The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 90

to punish him. But God, we know, can sp<'cify offences ns we ca.nnot; and here is one, that when a man has spiritual and eternal sa.lvation laid before him he yet neglects it•. ~n~ the more we study this state of negligence, the more we shall see how great a sin 1t mvolves. III. Tm: INEVITABLE PUNISHMENT WHICit WILL COME FOR BUCH NEGLECT. How i;hall we escape it? It is a question parallel to that of Paul in Rom. ii. 3, "How i;halt thou escape the judgment of God?" The question is not of esca.ping from the da.nger by some other means than what God has provided. It is as to how we shall get away from God's doom upon us for deliberately and persistently neglectina- his lovin .. pro- visions. How often New 'festament exhortations make us face th~ thought ~f the greatj~dgment:seat! We see wb~t a seri_ous thing in the sight of God simple negli- gence 1s. It 1s m heavenly affairs as Ill earthly, probably more harm is done by negligence of the good than by actual commission of the evil. Let there be strongest emphasis and deepest penitence in the confession, '' We have not done the things we ought to have done." IV. 'l'HE EXII0RTATIO~ TO ATTEh"TION. We must give more earnest heed to the things that have been heard. _How close_ this exhort,a,tion comes! Things not only spoken but heard. The excuse 1s not permitted that we have not hea.rd of these things. It is what we have heard, but have failed to treat rightly, to cherish and hold fast which constitutes our pecn~iar responsibility. Over against actual negligence there is the demand for close, continual attention. The meaning of salvation and the means of salvation are not to be discovered by listless hearts. We are attending too much to the wrong thi~gs-things that, in comparison with the so grea.t salvation, are but as the fables and endless genealogies, attention to which Paul contemptuously con- demned. And those who have to proclaim this salvation would do well to attend to that other counsel of Paul to Timothy, "Give heed to reading, exhortation, teaching," and so all of us need to be readers, learners, and especially submissive to the 11a.plucA71vu of the Holy Ghost.-Y. Vers. 3, 4.-The completeness with which the great salvation i, made known. The justness of God's visitation on those who neglect the great salvation lies in this, tha.t the salvation has been so fully and variously procla.imed. Certainly this held in the instance of all to whom this Epistle was addressed; certainly it holds of all who can read the New Testament. With the Testament before us, it is our business, as prudent r,eople, to make ourselves acquainted with the explanations, assurances, exhortatiotJs it contains on this matter of salvation. I. THIS SALVATION WAS SPOKEN OF THROUGH THE LORD; i.e. through Jesus. Doubt- less the rerereoce here is specially to those solemn and awful intimations he gave to hie disci pies of the approaching destruction of Jerusalem. But the destruction of Jerusalem was itself only a type of a destruction more dreadful still. The worst thing was, not the destruction of the buildings, but the spiritual ruin of those who dwelt in them. This was the thing to be feared, that believers in Jesus should get infected by the law- less life around them, or should take unbelieving and self-indulgent ways to get away from peril. Therefore the Lord proclaimed salvation to him who would endure to the end. His own resurrection from the dead after men had done their very worst and got untrammelled their fullest opportunities, was itself an assurance of ~afety to those who fully trusted in him. II. THE WoBD OF THIB SALVATION C0NFIBMED DY LISTENERS. We feel there must be a parallelism between the /3lf3a.,os of ver. 2 and the i/3•/3a.1<l,871 of ver. 3. '!'he same God who gave authority to his messengers of old, and put on them a certain kind of honour by showing, in severe treatment of those who rejected them, the Divine origin of their message, also gave authority to certain persons to continue that news of i;a]vation which Jesus had first of all made known. Jesus himself passed these persons through a manifold and searching discipline to qualify them for their work. He said many things to the common crowd! but_ of the mrsteries of the kingdom he spoko for a while only to a chosen and docile circle; until at last the hour ea.me when these listeners had to spread far and wide the same truths, for a benefit to every one who would attend to them. Jesus, in the greatness of his uniquu power, began-and it is ever the first step which is most dillicult; others came and continued his work on his 011. D, 1-18.J THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 81