. I._ CHRIST'S SIMILARITY TO MosEs. (Ver. 2.) The very fact of a comparison being mst1tuted between Jesus and Moses reminds us of Moses' greatness. Moses had a romanti~ personal history ; his character was adorned with the grandest girts of grace and !!:emus; and he accomplished an illustrious life-work. He was a type of Christ bot_h m character and career. The Jews venerated him almost to idolatry as their deln·erer, leader, lawgiver, prophet, and advocate with God. Now, Christ was "a Prophet like unto Moses" (Deut. xviii. 15). He is the Moses of the New Testament. Ver. 2 suggests points of resemblance between the two. I. Each introduced a new dispensation. "The Law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." The Jews were "baptized unto Moses;" Christians are" baptized into Christ." The writings of Moses are to the Old Testament Scriptures what the granite formation is to the other strata of the earth's crust; so the written life of Christ is the foundation of New Testament Scripture. 2. Each was divinely commissioned and suppc,rted in his work. Moses, with his marvellous gifts, was mised up and trained and called by Providence to his life-task; and so was Jesus. Moses enjoyed peculiarly intimate inter- course with God, for" the Lord knew him face to face;" and so did Jesus. 3. Each was divinely recognized as "faithful." Fidelity to duty is the crown and flower of character. "My servant Moses is fait4ful in all mine house" (Numb. xii. 7). "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him" (Matt. xvii. 5). II. CHRIST'S SUPERIORITY TO MosEs. (Vers. 3-6.) It was right that the memory )f the lawgiver should be cherished with profound veneration; but, behold, a greater than Moses is here. Jesus bas merited Etill la.rger honour. 1. Christ is the" Builder" of the Church; Moses was only one of the stones in it. (Vers. 3, 4.) The Son of God, "through whom also he made the ages" (eh. i. 2), is the real Founder of every dispen- .ation of religion. He redeemed the Old 'l'estament Church, not less than the New, with bis blood, and caused it to grow by his Spirit. Moses only introduced the Hebrew economy; jt was God in Christ who founded it. Moses was a constituent member of the Jewish Church, i.e. a ransomed sinner, saved by grace like other men; a "living stone" built into the spiritual house by Christ the 1faster-Builder. 2. Christ is a "Son" set "over God's house;" Moses was only a "servant" within it. (Vers. 5, 6.) Moses ministered in the Church as a. confidential house-steward, or honoured upper- aervant; but Christ entered it as its Master, to preside over it by virtue of his Divine sonship. 'fhe author bas already expatiated on this theme in eh. i.; and surely Jesus, the Apostle of Christianity, is more renowned than Moses, seeing that be is the very Image of God, and the Lord of all the angels. 3. Oiirist is the incarnate " Word of God;" Moses was only his forerunner. (Ver. 5.) Moses bore "testimony" to "those things which were afterwarJ to be epoken"-to the new and final revelation to be made at last, when God should speak "in bis Son" (eh. i. 2). "Moses was the harbinger, Christ the illustriouij Prince himself; the revelations of Moses were the faint twilight of the morning, those of Christ the full splendour of noonday; the institutions of Moses were the scaffolding, those of Christ the finished fabric of religious truth" (Lindsay). CLOSING PRACTICAL REFLECTION. (Ver. 6.) If we remain perseveringly steadfast in Jur gospel faith, and joyful in our spiritual hope, we have therein the evidence that we ourllelves belong to God's bouEe, the Church.
Vers. 7-19.-Beware of unbelief. Eminent and honoured though Moses bad been, the generation of Hebrews whom he led out of Egypt became unbelieving and dis- obedient, and were in consequence overtaken by a drcaclful doom. So the writer of this Epistle, realizing the strong temptations to relapse into Juda.ism which beset the Hebrew Christians, warns them against the still more clrca.dful consequences of apostasy from discipleship to Jesus Christ. I. A BEBETTlNG BPIBITUAL DANGER. It is that of losing our participation 1n God's house; or, more particularly, of: I. Present unbelief. (Ver. 12.) Unbelief is distrust of God, want of faith in the Divine promise and providence, and especially refusal personally to confide in the Lord Jesus as "the Apostle and High Priest of our con- fession." Unbelief may either presume upon God's mercy, or despair of it, or neglect it. 2. Growing hardness of heart. (Ver. 8.) "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; " and the heart also ts the fountain of sin, Acts of refusal to listen to Gc.,d's voice petrify into habits, so that the heart becomes the longer the more csrel888. OB, III, 1-19.] THE EPISTLE TO 'l'HE HEBREWS. 93