XXII THE PRINCIPLE OF CHRISTIAN PROGRESS1 BUT WE ARE NOT OF THEM THAT SHRINK BACK UNTO PERDITION; BUT OF THEM THAT HAVE FAITH UNTO THE SAVING OF THE SOUL.Hebrews x. 39. I. THESE words carry back our minds to the first and greatest crisis of Christianity, for they were written (if we may assume the soundness of what appears the most probable opinion on the point) just before the outbreak of the Jewish War, in which the political framework of Judaism was to perish, and Israel as a nation was to be blotted out from the world's reckoning. The Hebrew believers had clung to their ancestral connexions. Neither the harshness of the Jewish authorities, nor the eager reasonings of ST. PAUL, had been able to loosen their hold on the religious habit which they had 1 Preached in the City Temple on Passion Sunday, March 25, 1917, in the morning. received from the past. They had persisted in assuming that the Divinely ordained system of Israel would ultimately prove itself to be elastic enough to include the new Society of Disciples, that (in spite of the LORD'S warning) the "OLD WINESKINS" of Jewish legalism would be able to contain the "NEW WINE" of Evangelical liberty. This assumption determined their religious practice, and governed their theological thinking. At the end of a whole generation from the LORD'S 'departure, they remained still, to outward seeming, devout Israelites, regular worshippers in the Temple on Zion, differing only from the rest by their belief in JESUS as the Messiah, and by the higher level of morality which that belief inspired. Sooner or later, they were persuaded, Israel would acknowledge its true King, and the noble prophecies of Scripture would receive their plenary fulfilment. Moreover, they confidently expected the MESSIAH'S triumphant return to authenticate HIS Claim, and to reward their Faith. These two assumptions, the conversion of Israel, and the speedy Coming of CHRIST, were the substructures of their personal religion, on which they built a fabric of patience and hope strong enough to sustain the repeated shocks of disappointment and persecution. But inexorable Time was testing these governing assumptions, and it was slowly but surely disproving them. The Jewish People as a whole was quite clearly hardening its attitude into an irrevocable refusal to accept a Crucified Messiah, and JESUS Himself did not return, as He had been understood to promise, and as the Hebrews had confidently believed that HE would. A new situation was emerging for these conservative believers, nay had already emerged, and for good or for ill, for the enlargement, or for the destruction, of their faith, they might no longer refuse to face it. In this juncture an inspired writer, the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, brings the guidance that was needed. He calls upon his readers to make their choice boldly. Judaism was becoming, if it had not already become, antiChristian. It must be given up. It was 'NEAR VANISHING AWAY.' The Christian Church must be one and independent." Thus, observes Bishop WESTCOTT, "the Epistle is a monument of the last crisis of conflict out of which the Catholic Church arose.' "1 2. With these facts in mind consider the text. "WE CHRISTIANS," says the Apostle, "ARE NOT OF THEM THAT SHRINK BACK UNTO PERDITION; 1 Vide Hebrews, p. lviii. BUT OF THEM THAT HAVE FAITH UNTO THE SAVING OF THE SOUL." He sets before us two types of men, and indicates two conceptions of religion. An exacter rendering of the words makes their meaning yet clearer. "WE ARE NOT OF SHRINKING BACK, BUT OF FAITH." Our gaze is directed not backwards to a past which is ever remoter, but forwards to a future which is ever nearer. The principle of our religion is not retrogression to that which once was, and is no more: but progress to that which never yet has been, and yet shall be. We are not a garrison set to guard a beleaguered city, but the Army of the LORD, following HIM to the conquest of the world. Nothing less is the dénoûment of human history to which we look forward. ISAIAH'S prophecy is destined to receive fulfilment: "THE EARTH SHALL BE FULL OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD, AS THE WATERS COVER THE SEA." JESUS shall reign where'er the sun Doth his successive journeys run; His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, The catholicity of the Gospel is disclosed by the simple interpretation of its scope, and the statement of its Divinely guaranteed destiny. * The two words contrasted in the text, "shrinking back" (VπоσTOλý), and "faith" (TioTis), deserve our careful notice. The first has an interest of its own, It as being here only used in the New Testament. is not found in the Septuagint, or in any other Greek version of the older Scriptures, and it is (we are assured) unused by the classical Greek writers. The verb from which it is formed is, however, found in an interesting passage, which throws light on the text. In the Epistle to the Galatians ST. PAUL is led to give some passages of his own life, and among others that memorable episode when he came into open collision with the chief of the Apostles at Antioch. The question at issue was the recognition of Gentile believers, whom the stricter Jews refused to acknowledge as in the full sense members of the Christian Church. ST. PETER, to whom had been vouchsafed a Divine revelation which left him in no doubt on the question, had first acted with liberality, and then (when orthodox opposition was threatened) had changed his attitude. The more resolute spirit of ST. PAUL could not tolerate such vacillation. "BUT WHEN CEPHAS CAME TO ANTIOCH, I RESISTED HIM TO THE FACE, * I have repeated much of pp. 235-240. When the substance was required by the argument, it did not seem worth while to vary the phrasing. |