lines, and mnde some at least of their auditors in every place to feel that what they said rested on a sure foundation of a reality. III. AN EXPLICIT STATEMENT OF HOW THIS CONFIRMATION WAS PRODUCED. Never let us forget that the apostles were peculiarly witness-bearers (Luke xxiv. 48; Acts i. 8). Again and again this is the apostolic claim in the Acts of the Apostles. Therefore it is quite the thing to be expected that God should be introduced, bearing his testimony along with them. Certain things were done, manifestly transcending human power, and manifestly full of a Divine presence and intent to those who regarded them with an honest heart. It is part of the love of God that he seeks all means to strengthen our hearts in keeping hold of the truth as it is in Jesus. Evidence is nothing without a spirit to appreciate it; but God knew that wheresoever the gospel went there would be some appreciating spirits, and to them the truth came by agencies such as bore iL forward to an abiding home in their hearts. Evidence, of course, changes as the ages change; but truth is ever the same. 'l.'be truth as it is in Jesus bas not been altered; the need which that truth camo to supply remains undiminished; and so we may uo sure God is testifying still concerning that truth, the testimony being such that it satisfies the intellect because first of all it feeds and comforts the heart.-Y. Vers. 8, 9.-The seen present as a g1·011,nd of confidence in the unseen future. The confidence of ono who believes in Messianic prophecy is that all things are as good as subjected to the Christ because God has declared this as his design. What we see is greatly short of subjection, and the subjected part we fail to see; we cannot rest our eyes upon it properly, because their attention is distracted by tho sight of so much defiance, rebellion, and attempt at self-government in the far greater part of what ought to be subject to Christ. All the more need to find in what we may see the assurance and promise of the unseen. We do see-for that is what the words amount to-a humanized, a dying, and a risen Christ. " Crowned with glory and honour " is but a periphrasis for the resurrection, an indication of one of the things God did in raising his Son Jesus. l. WHAT WE BEE SHOWS US THE POWER WHICH OAN PRODUCE THE DESIRED UNSEEN. God, in saying that all things shall be subjected to Christ, asserts authority. But by the course of his Son Jesus on earth he also manifested power. He took as it were a small section of time and space, and there gave us gracious illustration of what he is ever doing, some of it in the realm of the seen, but much more in that of the unseen. What power there is in the Iucarnation I For obvious reasons the Incarnation is mostly con- nected with thoughts of God's condescension, and the lowly-heartedness of Jesus himself. Bot these considerations must not blind us to the Incarnation as an illustration of God's power. There is a mysterious power in mnking Jesus lower than the angels, and if it be true that there is a causal connection between sin and death as a painf11l experience, thon some peculiar power must be involved in bringing the sinless Jesus in contact with the pain of death. Then, of course, thoro is the instnnce of power, most impressive and most cheering to us, in tho raising of Jesus from tho dead. If only wu can really believo that God has power over the grave, we shall beliove in his final conquest of all that can hurt his people. II. \VHAT WE SEE SHOWS US THE PURPOSE EVER WORKING TOWARDS THE DESIRED UNSEEN. 'l.'be grace of God is manifest as well as tho power of God. Jesus not only died; he tasted of death for every one-for every one who could benefit by tho to.sting of it. He tasted of it that by his resurrection he might show it was not the romediless 11oison men reckoned it to be. In his love he tasted death, as much as to say to men, "]!'ear not." We have the Divine purposes in words, but those words are only the moro perfect expressions of what we might infer from tho works. It is true tbat " through the ages one increasing purpose runs "-a purpose much higher than that any individual man might form, or the combination of any men. Ill. WHAT WE SEE SHOWS US J'ATIENOE WAITING FOR THE DESIRED UNSEEN. Great is the patience of God-a contra:1t to our impatience, our haste, our discontent, if we cannot get immediate results. 1'he fulness of time has to be waited for before the Christ can enter the wvrld; the fulness of manhood has to be waited for till ho can oegin to teach. Jesus himself must have his own time of sufficient seed-sowing beforo he can go to Jerusalem for the final scone. Delay, procrastination, postponement, is what God cannot tolerate whcro there ought to be decision, but for great steps to bo HEBREWS. o 82 THE EPISTLE '1'0 THE HEBREWS, [CH, ll, 1-18.
taken in h!s own mighty plans he can wn.it the proper time. If we do not yet see all things subJected to Jesus, if indeed the struggle seems often quite the other wa.y, then there is all the more need for us to look at the career of Jesus from Bethlehem to Calvary as an illustration of how God can wait. In making up the cup which Jesus drank, many ingredients had to be waited for,-Y.