an exposition of the warning passages in Hebrews from a commentary by John Brown of Edinburgh. Chapter 3, verses 7 and 19. From these statements respecting Jesus Christ, as far superior to Moses, as a head of a divine family, and respecting the Hebrews as professed members of this family, the apostle takes occasion to warn them against apostasy and to point out the awful consequences which would result from disobedience and rebellion against him, whom God has appointed as a son over his family. Therefore, as the Holy Ghost says today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation, in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me. proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart, and they have not known my ways. So I swear in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest. There is some difficulty in determining the right method of construing the first of these paragraphs. Some interpreters connect the particle wherefore with the quotation from the 95th Psalm, including the words, As the Holy Ghost saith. and apprenticeth his, and consider the apostle as adopting the words of the psalmist as his own and directly addressing them to his readers. Others connect the particle wherefore with the twelfth verse and include the whole quotation in a parenthesis. They do not consider the Apostle as addressing these words directly to the Hebrews, but as quoting a passage of Old Testament Scripture, which had an important bearing on the subject of consideration, and from which he afterwards proceeds to reason. It is not a question of vital importance as to the right interpretation of the passage. It does not matter much which side we take in it, but the latter mode of construing it seems to be us preferable. Let us first then examine the quotations which the inspired writer makes from the Book of Psalms. The Psalm quoted is the 95th, a Psalm which does not contain in it any of those very decisive marks of the time and circumstances in which it was composed, which many of the other Psalms do. but which, on highly probable grounds, has been considered as composed in the Maccabean times. This opinion is in no way inconsistent with the inspired writer saying in the next chapter, again he limits a certain time, saying in David, the whole book of the Psalms, going under the name of David, though it is certain he was not the writer of all these sacred odes. The words of this psalm are represented as the words of the Holy Ghost. It was true of all the psalmists of Israel, as well as of the royal psalmist, that the Spirit of the Lord spake by them, and His word was in their tongue. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and holy men of old, who spake as they were moved by the Spirit of God, did not speak in words which a man's wisdom taught, but in words taught them by the Holy Spirit. The passage is generally an exhortation to the Jewish people to listen to, and believe, and obey the voice of God. promising to lead them into his rest, and warning them of the fearful consequences which would follow from their disregarding this exhortation, by pointing out to them the dreadful results of their father's disbelieving and disobeying the voice of God when he invited them to enter into the rest of Canaan. Today is equivalent to this is a day in which God is inviting you to enter into his rest, as he invited your fathers long ago to enter into the rest of Canaan. The reign of heaven is approaching. Messiah is at hand. if you will hear his voice. These words are obviously elliptical and consistently with the Hebrew idiom. The ellipses may be filled up either of two following ways. If you hear his voice, you shall enter into his rest, or, oh, if you would but hear his voice. This is a common form of expression. a whoosh in the Hebrew idiom, if you had known in this your day the things which belong to your peace. Harden not your hearts. The heart is in scripture just equivalent to the mind, viewed as endowed both with intelligence and affection. To harden the heart is to be inattentive, UNBELIEVING, IMPENITENT, DISOBEDIENT The Prophet calls on his countrymen not to be inattentive, unbelieving, impenitent and disobedient as their ancestors were in the provocation and the day of temptation in the wilderness. This is a reference to what happened at a place which received names from the undutiful conduct of Israel towards Jehovah. Meribah, the striving or provocation, and Masah, the trial or temptation, Exodus 17 2-7. These are particularly referred to because it was then that the scene of provocation and temptation commenced, which continued down to the period that the awful sentence was pronounced on them that they should not enter into God's rest. The history of the Israelites is a history of continued provocation. In the wilderness of Zin they murmured for the wan to bread, and God gave them manna. At Rephidim they murmured for wan to platter, and questioned whether Jehovah was with them, and he gave them water from the rock. In the wilderness of Sinai Soon after receiving the law, they made in worship the golden image. Etabara, they murmured for one to flesh, and the quells were sent, followed by a dreadful plague. Ekadish Barnea, they refused to go up and take possession of the land of promise which brought down on them that awful sentence referred to in the psalm. And after that sentence was pronounced, they presumptuously attempted to do what they had formerly refused to do. All these things took place in a little more than two years after they left Egypt. Thirty-seven years after this, we find them at Kadesh again, murmuring for lack of water and other things. Soon after this, they complained of the lack of bread, though they had manna in abundance and were punished by the plague of fiery flying serpents. Nash Hatim, their last station, they provoke the Lord by mingling in the impure idolatry of the Moabites. So strikingly true is Moses' declaration. Remember, and do not forget, how you provoke the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you." They tempted him and proved him and saw his works. Forty years to tempt God and approve him or nearly if not altogether synonymous expressions They refer to men as if it were making experiments whether he be indeed the powerful holy just and faithful God He has declared himself to be instead of believing his declarations and acting accordingly They seemed as it were bent to discover though at the hazard of their own destruction whether he was really able or meant to execute either his promises or threatenings. That part of the quotation contained in the 10th verse slightly differs both from the Hebrew text and the Greek version in common use when the apostle wrote, and then it reads, 40 years long was I grieved with that generation. The apostle refers to 40 years to their seeing God's works, the Hebrew text and the Septuagint to the time during which they grieved God. He comes, however, materially to the same thing, for they both saw his works, grieved him during these forty years. The word translated grieve properly signifies grievously offended. Jehovah was displeased with that generation. i.e. their conduct was the object of his moral disapprobation, and the ends of his wise and holy government required that this should be manifested by its becoming the object of his judicial punishment, his determination, and the reasons of it are shortly but most emphatically stated in the close of the 10th and in the 11th verse. These words they do always err in their heart are not to be found in numbers 14, but the inspired psalmist expresses a sense of what Jehovah said on that occasion. They do always err in their heart. They are radically and habitually evil. They have not known my ways. God's ways may mean either his dispensations or his precepts. The Israelites did not rightly understand the former, and they obstinately refused to acquire a practical knowledge, the only true valuable species of knowledge, of the latter. The reference is probably to God's motive dealing with them, Romans 11, 33. Deuteronomy 4, verse 32. Such a people deserve severe punishment, and they received it. So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. The original words, both in the Hebrew text and here, are, if they shall enter into my rest. This elliptical mode of expressing oaths is common in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 1, verse 35, 1 Samuel 3, verse 14, and so on. This awful oath is recorded in the 14th chapter of Numbers. But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, have tempted me now these ten times and have not hearkened to my voice. Surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it. But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring into the land, whereunto he went, and his seed shall possess it. Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley. Tomorrow turn you and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say to them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord. As you have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you. Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me. The words of the oath seem here borrowed from the account in Deuteronomy 1, verse 35. There are many threatenings of God which have a tacit condition applied in them, but when God interposes His oath, the sentence is irreversible. The curse was not causeless, and it did come. We have an account of its actual fulfillment in Numbers 26, verses 64 to 65. The rest from which they were excluded was the land of Canaan. Their lives are spent in wandering. It is termed God's rest as he was to finish his work of bringing Israel into the land promised to their fathers and fix a symbol of its presence in the midst of them. Dwelling in that land in which his people were to rest from their wanderings and to dwell in safety under his protection. It is his rest. As of preparing Deuteronomy 12, 9, it is his rest, rest like his, rest along with him. We are by no means warranted to conclude that all who died in the wilderness came short of everlasting happiness. It is to be feared many of them, most of them did, but the curse announced on them went only to their exclusion from the earthly Canaan. Such is the passage of Old Testament Scripture to which the Apostle refers in an exhortation to the believing Hebrews, and from which it proceeds to reason in the subsequent context. Therefore, seeing Jesus Christ who presides over the family of God of which you profess to be members, is so far superior to Moses who presided over the family of God in a former age, Call into mind what an inspired writer has said of the fearful judgments which overtook those of the family under Moses who were unbelieving and disobedient. Verse 12. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. The evils to which unbelief and impenitence expose the Israelites were dreadful, but the evils to which they will expose you will be just as much more dreadful as the new economy exceeds the old in dignity, as Jesus Christ is superior to Moses. The Apostle cautions the Hebrew Christians against an evil heart of unbelief. A heart of unbelief is just an idiomatical expression for an unbelieving heart, and for a person to have in him an unbelieving heart is just a doubt or disbelief. When the apostle then says, take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, his exhortation is just equivalent to, beware lest any of you doubt or disbelieve those statements which have been made to you by him who is so far superior both to Moses and the angels. The unbelieving heart is styled an evil heart. The word evil sometimes signifies wicked, diseased, and sometimes mischievous, or destructive. In all its senses, it is very applicable to unbelief, to doubt, or disbelief the revelation which God has made to us by His Son. which is a plain and well-accredited revelation, is wicked. It originates in immoral principles, in the love of sin, or in thoughtlessness, which in such a case must be highly criminal, or in pride, whether the pride of wealth, of station, or of intellect, or of self-righteousness. To doubt or disbelieve the revelation which God has made to us by his Son is most pernicious and ruinous. Faith naturally leads to holiness and happiness, to purity and peace, and unbelief has naturally produces guilt, depravity, and ruin. It is probably the last of these ideas. that of mischievous that the apostle meant to convey by the epithet wicked, as he immediately proceeds to show how unbelief excludes him who indulges it from the rest of God into which only those who believe can enter. The words which follow in departing from the living God point out the native tendency of an evil, unbelieving heart. The whole exhortation may be thus stated, Take heed lest any of you have in you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to depart, or manifest in itself in a departure from the living God. Beware of departing from the living God under the influence of a wicked, unbelieving heart. To depart from the living God is just an expression for apostasy from Christianity. In the case of those whom the apostle was addressing, they're announcing the profession of the faith of Christ. and returning to Judaism. Those who did so, no doubt, flattered themselves that they were not departing from, but returning to God. But the apostle presses on them this truth, that they could not abandon Christ without abandoning God. There is but one God. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is God and Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. And, of course, he who renounces Christ abandons God. The appellation Living God is emphatic. Some have supposed it just equivalent to the true God. If this the Apostle had said, an apostatizing from Christianity to Judaism, you would really depart from the living God as if you were becoming the worshippers of idols. I'm rather disposed to think that the expression living is intended to convey the idea of power. Dead is often equivalent to powerless. Living to powerful. This is remarkably the case in two passages in this epistle. The Word of God is quick, living, and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of the soul and spirit. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It is quite safe to depart from dead gods. No spiritual advantage can be obtained by adhering to them. No danger is incurred in abandoning them. They cannot punish the apostate, but it is otherwise with him who apostatizes from the living God. He departs from him with whom is a fountain of life, and who alone can make him happy? He departs from him who can execute all the threatenings which he has denounced against those who forsake him. There is need of constant watchfulness on the part of the professors of Christianity, lest under the influence of unbelief they depart from the living God. Take heed, says the apostle, there is nothing I am persuaded in regard to which professors of Christianity fall into more dangerous practical mistakes than this. They suspect everything sooner than the soundness and firmness of their belief. There are many who are supposing themselves believers who have no true faith at all, and so it would be proved were the hour of trial, which is perhaps nearer than they are aware. to arrive. And almost all who have faith suppose they have it in greater measure than they really have it. There is no prayer that a Christian needs more frequently to present than, Lord, increase my faith. Deliver me from an evil heart of unbelief. A apostasy from God, whether partial or total, originates an unbelief. To have his faith increased, to have more extended and accurate and impressive views of the truth as it is in Jesus, ought to be the object of the Christian's most earnest desire and unremitting exertion. Just in the degree in which we obtain deliverance from the evil heart of unbelief, are we enabled to cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart, to follow Him fully, and in opposition to all the temptations to abandon his cause, to walk in all his commandments and ordinances blameless, to prevent so fearful and disastrous a result. As apostasy from the living God, the apostle calls on them to strengthen each other's faith in mutual exhortation and thus oppose those malignant and deceitful influences which had a tendency to harden them in impenitence and unbelief. Verse 13 But exhort one another daily, while it is cold today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For the explanation of this verse it will be necessary to turn our attention first to the evil into which the Hebrew Christians were in danger of falling, to being hardened. through the deceitfulness of sin, and then to the means which he recommends to be employed for preventing deceitful, de-exhorting one another daily while at the call today. To be hardened is to become insensible to the claims of Jesus Christ, so that they do not make their appropriate impression on the mind. In producing attention, faith, and obedience, he is hardened who is careless, unbelieving, impenitent, and disobedient. Into this day the professors of Christianity among the Jews were in danger of falling through the deceitfulness of sin, that is, through sins deceiving them. By sin, I apprehend, we are to understand anything inconsistent with the Law of Christ, whom professing believers acknowledge as their Lord and Master. For example, the neglecting to assemble themselves together for the observance of the ordinances of Christianity, to which the Apostle particularly refers in the subsequent part of the Epistle, But how is such a sin as is calculated to deceive them, and by deceiving, to harden them, to make them careless, unbelieving, and disobedient, so as that they depart from Christ, and in departing from Him, depart also from the living God? It is natural for man to wish to stand well with himself. Self-condemnation is one of the most intolerable of all feelings. When a man has, from whatever motive, done something that is inconsistent with the law of Christ, he naturally sets himself to extenuate to excuse, and if possible to defend his conduct. There is perhaps an attempt made to convince the mind that there really is no violation of the law of Christ, that the ordinary way of interpreting that law is unduly strict, or that if there was a violation it was in a circumstance scarcely avoidable, and if not justifiable altogether yet deserving of but very slight blame. In this state of mind, doubts of the reasonableness of the law he has transgressed, and of the authority to which it lays claim, present themselves to the mind, and instead of being immediately dismissed, meet with a welcome reception. These naturally lead to a repetition of the act of violation of the law of Christ. or to other violations of the law of Christ. And just as a backslider proceeds in its downward course, the process of thought above described is apt to become more and more habitual to him, till at last he becomes completely hardened against the claims which a word of Christ has on his attention, faith, and obedience. And finally, make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. Unbelief thus naturally leads to disobedience, and disobedience is naturally hardened sin and belief. It is equally true that the great obstacle in the way of a man's belief in the gospel and the most powerful incentive to apostasy from the gospel is the love of sin. The truth can be kept only in a good and honest heart. It can be held only in a pure conscience. Apostates from the truth often flatter themselves that they have yielded to the force of argument, but the just statement of the fact, is it given by the prophet, a deceived heart has turned them aside, or the apostle, they have been hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, the means which the apostle prescribes for preventing his evil is quite appropriate to its nature. exhort one another he says daily while it is called today the food of faith is truth and it's evidence all that man can do to produce faith and maintain faith is just to place these before the mind it is the duty of every christian knowing that there is in him an evil heart of unbelief Often to turn his own mind to a serious consideration of the truth and its evidence is contained in a volume of inspiration. And it is his duty, too, knowing that in every fellow Christian there is also an evil heart of unbelief, and especially if he perceived this evil heart manifest in itself in anything like a tendency to apostasy. To bring before his mind the truth and his evidence, that he may continue steadfast and unmovable, rooted and grounded and established in the faith in which he has been taught. This is, I apprehend, the mutual exhortation to which the Apostle refers. It deserves notice that the word rendered exhort is the same word which is often translated comfort. And it is very probably used to suggest the idea that nothing is better fitted to prevent apostasy than bringing before the mind a truth as to the exceeding great and precious promises made to those who hold fast a confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. It is a good news. the consolatory message of a free and full salvation through Christ Jesus. It is this, believed, which binds the heart to the Savior and to His law. It is quite right to imitate the apostle and place him before the mind of the backslider, the awful results of apostasy. But such statements alone will produce but little effect. Du Bois over-reconciled God behind him, proclaiming, Return to me, thou backsliding child, for I have redeemed you. When heard, we'll do more to prevent apostasy and induce him to turn his feet to God's testimonies and all the terrors of the tenfold damnation which awaits the apostate, though presented to the mind in the most striking and alarming form. The duty of public exhortation forms an important part of the duty of Christian pastors. But it is plain from the passage before us that it is the duty of all Christians, as they have opportunity, privately, to exhort and admonish one another, lest they be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. It is too much to practice the professors of Christianity in our times, when they perceive in one of their brethren a tendency as a thank to depart from the living God, to speak of it, to every person rather than to the one to whom alone is the first instance it ought to be spoken of, to lament over it in the presence of others, instead of endeavoring to remove the evil by friendly exhortation to the individual himself. and earnest prayer to God to render the use of the means prescribed by himself effectual for the purpose for which he has appointed it. The mutual exhortation the Apostle enjoins to be engaged in daily, while it is called today, they were to exhort one another daily, frequently, and without delay. Whenever we observe in Brethren what appears to us an indication of departure from the path of Christian truth and duty, we are to use the means prescribed by the inspired writer for bringing them back. Every step they take in the downward path makes their recovery more difficult, and yet a little while. and they will be removed beyond the reach of our exertions. If any of us have a friend whom we think in danger of that greatest of all evils, the loss of the soul, let us be speedy, diligent, earnest, whether by instruction, admonition, or prayer. Ah, how soon may he be in that world where warning is too late! What your hand finds to do in this way, do it with your might. For there is no work, nor device, nor wisdom, nor knowledge in the grave where you go. This idea seems intended to be suggested by the additional clause, while it is called today, in other words, while the voice of God still invites man to enter into his rest. As God's fellow workers, we should beseech them not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, I have heard you in an accepted time, and in the day of salvation have I succored you. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. The deceitfulness of sin and the precariousness of time are considerations which greatly strengthen each other. As the time wastes, the sinner hardens. Not only is the season passing away, but the work is becoming more difficult. It is plain that the duty here enjoined on the Hebrew Christians is, from the nature of the case, obligatory on Christians in all countries and in all ages. So long as there are evil hearts of unbelief and professors of Christianity, so long as they are exposed to the fascinating influences of an evil world, and the endless varied devices of the crafty old serpent, so long will they need to be exhorted daily lest they be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. To the right discharge of this duty much Christian wisdom and affection are necessary, but when rightly performed I am persuaded it very seldom fails of producing a happy effect. Surely when we consider the interests at stake, we ought not to be so backward as I am afraid we generally are to the discharge of this duty. What a power of motive is contained in these words of the Apostle James! Brethren, If any of you do err from the faith, and one convert him, let him know that he who converts a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. The importance of taking heed lest there was in any of them an evil heart of unbelief. and of their exhorting one another daily is placed in a strong point of light by the declaration made by the Apostle in the 14th verse. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. The striking analogy between these words and those in the sixth verse, which have already been explained, must be obvious to all. Whose house are we, if we hold fast to confidence and rejoice in the whole firm to the end? Some interpreters have considered the words, we are made partakers of Christ, as equivalent to, we shall be made partakers of Christ, Understanding by that, we shall be made participants of all the blessings of the Christian salvation, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. But the words will not admit this mode of exposition. The words literally translated are, we have been made partakers of Christ. And the following clause, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end, does not express a means of attaining the fellowship of Christ as something future, but the evidence of our having already attained that fellowship. To be a partaker of Christ is a phrase which nowhere else occurs in scripture, but we have parallel expressions such as to put on Christ, to be in Christ, to be members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. It is a very unduly attenuated sense to affix to the words to be partakers of the doctrine of Christ, or even to be partakers of His benefits. It is the result of the first, the cause of the second. To be a partaker of Christ is to be so closely related to Him as that God treats us not as we deserve, but as He deserves to be treated, so intimately connected with Him as that by His Spirit dwelling in us we are made partakers of His view and feelings. his mind, and will. This is to be a partaker of Christ. This is to be a true Christian. He is so joined to the Lord as to be one spirit with him. Whoever professes to be a Christian professes to be thus a partaker of Christ. But many make a false profession. All do so who do not hold fast the beginning of the Christian confidence steadfast to the end. The word translated confidence is not the same as that rendered by the same term in the sixth verse. There the confidence of the hope means, as I have endeavored to show, the free and fearless profession of the Christian hope both in word and in deed. Confidence here means firm persuasion. It is the same word which the Apostle makes use of in his definition or rather description of faith in the 11th chapter. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the persuasion of things hoped for. The Christian confidence or persuasion is just the faith of the gospel, the knowing and being sure that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life. the persuasion that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even the chief, that his blood cleanses from all sin, and that he is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him. The beginning or commencement of our confidence is, I apprehend, just our first or our original confidence or persuasion. It is by the faith of the truth which I have just stated that a man becomes a Christian, and it is by perseverance in that faith alone that he can obtain satisfactory evidence that he is a Christian. It is not the person who is carried about with every wind of doctrine, but it is the person who is rooted and grounded and established in the faith of the truth that manifests that he is a partaker of Christ. Continued faith in the truth, manifesting itself in those fruits of peace and joy and holiness which it uniformly produces, just in the degree in which it exists, is the only permanent satisfactory evidence that we are united to Christ Jesus and interested in the blessings of His salvation. When the Hebrews first received the gospel as good news of a full and free salvation to sinners, their faith and hope manifested itself in lively devotion brotherly love, patience on their suffering for Christ. And it was only by their holding fast this, their original faith and hope, that they can continue to enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that they were partakers of Christ Jesus.