : " Seeing then that we have a great High-priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession^" In the passage before us he repeats the same glorious truth, and grounds upon it, not only the same exhortation, but an exhortation to various other duties connected with it. What these
a Heb. iv. 14. VOL. XIX. Z
duties are, it is my intention at this time to point out.
Consider then,
I. Our duty as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ •* —
It is our duty to profess openly our faith and hope in the Lord Jesus Christ —
[We are not to be contented with exercising faith in him as our Saviour : we must confess him also before men : for, if " with the heart we believe unto righteousness, it is with the mouth that confession must be made unto salvation •=." But,]
This profession we must " hold fast without waver- ing"—
[The more we make our light to shine before men, the more will those who " love darkness, rather than light" oppose
us Nothing will be left untried to divert us from our
purpose. Persuasion, derision, menaces, will all be used in their turn : and all manner of influence will be brought to bear upon us, if by any means we may be prevailed upon to renounce what the world calls our enthusiasm and folly. But we must " hold fast our profession," whatever efforts be made to wrest it from us : we must hold it fast " without wavering." There must be no inclination of the mind towards the ways we have forsaken, or the society we have left : " We must forget our own people and our father's house, if we would that our heavenly Bridegroom should have pleasure in our beauty'^." We must " hate father and mother, and even our own lives," in comparison of Christ®. There must be in us a determination of heart to " follow the Lord fully," and at all events ; even though we be threatened with scourging and imprisonment, as the Apostles were*^; or with a cruel death, as were Daniel and the Hebrew Youths^. As for those vain reasonings by which men endeavour to justify their departure from God, they
must not be entertained for one moment Our whole
life and conversation should proclaim " whose we are, or whom we serve." We should be " shining as lights in the world ;" and be as " epistles of Christ, known and read of all men."]
Connected with our duty to Christ as his follow- ers, is,
IL Our duty as members of his mystical body —
^ Some copies read iXwilog instead of 7r/oT£a»e ; but they both amount to the same, hope being the oiFspring of faith.
= Rom. X. 10. 1 Ps. xlv. 10, 11. e Luke xiv. 26, 27.