The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 89

have been to some degree inconceivable by us. He took hold of the seed of Abraham, and enshrined his Divine nature in human flesh 11nd blood, and felt all the innocent emotions and sensations of our race. He was hungry and thirsty, he was weary and slept, and wept and rejoiced like his brethren. Then be felt the pa.n"'s of death, by which he achieved a. happy and invaluable change in our views of depa~ture from this world. Death had derived its terror from Satan, who prompted men to sin and then alarmed them with the fear of condemnation and punishment. Under the Law many regarded death with trembling and anxiety; and righteous men like Hezekiah shrank from the approach of the "king of terrors." It .was bondage which restrained from enjoyment, and macle life like a. man wearing fetters from which he could not get free. 'fhe death of our Lord seemed the masterpiece of Satan; but it became the cause of his most humiliating overthrow, for ever after those who believe in Jesus may walk with serene confidence, in the light of the Redeemer's victory, towards their eternal rest, and realize the words, " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." • 0 precious mnsom I which once paid, That Oonsummatum est we.a said, And said by him that said no more, But see.led it with his sacred breath I Thou, then, that hast dispurged our score, And dying met the death of death, Be now, while on thy Name we ea.II, Our Life, our Strength, our Joy, onr All." (Sir H. Wotton.) Deing macle like unto his brethren in the participation of their nature, he made, as a merciful and faithful High Priest, reconciliation for them by his sacrificial death. By his oblation he revealed the Divine displeasure against sin, and made a. way for thoso who were once rebels to become reconciled to the character of God, his methods of salvation, and to the enjoyment of the privileges and hopes of the Christian life. Ho passed through a. career of temptation in which Satan strove to overthrow him, the world endeavoured to turn him away from his work, and his fierce enemies, tbe Pharisees, strove to frustrate his gracious designs. He was alone in the vastness of the temptations he endured, and carried, without any earthly sympathy, the vast burden of his sorrows. Now, from his vast and painful experience, he is able to sympathize with all who are tempted, and to cheer them with tho truth that, should every heart around be unmoved, and every ear closed to their grieFs, he feels for them with a vividness and certainty which may a.waken confidence, and lllcrease their joy in tho Lord.-B. Ver. 3.-God's sure judgment on. those who neglect the great salvation.. I. NOTE THE APPEAL TO HISTORY. In the history or the Hebrew people God had shown the validity 11nd seriousness of his messages. Those to whom the message had como had beeu disposed to slight it, either because of the improbability of the matter, or the mean appearance of the messenger. And behind both of these considerations it might also be that the message was very unpalatable. But however the message might appear to men, it was God's message, therefore necessary to be sent. 'l'he steadfast word through tho angels we must take with a very wide significance, as including the prophets, though angels are specially mentioned because being so reverently regarded by tho Hebrews There was an a fortiori argument as applied to the message that came through the Son. II. NoTE THE GREAT TRANSGRESSION AND llISODEDIENCE WE MAY COMMIT. '\Ve may be negligent of the great salvation. Our own personality, with its great powers and with the claims which God has upon it, we may allow to go to wreck and ruin, instead of submitting to tho process whereby God would save us, and_ mako us cnpa?lo of glorifying him in a perfect way. The man who in any physical peril should steadily nt:glect whatever means of escape were put in his way, iF ho perished, would be held to have in him the spirit of the suicide. Ho who takes active steps against his own lifo is held to be committing a crime age.inst society; but he who negle~ts hie physical welfare is also sinning against society, though society cannot define his offence so a.s  80 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEilREWS. [en, 11. 1-18,