The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 63

the pleadings nod strivings of the Spirit. 2. The dignity of its forst Preacher. "At the first spoken through the Lord" (ver. 3). In eh. i. the writer has unfolde<l an<l illustrated from Scripture th? glory of Christ. He is greater than the prophets of the Old Testament, and more emment than the angels by whose ministrations the Sinai tic Law bad been proclaimed. He is the Son of God-his visible manifestation and his exact counterpart. He made and sustains and possesses the universe. He is not only the Prophet of the Church; he is its atoning Priest and its exalted King. And this first Preacher continues with the Church as its perennial Prophet. He speaks to us to-day and always by his Word and Spirit. 3. The attestations which it has received. (Vera. 3, 4.) The Church has the testimony of the apostles and early evangelists to the facts and doctrines of the gospel. These were even sealed from heaven by the miracles of Christ and his apostles, as well as by gifts from the fulness of the Spirit distributed among the early Christians. But we have now far greater witness than these. The highest evidence of the truth is the truth itself. The history of the Church has been an ever-cumulating aUestation of Chris\ianity. Myriads of believers have certified the gospel by their experience of its power within their hearts. It has been attested from millions of death-beds. "We are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses." 4. The inevitable doom nf those who neglect it. (Vers. 2, 3.) If the Law, given by angels, could not be violated with impunity, how much more certain and dreadful must be the ruin of all who reject the message of mercy spoken by the lips of the Lord himself (eh. L 28-31) I Escape for such is plainly impossible. For did not man's redemption cost the tears and groans and blood of the Redeemer? Had these not been indispensably necessary, they would not have been expended. And what can any despiser of them propose to put in their place? Let professing Christians remem her that they will miss salvation if they merely neglect it. As the farmer will lose his harvest by simple neglect, as the business man will become bankrupt by simple neglect, as the scholar will strip himself of his attainments by simple neglect, so the surest way by which to accomplish the irremediable ruin of the soul is just to" neglect so great salvation." In conclusion, these four motives to heedfolness are the very strongest that can be urged. The Three Persons of the Trinity all speak to us in them. They remind us at once of the unutterable love of God, a.nd of the power of his anger. They appeal to the most sacred interests of our souls. If we are not aroused by these motive:i, even God himself can do no more for us. Vers. 5-9.-The f"oyally of man. The apostle, in beginning to touch upon the humiliation and death of Christ, shows that these arrangements brought him no dis- honour. God had subordinated the new dispensation, not to angels, but to man (ver. 6); nnd human nature, restored in Christ to its imperial dignity, is destined to ultimo.ta cxaltntion above angelic nature. I. MAN'B NATIVE SOVEREIGNTY. The writer cites, in illustration of this, the testimony ofPs.viii.(vers.6-8). Horowehave: 1. Man's lofty nature. (Ver.7.) Humanity ho.d a splendid origin. Though clothed meanwhile in a mortal body, our no.ture did not crawl up to its present position from primeval "sentient slime;" it belonged from the beginning to the same order of being as God its Maker. 'l'he first man was not n savage. He wore the crown of reason and conscience and moral freedom. In his spiritual and immortal nature he was made in the image of God. God was "mindful of him," and "visited him." 2. His kingly prerogative. "And didst set him over the works of thy hands" (ver. 7). In bestowing upon man this illustrious kinship with himself, God placed in his hand the sceptre of authority over all the creatures. '!'he world was made that he might be its master, and rule over it as God's viceroy. 3. His universal dominion. "Thon didst put all things in subjection under his feet" (ver. 8). Not the inferior animals only, as Pe. viii. might lead us to conclude; but, as we learn here, as well as from 1 Cor. xv. 27, the entire visible and invisible universe. Even tho world of angels is by-and-by through Christ to bo subordinated to man. It is only "for a little while" that man is to remain "lower" than they. II. Hie FAILURE TO REALIZE BIB SOVEREIGNTY. "llut now we see not yet all things 11ubjected to him" (ver. 8). 1. His nature is debased. Man's course in tho world has not been one of continuous upward development. So far from that, it has been a course  54: THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [oH. n. 1-18.