be brotherly love among Christians, who were affectionntely to warn each other against the evils of departing from the truths and profession of the gospel. Their counsel was to be directed to the state of the heart, which if unbelieving was an "evil heart," and therefore full of guile, pride, readiness to receive objections against the gospel, and willingness to yield to the blinding influence of Satan. It would lead them to depart from the living God, and conduct them to ceremonies, and produce works which had no Divine life in them. This work of friendly exhortation was to be done at once, "while it is called To-day;" and whatsoever their hand found to do they were to do with all their might; for sin was full of allurement, and promised, as it did in Paradise, large illumination, freedom, and pleasure. It would be bitterness in the end, and the song of the syren would allure to destruction. The hardenini!: would, if unchecked, go on with imperceptible advance, and would silently desolate the conscience, understanding, and heart. This was to be avoided by perseverance in acts of faith and unlimited con- fidence in Jesus Christ, who inclined them to begin the course to the upper kingdom of God. As they had "received Christ they were to walk in him," and then they would partake of his Spirit, and share the blessedness which, as a Forerunner, he has gone to prepare. They would share in the joy he has promised to confer upon the brave and immovable in their profession, who shall " sit down with him in his throne, as he has overcome, and sits down wi;h his Father in his throne."-B. Vere. 15-19.-..4s redemption from Egypt did not protect Israelfrom puniahment, so misbelief in Ohristians will be visited with the Divine displeasure and final failure. The sacred writer refers us to the psalm from which he had drawn such affecting exhor- tations to steadfastness in the spiritual life, and now advances to enforce the lessons of earnestness by a series of weighty inquiries derived from the overthrow of many Israel- ites in the desert. The ideas resemble those of Paul, who in 1 Cor. x. 1-5 instructs us that the Hebrews were baptized unto Moses, and ate spiritual meat and drank spiritual drink, and yet many were overthrown in the wilderness. 'l'he first question is (in the Revised Version}--Who were they that did provoke at Meribah and awakened the Di vine displeasure? This inquiry is answered by another. Did they not all come out of Egypt, and while the destroying angel was abroad their families were safe; when the sea opposed their march it was dried up to give them passage, and when the enemies pursued them with rage and breathed out threatenings and slaughter, were they not redeemed? These were they who added the baseness of ingratitude to the sin of unbelief. Another inquiry follows, which is-With whom was he displeased, and wns it not with those whose carcases fell in the wilderness ? It is the historic realization of o. truth penned many centuries afterwards by St. James, who writes," Lust, when it hath con- ceived, bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finishe<l, bringeth forth death." These unbelievers died under the frown of Jehovah, and left their sad experience as a beacon to warn o.gninst sins which provoked the Divine anger and laid them low in the dust of death. 'l'he inquiry advances once more, and asks-Who were they who were denied the privilege of entering upon the much-desired inheritance of Cannan? There is an awfulness in the oath which Jehovah takes, that the unbelieving Hebrows should not enter the pleasant land, with its fertile soil, its pastures, its vineyards, its brooks and streams, and the margin of the Mediterranean Sea. Thero is no secret in the ea.use of their failure, as there is no secret in the cause of Christian success. They could not enter in because of unbelief, which, while it barred their entrance into Cannan, excludes men from the" inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away." If these sad and awful punishments overtook Israel according to the flesh, then the truth which the author designed to tea.oh is that redemption from sin, condemnation, must, to secure all the fruits and issues of the gospel, be associated with humble and per!e- vering fidelity to our profession of faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.-B. Ver. 1.-Heavenly things. There are four heavenly things spoken of in this Epistle which it may be well here to connect together. I. THE HEAVENLY CALLING, Elsewhere the upward calling. A voice out of the pure, the abiding, the unchangeable. A voice of love, pity, invitation, authority, such as could not sound from anywhere in this distracted, defiled world, II, THE HEAVENLY GIFT, The liwp,ci-the free donation of God; tho gift bestowed for THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [oH, Ill, 1-19.
men to taste and live by; the bread of eternal life. Remember what James says, that "every perfect gift is from above" (i. 17). III. THE HEAVENLY corn.TRY, Tho fatherland; the ..-mTpls of the Christian. The voice from hoaven calls us there. The heavenly gift is for our provision by the way; the manna of our desert life ( eh. xi. 16). IV. THE HEAVE..'n.Y JERUSALEM. Where all the glory of the heavenly fatherland is concentrated. The treasures of a land are repn'~ented in its c:ipital city. Jerusalem gave a site for the temple, a palace for the king (eh. xii. 22).-Y.