labours to establish the absolute Majesty of the new dispensation in comparison with the old, he does so especially by connecting its power with the self-sacrifice of Christ. That which seemed to be the weakness of the Gospel is revealed upon a closer vision to be its strength. In proportion as men can feel what Christ is (such is the writer's argument) they can feel also how His death and His advocacy more than supply the place of all sacrifices and priestly intercessions, how they lay open the victory of humanity in the Son of man over sin and death. In other words, under this light the Death of Christ becomes intelligible in itself without regard to the thought of a Return. The sense of His present priestly action gains a new force. The paradox of a suffering Messiah is disclosed in its own glory.
Through such a view of Christ's work, illuminated in the fuller view of His Person, the Hebrew believer, in short, found his disappointments unexpectedly transformed. He recognised the majesty of Christ's spiritual triumph. He perceived the divine significance of Christ's sufferings, and through that he perceived also the interpretation of the sufferings of men. Thus the immediate purpose of the writer was fulfilled; and that which was an answer to the difficulties of the Hebrew Christian has been made the endowment of the whole Church. For in this Epistle we have what is found in no other Book of the N. T., that which may be called a philosophy of religion, of worship, of priesthood, centred in the Person of Christ. The form of the doctrine is determined by the O. T. foundations, but the doctrine itself is essentially new. In the light of the Gospel the whole teaching of the O. T. is seen to be a prophecy, unquestionable in the breadth and fulness of its scope.
But while the thoughts of the absolute value of Christ's sufferings and of the application of their virtue to men are brought out with prevailing force, it is not argued that all difficulty is removed from the present prospect of Christianity. There are still, the writer implies, difficulties in the state of things which we see. We cannot escape from them. But enough can be discerned to enable men to wait patiently for the appointed end. There is a triumph to come; and, in looking forward to this, Christians occupy the position which the Saints have always occupied, the position of faith, of faith under trials. The heroic records of ch. 11 lead up to the practical charge of Heb. 12:1 ff.
Meanwhile the writer calls upon his readers to make their choice boldly. Judaism was becoming, if it had not already become, anti-Christian. It must be given up (13:13). It was near vanishing away (8:13). It was no longer debated whether a Gentile Church could stand beside the Jewish Church, as in the first period of conflict in the apostolic age; or whether a Jewish Church should stand beside the Gentile Church, as in the next period. The Christian Church must be one and independent. And thus the Epistle is a monument of the last crisis of conflict out of which the Catholic Church rose. This view is the more impressive from the prominence which is assigned in the Epistle to the Old Testament, both to the writings and to the institutions which it hallows. There is not the least tendency towards disparagement of the one or the other.
From first to last it is maintained that God spoke to the fathers in the prophets. The message through the Son takes up and crowns all that had gone before. In each respect the New is the consummation of the Old. It offers a more perfect and absolute Revelation, carrying with it a more perfect