Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

2 Perfecting The Past and Shaping The Future. 'Re*V. Len G. 'Broughton, D. *D., of Christ Church, London Reported for The Golden Age by M. P. H.—Copyright Applied For. Text. And these all, having’ obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”—Hebrews xi, 39, 40. m HE authorship of the Epistle to the He brews is a matter that still is, and I sup pose always will be, in doubt. Personally I don’t believe there is a shadow of a doubt but that the Apostle wrote this remarkable Epistle, and I think we have only to read the 11th chapter, especially the last verses of it, to see that there are the earmarks of Paul. Then, as we close the Epis tle with the 12th chapter, we see still greater sig nificance in the phraseology, and in the style with which he presents his theme, and brings his argu ment to a conclusion. But it is not at all with ref erence to the authorship of the Epistle that I want to speak. Whoever the author was, it is not hard for us to find out what he writes about, and it is hard ly possible for us to appreciate any context in it, until we have in our minds as we come to study the text, the whole outline of the Epistle. He was writing to a class of Hebrew Christians. These Hebrew Christians had lately come out of the most spectacular form of religion the race has ever known, the religion of the Jews. If you will "just look at it a moment you will see that is true. You ■will see the forms and ceremonies of that great reli gion stand out before you in all their glory and .spectacularness. It was to these that this Epistle was written. They have come to a simple faith in Christ. They have come through the simplest form of service to the salvation of Christ, and at first there is some degree of enthusiasm on their part, as is always, true of the newborn soul, and they rejoiced greatly in the simplicity of their new-found religion. No doubt oft-times in those earlier days, they com pared the galling, binding letter of the old, with the magnificent simplicity of the new. with its graci ous Christian liberty. But, as time passed, these young Christians, as all Christians will have to do sooner or later, came in contact with the fierce flames of persecution and of trial. And as they faced it thej began to lose somewhat of the enthusiasm, and to long for the experiences of the past. They were no longer satisfied with the simplicity of their new religion, and with the glorious outlook they had had since coming to Christ, but they are now anxious to revert to the forms and ceremonies and symbols; and even willing to revert to the covenants of the law that they may escape present hardship and criticism. Now, it was to this class of people, I say. that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews addressed him self. And throughout the whole of the Epistle we see this purpose standing out; an effort to re-assnre. to strengthen, to hold the Hebrew Christian to the simple religion of Jesus Christ, to the religion of a Person rather than the religion of a system that they formerly clung to. The method of the writer is very clear. He starts out to show them that Jesus Christ, simple as He is, is superior to every other person and every other system that the world has ever known m matters of religion. First of all, he calls their attention to the fact that He is superior to the Proph ets (chapter i, 1-3). Then he calls them to note that He is superior to the Angels (chapter i, 4). Then he calls them to note the fact that He is su perior to Moses. It must have been very hard for them to see that (chapter iff, 2). Then he calls them to note that though they are at the present time in great error, they are, nevertheless, partakers of Jesus Christ (chapter iff, 14). Then he calls them to note His superiority over the Aaronic Priesthood (chap ter vii, 28). Then he calls them to note He is the only true and acceptable sacrifice, and with Him all sacrifices ended (chapter x, 10). Then he calls them to note the working simplicity of faith (chapter xi). He gives them the only definition of faith we find in the Bible, “Faith is the substance of things hop ed for, the evidence of things not seen.” And then he shows them the simplicity of the operations of faith, by taking them back to the patriarchs: Abel, THE GOLDEN AGE FOR WEEK OF FEB. 5, 1914 Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and his parents, Joshua and Israel, Rahab, and many other heroes of faith. Then, finally, he calls them to note their relationship to these heroes whose names were called in that chcapter, and whose life work he has, to an extent, epitomised, in the calling of their names. Fie shows them, I say, their relationship to them, and then reveals to them their obligation to the lines of their ministry: “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received, not the promise: God, having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” Now, as I see it, nothing could have served to so enthuse and rouse the feel ing's of these early Hebrew Christians as this text. They were hesitating. They were doubting. They were discouraged. And they had turned their faces toward the past. As they turned their faces toward the past they were bound to see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the rest of these patriarchs in their great system stand out before them, and they were bound to feel some degree of alienation or separation from them now that they had left the system in which, and for which, they had primarily given their lives, and had gone off after a new Person and a new re ligion. And so the writer of this Epistle here in this text endeavours to fix upon them a great fact, that though they are dead, or have passed hence, yet their works follow them. And, furthermore, their works are depending upon them for their very per fection. It is their inheritance. They have an opportunity to link themselves on to the life and teaching of the fathers of the past. I say it must have been a means of great encouragement. From this they were bound to have seen two things. First, they were bound to have seen the incompleteness of al] Ji e and labour. These died without entering up on the things for which they struggled. Then also, they were bound to have seen how, by faithful ser vice on their part, they could contribute to the per fection of these incomplete labours, and finally en ter upon, and be partakers of, their reward. Now, I want us if we can. to start here and get into our minds what this text meant to them, th.at we may see what it may mean to us if we will allow it to do so. Let us take Abraham as one man stand ing out conspicuously above the rest. Here these ear ly Christians are brought to see the great fact that they are to be the partakers of the work of Abraham, as great a man as he was. That Abraham was com pelled to leave an incomplete work. He started out from Ur of the Chaldees with a promise. He be lieved it, but never saw the realization of it. He passed on before his work was accomplished, and now the completion of it, to a great extent, is in their hands, and they, by carrying out the work of. Abraham, contribute to the completion of the work of this great man. Now, of course we understand this, that it does not mean they were to do their work as Abraham did his. That is a very different thing. But they were to do the work of Abraham in their own way. In other words, they were not ex pected to leave their country as Abraham was forc ed to leave his, they were not expected to live in tents as Abraham lived in tents. They were not ex pected to offer sacrifices of beasts, or even to offer their beloved son as Abraham was compelled to do with his. The matter of doing their work as the fathers did theirs was not the question. What is the work. It is the work of extending the King dom of God. Abraham was called to start out in the planting of the Kingdom, and all through Abra ham’s life we see the Kingdom held forth. He was looking for a nation, a kingdom, and worked to the end of helping to bring to pass the Kingdom of God. And of course he died before that Kingdom was established in all its perfectness, and it is not es tablished yet. And all the labour of the Church, since the day of Christ, if it has been properly done, is for the bringing to pass the very same thing for which Abraham looked, and for which he worked. It is to build a kingdom, a nation, a holy nation. And T think one reason why Abraham was not allowed to settle in one place a long time was to keep him from the idea that the kingdom of God was to be his com munity. He was always on the move because the Kingdom of God is on the move. He started out under the call of God for a holy nation. TV hat is that? A world under the government of God’s Son. That is your call, and that is mine. And that is what the writer of this Epistle is trying to impress upon these early Christians; that though these patri archs have gone to their reward, yet the idea upon which they worked, and for which they gave their lives, is still alive, and dependent upon them for ils fr'fil"' , pnt nnd its perfection, and they should be encouraged with the thought that they have the chance to link themselves on to father Abraham, and to Isaac and Jacob, and David and Daniel, and all the fathers that had preceded, in the great scheme of the world’s redemeption. But it is not of these Hebrew Christians • that I want to speak. It is with reference to ourselves We are living in an age of spiritual relaxation. And 1 say this largely because of this one fact. I do not believe it has ever been so hard in the history of the Christian Church to get men and wmnen to as sume actual, personal, individual responsibility for the kingdom of Christ as it is to-day. They realize somebody has got to do it, but it is always the other fellow. Most generally when we are able to get men and women to assume personal responsibility it is by the bringing of the personal element into play. And while that is good, and any man who gets it in that way is bound to love it and appreciate it, we are all bound to admit that is not the highest mo tive of service, and not the strongest basis of appeal. And that is the reason why there are so many ups and downs, and periods of vacillation in the Church of Christ of the present day; personality passes on and there is a slump in the market, fresh personal element comes in and there is a rapid lift in the mar ket. There is a lack of real, honest, substantial rock bottom realization of obligation to the Kingdom of Christ. There are men ami women who want to ex cuse themselves on the basis that things are not as they used to be. That was the matter with these people in the Hebrew Epistle. They missed the or der of their former religious life, and I do not won der that they did, for there certainly could be imag ined no more strange relationship to a man who had been reared under the old regime; for the rela tionship that existed at that time, to Jesus Christ, was remarkably simple. Have you stopped to think of the exceeding sim plicity of the plan of salvation through Christ? Have you stopped to think of how little value much of what we support in the Kingdom of Christ to-day is toward helping on the world to salvation? It may have its place, but when it comes to the ques tion of salvation, how simple it is. and I for one can not blame these Hebrew Christians for feeling the absence of the old when they are brought face to face with the simplicity of the new. And so we have to-day men who are holding back their service and their time and their money from the Kingdom because they do not like, perhaps, the present order. They are thinking about the order of their fathers. Their fathers lived in tents. We live in houses. Their fathers left home. We stay at home. Their fathers sacrificed and had ceremonials. We don’t. When all the time the one burning question is not the order. The thing is THE KINGDOM. The bringing of men and women to Jesus Christ, and through Him into the Kingdom. (Continued on page 14.) Do you believe in the work The Golden Age is doing? Do you want it to live and continue that work for God and Humanity? Do you? If so, look at your label right now and send in your renewal subscription today. We need it to help keep the battle going. Better still: send us in a club of three, and get one sub scription free.