The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 393

does riso again. Jesus is at the right hand of God, for he does actually rule over many human hearts. He did not paes through suffering and shame into an obscurity which was only the laet stage of the suffering and shame. His present glory is a manifest thin"', manifest in the light of more tests than one. It is a glory perceptible from the commo~ historian's point of view, The richness and depth of that glory become more and morn apparent when the eye of a real Christian is turned upon it; he looks for thin"'s aml sees things which to the world are only names. And yet what appears to our ~yes i:1 a very imperfect representation of the reality proposed to him and seen by him. Ho saw more with his sense of truth, his power of insight, his superiority to this world'~ considerations, than we can see. And along with the end he saw the way to it. Well might he warn rash, would-be disciples to count the cost, for he himself had counted the cost to begin with. Thus must we ever look at Jesus, not in one part of his career, but in all taken together. The cross and the shame must not be separated from the seat of honour and of power. Nor must the end be looked at apart from the way. \V c also have a joy set before us, namely, that of attaining to companionship with Jesus. When we look away to Jesus we look, not only to an example, to an inspiration, but also to a goal.-Y. Vers. 2, 3.-What <Jhrist was exposed to. L PHYSICAL PAIN. He endured a cross. When the hour and authority of darkness came upon him, he was left to those tender mercies of the wicked which are cruel. It was part of his victory to endure whatever men chose to inflict in the way of pain. All who afterwards had to endure crosses, all who were thrown to wild beasts, burnt, etc., knew that their Saviour had been in exactly the same path. He did not choose the cross; it came in the way he had to take to the joy. If it had.been the Roman amphitheatre, the stake, or the rack of the Inquisition, he would have gone with equal willingness. Whatever suffering evil men in their recklessness thought fit to inflict, he was ready for it. And we, always determined in the way of duty, service, honour, and reward, mnst also be ready for all that comes in the way of pain. Notice the force of "endure," the verb corresponding to the substantive fnro,,J,v11. Not only did he bear the cross as a Stoic might have done, in grim silence, but with the veritable patience of one testifying for God. In all his bearing there was love, meekness, and patient waiting for the joy yet to be revealed. II. A SHAMEFUL REPUTATION. Christ might have been put to death cruelly and yet not shamefully. Shame, according to human reckoning, was added to keen pain. But human shame could not reach to the height of our Leader's magnanimity. He bad too clear a view of everything to be affected by mere reputation. 'l'he cross is not shameful to us. Things reckoned shameful are largely so according to custom. What would be shameful in one age and country has no such repnte in another age and country. Hence, while we can at once see the pain of the cross, we cannot see the shame. But we can understand that there would be a shame when we recollect that it has even been counted a privilege to die by the headsman's axe, and not by the hangman's rope. An,l this shame would be a great difficulty in the way of the apostles in preaching Christ; indeed, we know it actually was so. It is not the slightest difficulty now, however. How an.old Roman would have laughed to hear it predicted that the cross of crucifuion could ever become an ornament I What men reckoned shameful has proved the way to glory and exaltation. He who conquered the worst men could do to him, might well take a place a.t the right hand of God. III. BITTER TAUNTS. The shameful repute of hanging on a cross could not but come into the reflections of Jesus; but also to the silent insult of the cross itself was added the bitterest words men could find. But let men do their worst. " All things work together for good to them that love God." And surely of such Jesus is facile princeps. Taunts bound back from the innocent and the God-fearing as arrows do from one who is thoroughly clad in armour.-Y. Vers. 5-10.-God's discipline of Ms children. Continually in the New Testament, when we get into circumstances of doubt and pain, we are brought back to the rich truth and comfort to be found in the fatherhood of God. Here, as elsewhere, an afor- tiori argument is employed. If an earthly father, being evil, gives good gifts to his children, how much more will the heavenly Fat-her give his Roly Spirit to them asking  388 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [cH, XII, 1-29,