Vers. 32-38.-A summary of the sufferings and trials of believers. Note- 1. How THIS WRITER SPEAKS FROM FULNESS OF KNOWLEDGE. As one might think, he bas already been tolerably copious, but he hints that there is really much more to tell. He has looked through all the records of God's people, and he finds faith every- where. Thus has been produced in his mind a strong conviction of what man can do when he believes in the right way. And might we not attain to a similar fulness of knowledge? Reading ecclesiastical history, in the widest sense of the term, we should see how much stronger is the man of simple faith than the man of this world, with all his resources and ingenuity. As knowledge and experience of the right things grow, so must convictions with respect to them deepen. II. How BE CLASSIFIES THE EXAMPLES OF FAITH. He shows us faith active and passive-what it can do and what it can bear. By his function the prophet had to be a man of action, and as the result of his action he had also to be a man of suffcrin!':. God sent him out to do special deeds-deeds beyond ordinary resources-and then ho had also to make ready for sufferings out of the ordinary way. He who would do great things in the sight of God must be ready also to suffer great things. Live on the level of the world, and you may escape much in the way of toil and strain; but try to achieve the things which Christ se~s before you, and then you will find you must not only have strong hands, but a brave and patient heart. III. THERE IS PLENTY OF WORK FOR FAITH YET TO DO. There are kingdoms to be overcome, not by physical force, not by disciplined armies, bnt by those who, havin:; yielded first of all to truth, know its claims and its power, and believe in persistent pressing of that truth on others. Righteousness has to be worked out, promises have to be appropriated; and if wo would iuherit the promises, we must accept the conditions of faith and patience. Our faith can achievo great things, and therefore great things are set before it. The faith of a simple, humble Christian has far greater things within its reach than anything to 110 attained by the unaided human intellect even at its best. IV. SIMILAI\LY TIIERE IS PLENTY OF TRIAL FOR FAITH YET TO &'>DURE. The more there is to be dono, the more there is to be suffered. Iugenious torments and cruel deaths there ml\y not be, but tbe spirit of the world is uuchanging. Let a man perse- HEBirnws. ::! A 354 'l'HE EPISTLE 'l'O THE HEDHEWS, [cu. xn. 1-20.
vere as seeing the invisible one, and he will have to suffer. Ho may not be stoned but he will be pelted with the sneers of thouo-htless 0 and ignorant men. '!'hose who thr~uah mere self-respect would refrain from a blow with the fist yet delight in the m;st cutting words.-Y.
Ver. 38.-Seeming unworthiness, rea,l wortlii'lless. I. THE Al'PEARANOE op UNWOR• 'l'HIXESS. Men going about in sheepskins and goatskins, wandering in deserts and mountains, sheltering themselves in dens and caves, have had this judgment passed upon them, in effect if not in form, that they are not worthy of the world. •rhey are banished from this world's social toleration, being held to trouble their fellow-men concerning existing institutions.and habits without sufficient reason. 'l'he world knows no higher standard whereby to judge a man than its own accepted code, If he travels beyond that code of traditions, proprieties, and decencies, he must be ready to be put down among fanatics, madmen, and incomprehensible people generally. In setting out upon a genuine Christian life, we must reckon among other elements in counting the cost that of our relation to the world's good opinion. If we will not go anywhere or do anything that may lose us the world's good opinion, then we may at once spare ourselves the trouble and effort of being Christians. If we, living in the world, would be reckoned worthy by the living world around us, then we must be conformed to the world. We must consult its fashions, its prejudices, its vested interests. Originality will be pardoned so long as it keeps to the sphere of the intellect; but once let the conscience break forth into originality and individuality, seeing a. right and a. wrong where the world has not troubled to consider whether there be right or wrong at all, then henceforth for such a. daring spirit, faithful to the light from on high, there is banishment from tolerance by the world. To speak the words "for Christ's sake" from the very heart means persecution. For then one cannot keep to mere gene- ralities; renewing of the mind brings that transformation which is itself a. loosening of those common projects and views that have bound us to the common society of men. IL REAL woBTHTh"'ESS. By a. decisive expression the writer turns the tables on the calm assumptions of worldly criticism. The world says of the Christian, "This man is not worthy of me; he does not correspond with my attainments, my philosophy, my art, my refinements; he says unappreciative, not to say rude, things about them." But now the Spirit of God steps in to pass a. judgment on this same judging spirit of the world. The lamp that has been kind.led from light of human ma.king presents but a. poor show when set beside the lamp kindled from him who is the true Light of the world. Everything in this matter depends upon the eye with which we look a.t things. Many there must have been in Jerusalem to lament the dreadful change from Saul the Pharisee to Paul the disciple of Jesus. To them it meant apostasy from all that was godly, honourable, and true. But we know that Christian character, shining by its own light, is its own justification. And we also know that the man of this world, fully exposed in the light of actual Christian character, is his own_condemnation. Out of his own a.vowed and justified words aud acts he is condemned. The v01y fact that he thiDb him&elf right provea how utterly he is wrong,-Y.. -
EXPOSITION. power with which he can now approach it. OHAPTEB XII. H ven the initiatory word TO<')lapoiiv, rather The exhortation, begun at eh. L 19, but tltn'.l the usual 36ev, or o~v, or lit&, adds to interrupted at eh. xi. I by the chapter on the effect. faith, is now ta.ken up age.in with increased Ver. !.-Wherefore let us too (" we also," force from the array of examples that have in the A.V., is wrongly placed), ueeing w, been adduced to support it. Observable are oompused about with eo great a oloud in the Greek is the fine roll of the majestic of witne11e1, Jay aside every weight, and the sin whioh doth so easily beset us, and let 111 and well-ordered phrases with which this run with patience (rather, endurance) the chapter begins, as if the writer had fol t the raoe that ill set before us. Christians, still dignity of his subject, and the couunancling " fighting the good fight of faith," are here OH, XII, 1-29.] THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 355