PERFE

iv.

be altogether vain to attempt to deal with them thus briefly were we not mindful of our special point of view. We are pondering the E

connexion and argument, for, particularly in chapter iv., the apostolic thought takes occasionally a pare

o the true Israel in Christ. Even to "seem" (iv. 1) to fail of this, even to seem to sink into a desert grave of unbelief while "the rest of fai

ows in thought upon iv. 2, leaving

e after passage of the old Scriptures (iv. 3-9) shows that that Canaan was no finality, no true terminus of the purpose of God; another "rest," another "day" of entrance and blessing, was intimated all along. Unbelief forfeited the true fruition of even the old Canaan for the old Israel. And now out of that evil has sprung the glorious good of a more articulate promise of the new Canaan, the inheritance of rest in Christ, destined for the new Israel. But as then, so now, the promise, if it is to come t

(iv. 8) of the A

great; He has "passed through the heavens" (iv. 14) to the Holiest, to the throne, the celestial mercy-seat (iv. 16) "within the veil" (vi. 19); He is the Son (v. 5); He is the Priest-King, the true Melchizedek; He is all this for ever (vi. 20). But on the other hand He is the sinner's Friend, who has so identified Himself in His blessed Manhood with the sinner, veritably taking our veritable nature, that He is "able to feel with our weaknesses" (iv. 15); "able to fe

Shall we not follow Him into "the rest," though a "Jordan rolls between" and though cities of giants seem to fro

le turning God-ward of a soul which has come to despair of its own resources-truths symbolized and sealed by the primal rites of baptism and blessing (vi. 2); and then the great revealed facts in prospect, resurrection and judgment, must be always remembered and reckoned with. These however must be "left" (vi. 1), not in oblivion but in progress, just as a building "leaves" the level of its always necessary foundation. We must "bear onwards" and upwards, into the upper air of the fulness of the truth of the glory of our Christ. We must seek "perfection," the profound maturity of the Christian, by a maturer and yet maturer insight into Him. Awful is the spiritual risk of any ot

ut I believe that their purport is fairly described in the sentence above in the t

lity under the bond of His own majesty (vi. 13). Aye, and then let them again "consider" Him in whom promise and oath are embodied and vivified for ever; in whom rests-nay, in whom consists-our anchor of an eternal hope (vi. 19); Jesus, our Man of men, our High Priest of the everl

k that any vital element in the matter has been overlooked. Much of the message we are seeking has b

apse to legalism, to bondage, to the desert, to a famine of the soul, to barrenness and death-here they are dealt with, in order to the more than prevention of the evil. And here, as ever, t

ng sight of Christ. The urgent necessity is first pro

siasticism which more or less exaggerates or distorts the great ideas of corporate life and sacramental operation. It would be idle to ignore the subtle nuances of difference between mind and mind, and the resultant varying incidence in detail of great and many-sided truths. But is it not fair and true to say that, on the whole, the supreme personal glory of Christ, as presented direct to the human soul in its august and ineffable loveliness, in its infinite lovableness, is what alike the naturalistic and the ultra-ecclesiastic theories of religion