1. Rev. to the Fathers; First Begotten Son; Sitting in State; Ministry of Angels II. Drifting from Truth; Christian Soldier and Leader; Conquest through Death; III. God the Creator; Danger of Hardening; Danger of delay; Folly of Unbelief IV. Lost in sight of Port; Faith that Saves; Word of God a Discerner; Allseeing VI. Leaving first principles; Burning Barren Fields; Labour of Love; Following others to God; True Refuge; Anchor hold; Nearness of Heaven; Melchizedek 5-8 8-14 14-17 17, 18 19-23 23-28 29 IX. Veils of the Temple; Promise of Eterral Inheritance; Ratification of God's 29-32 x. Shadow and Image; Free Pardon; Fear of Judgment; Sinning against light; XI. Faith; God's works witnessing to Him; Dead, yet Speaking; Believe in God; Tents; Faith and its fruits; Strangers and Pilgrims; Decision of character; Reproach of Christ; Power of Faith; Tradition of Isaiah's death; Shelter in XII. Lay aside every Weight; Motives to Courage; Joy of Savirg; Affliction no proof of God's anger; God's Dealings with us; Subjection to Parents; Uses of afflic- tion; Watching lest others fail; Mount Sinai; The General Assembly; XIII. Brotherly love; God's help in time of need; Easily turned aside; No Continuing 1. Scattered Tribes; Temptation and Patience; Examples of Prayer; Fading of Riches; Adaptations of Temptation; God's provisions; Engrafted Word; Practical Religion; Forgetful Hearer; Men's Inconsistencies; Pure 11. Respect of persons; Favouritism; Poor, rich in Faith; Weak link in Chain; III. Ships and Rudders; Tongue and Evil speaking; Little sins; The Tongue a fire; 58-66 66-73 73-8 85-91 1. Traditional History of Peter; Trial of Faith; Faith in Absent One; Redemption II. Living Stones; Christ precious in death; Strangers and Pilgrims; Political 111. Won by the Wives: Plaiting the Hair; Courtesy; Revenge; Evil Speaking IV. Hospitality; Danger of Unbelief v. Clothed with Humility; God's Care; Christ ians at Babylon iv CHAP. CONTENTS. PAGE II. PETER. 1. Brotherly Kinless; Making Calling sure; Abundant Entrance; Tradition of Peter's Death; Remember what we read; The Sure Word 11. Tartarus; Christian in World; Lesson from Beasts; Slavery of Sin; Sow III. Destruction of Universe Ready for Voyage; Influence of fire; Difficulties I. JOHN. 1. Bible Word of Life; Dignity of Christian; John's Banishment; Isle of Patmos ; Views of Heaven on Sabbath; Angels of Churches 11. Ruins of Ephesus; Nicolaitanes; Christ the Tree of Life; Smyrna; Faithful to the end; Crowns for Conquerors; Pergamos ; Satan's seat; Holding fast the faith; White stone; Thyatira; Jezebel III. Sardis; White the Royal Colour; Philadelphia; Pillars in Temple of God; Laodicea; God's Love in Affliction; Light of World iv. Jasper and Sardine Stone; Four Living Creatures; Ministerial Boldness v. Written Scrolls; Agnus Dei; Praises of Church; Activity in Heaven EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. HEBREWS I. 1221.-REVELATIONS TO THE FATHERS. Heb. I. I." God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets." [R.V.] "God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners." sun makes the clouds his Weary of shining before Illustrative.-There are days on which the chariot, and travels on curtained behind them. a drowsy, thankless world, he covers the glory of his face, but will not quite take away the blessing of his light; and now and then, as it were in pity, he withdraws the veil for a moment, and looks forth to assure the earth that her best friend is still watching over her in the heavens, like those occasional visitations by which the Lord, before the birth of the Saviour, assured mankind that He was still their God.-Guesses at Truth. Expository.-The fine arrangement of the words in the Authorized Version fails, it must be confessed, to convey the emphasis which is designed in the original. The writer's object is to place the former revelation over against that which has now been given, and the remarkable words with which the chapter opens (and which might, not inaptly, serve as the motto of the whole epistle), strikes the first note of contrast. If we may imitate the artistic arrangement of the Greeks, the verse will run thus :-" In many portions and in many ways, God having of old spoken unto the fathers by the prophets." To the fathers of the Jewish people (comp. Rom. ix. 5) God's word was given part by part, and in divers manners. It came in the revelations of the patriarchal age, in the successive portions of Holy Writ; various truths were successively unveiled through the varying ministry of law, and of prophecy, and of promise, ever growing clearer through the teaching of experience and history. At one time, the word came in direct precept, at another in typical ordinance or act, at another in parable or psalm. The word 2 THE FIRST-BEGOTTEN SON. thus dealt out in fragments and variously imparted was God's word, for the revealing Spirit of God was in the prophets.-Com. for English Readers. The God spake at sundry times, and He spake in divers manners. Jewish Doctors observed four degrees of Divine revelation. The first they called Prophecy, which included vision, and any apparition whereby the will of God was made known. They had a second way of Divine revelation, which they called the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, whereby the party was enabled without vision or apparition to prophesy, either as prophesying is taken for the foretelling of things to come, or for the resolving of things in doubt. The Rabbins give us the difference between these two, prophecy and inspiration in prophecy (though it was from the Holy Ghost) a man was cast into a trance, or brought into an ecstasy, his senses being taken away; but speaking by inspiration of the Holy Ghost was without any such change in or impressions upon the body. So David and other penmen of the Scriptures wrote by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost, yet without visible apparitions to them, or visible change upon them. Thirdly, God revealed Himself by Urim and Thummim, which was an answer given by the ephod, or by the stones that were on the breastplate of the high-priest. These three ways of Divine revelation, as they observe, ceased in the second Temple: the Jewish writers having this tradition, that after the later prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the Holy Ghost departed from "Israel"; meaning the Holy Ghost, not in the ordinary work of sanctification, but in those extraordinary ways of prophecy, inspiration, and of the Urim and Thummim, went up and departed from them. There was yet a fourth way of Divine revelation, which they call Bathcol, the daughter of a voice, or echo, declaring the will of God immediately from heaven. Such some conceive to be the voice heard from heaven (Matt. iii. 17), proclaiming the testimony of God concerning Christ : "And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 1222.-THE FIRST-BEGOTTEN SON. Heb. i. 6. -"When He bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him." [R.V.]1 “Again." Illustrative.—It was during the reign of Theodosius the Great, in the fourth century, that the Arians made their most vigorous attempts to undermine the doctrine of the divinity of Jesus Christ. The event, however, of his making his son Arcadius partner with himself on his throne was happily over-ruled to his seeing the God-dishonouring character of their creed. Among the bishops who came to congratulate him on the |