The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 42

a.nd convey the emancipated spirit to its hea'Venly rest. " Lazarus . . . was carried by the angels into .Abraham's bosom." (3) They are commissioned by God for this service. He appoints to each one his sphere of ministry; and by him they are " sent forth•• to fulfil their commissions. "Oh, th' exceeding grace Of highest God that loves his crcatuxes so, .And all his works with mercy doth embrace, That blessed angels he sends to and fro, To serve to wicked man, to serve his wicked fol. "How oft do they their silver bowers leave, To come to succoux us that succour want I How oft do they with golden pinions cleave The flitting skies, like flying puxsuivant, Against foul fiends to aid us militant I They for us fight, and watch, and dnly ward, And their bright squadrons round about us plant: And all for love, and nothing for reward. Oh, why shonld heavenly God to men have such regard?" (Spenser.) OoNOLUBIOB', Learn: 1. PM dignity of the CJhriatlan. .Angels minister Wlto him. God cares for him; for he sends forth the angels to promote his interests. 2. Tlw dignity of service. .Angels, the highest orders of created beings, serve God by minis- tering unto little children, distressed Christians, and afflicted saints. 3. The supreTM dignity of the &n of God. He " came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many;" and now he "is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him." Well does Dr. J. H. Newman say, "When we aurvey Almighty God surrounded by his holy angels, his thousand thousands of ministering spirits, and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before him, the idea of his awful majesty rises before us more powerfully and impressively. We begin to see how little we are, how altogether mean and worthless in ourselves, and how high he is and fearful. The very lowest of his angels is indefinitely above us in this our present state; how high, then, must oo the Lord of angels I The very seraphim hide their faces before his glory, while they praise him; how shamefaced, then, should sinners be when they come into hill presence l"-W. J. Vers. 1, 2.-7'M two Testament, a progruslt18 revelation of God. These verses form the key-note of the Epistle, The Hebrew Christians were being cast out from Jewish worship and fellowship. To be excluded from the temple, the centre of national Wlity, the home of the people to whom pertained "the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the promises, o.nd the fathers,., was to be reduced to the level of the uncovenanted Gentiles. The writer encourages them in their trial by exhibiting the far greater glory of him to whom they had come than that they had been called to leave. Moreover, the old dispensation was hastening to its end; Judaism was dying out; the temple-worship was about to cease. The writer foretells this in prophetic symbolism (eh. xii. 26, 27). Thus he seems to stand on the ruins of an old world. But the Epistle is to show a new world rising from its ashes-the first done o.way that the second may be established. The stars are fading, but only because the sun has risen; the types are cast aside, but because the reality ha:i come. Priest and sacrifice, altar and temple, national greatness and sacred lineage,-they are all going. "Let them go," says he," for in their place has appeared with unspeakable glory the great fulfilment of them all-the Lord Jesus, who abideth for ever." That is the substance of the Epistle-the glory of the old economy fulfilled and surpassed in Christ. The subsequent chapters are but "a prolonged echo of this opening strain." The subject of these words is-The two Testaments a progres,ive revelation of God. I. THEY TEACH THAT IN HoLY Scnll'Tumi: Goo HAS SPOKEN TO MAN. "He spake . . . he bath spoken." We might expect God to speak b«aWII a revelation is 1UCessary. The world needs God, perishes without him, cries out after him. The world 08D.Dlllt  32 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [cH. I, 1-14,