Ver. 5.-Thefaith of Enoch. Of Enoch we know next to nothing in one sense. W& are ignorant of the details of his life; not even one great striking event is preserved to us. But of the great principle and result of his life we are not ignorant, and it is quite permissible for us to make conjectures by way of illustration. In considering what is here said, we must notice the order of the argument. I. WHAT HAPPENED TO ENOCH. He was translated so as not to see death. Thie must have happened in some way manifest to his neighbours, so that they might take knowledge of the event and profit by it. '!'he translation is to be looked on in the light of a reward; but, after all, this may not be its chief significance. It may have been for the sake of others, to whom God's approval of Enoch had to be made manifest. It is no slur upon Enoch to imagine that men as holy as he have been on the earth, yet they have had to die; perhaps Jive in privation, and die in pain. Therefore we can hardly be wrotig in assuwing that Enoch's translation was in such a public way as to teach those willing to be taught, and act as a rebuke to the unbelieving. '!'here is something emi.nentl.y evangelical in such an operation of God. He would draw men to faith in OH, XI. 1-40,] THE EPISTLE ·ro THE HEBREWS. 315
him by showing what can happen to hi8 believing ones. He shows the way of blesRin;!; before he shows the way of cursing. The translation of the holy, righteous man comes before the drowning of an impenitent race. IJ, WHAT ;THERE WAS IN ENOCH'S LIFE TO HAKE THIS TRANST,ATIO!il POSSIDT,E, "He pleased God," Long before his translation he had had proof of this. God docs not defer the eigns of his pleasure, He has made us so that the way of obedience is the way of pleasantness, evun while we walk in it. But all that God had thus given Enoch by the way was for hie own sake. 'l'he common unheeding world knew nothing of the jop coming to Enoch through his religion. Now at last, in bis translation, somethin'.!'. shall be given for a joy to ~noch, and at the same time an instruction to the world. -Enoch might have pleased God and yet not been translated; but he could not have been translated unless he had pleased God. Then from this inference the writer proceeds to yet another-that Enoch must have lived a life of faith. To please God certain conditions are requisite, and in the very front of these is faith. We cannot please God unconsciously, as the heavenly bodies do in their movements, or a plant in its growth. We must do such things as the will of the Invisible requires. He will not be pleased with anything we do simply because we do our best according to the light of nature. But this is a matter which may be dealt with in a homily by itself. III. ENOCH's EXPEC'l'ATIONS. God translated Enoch, but it does not follow that Enoch expected to be translated. All that Enoch could be sure of was that a ~oo,l present would be followed by a better future. Enoch left this world by a gate that bas been very rarely opened-a gate the mode of whose opening we can hardly corn prehencl. It may never be opened again till that day which is hinted at in 1 Thessalonians, when Christ's people then living will be caught up to meet their Lord in the air. If Enoch had expected translation without the pains of death, he would not have been showing the spirit of true faith, True faiLh will go on humbly serving God on earth, and feel- ing that entrance to heaven will come in God's good time.-Y.
Ver. 6.-Faith needed to please God. I. IT rs, THEN, POSSI!lLE TO PLEASE GoD. Some the!'e are who care nothing whether he be pleased or not. God's will, God's delight in the obedience of men, never enters into their thonghts. They live to _;;.iease themselves. They can even understand that some object may be served by trying to please other men. And yet those who live for self-pleasure are sure to be disappointed. God has meant our pleasure to come through first of all pleasing him. The great law of man's being is that he should serve the purposes of God, and he can only serve those purposes by finding out what they are, and taking God's means to carry them into effect. If, then, it is God's will that we should please him, he will surely show us what to do and how to do it. There ought to be in our hearts a desire to please God. We are not without the wish to stand well with our fellow-men, to have their good word. How much more, then, we should desire to become acceptable to him who is perfect goodness I If Enoch pleased God, we may do it. And the first thing to be considered is, not whether it be difficult or easy to do it, but whether it be possible. II. How Gon IS TO BE PLEASED, Remember always that, in the writings of apostles and evangelists, when God is spoken of Jehovah is meant. Jehovah as over against the gods of heathendom. Their priests taught that it was possible to please them, and showed how the thing was to be done, by offerings of all sorts, and by adding constantly to the wealth of their shrines. The offerings in themselves were reckoned good ; and well they might be, for they made many priests rich. Jehovah also received offerings, but to him the offerings bad no value except as expressive of intelligent obedience. The offerings were for the sake of men rather than of God himself. He .nust be pleased by something different from mere gifts of what he has himself created. And here the writer gives us one of the essentials towards pleasing God. Apart from faith we cannot please him. 'l'here are many elements in the character that is pleasing to God, and one element is made prominent at one time,another at another. We know that Euoch must surely have been a loving man, for without love it is impossible to please God, Here the important thing was to insist on his being a believer. Idols cuuld be approached without faith, for they were really not approached at al~; no heart of ni:\n ever came into living contact with them. But of God there was no image; the worshipjJOl' had to believe that there was a real existence all uni;ecn. Suppose for a. 346 'l'IIE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. (oH. xt. 1-40,