I. ROMANS. The Epistle to the Romans more than any other a complete treatise on the fundamentals of Christian doctrine, (1.) No fresh revelations from God can nullify those which preceded them, (2.) The points of truth that introduce the epistle, (3.) Faith—obedience its character, (4.) The apostle’s desire to communicate with those he had never seen, (5.) Beware of contracted views of salvation, (6.) Conscious deliverance in the power of the Holy Spirit should be the result of the gospel preached, (7.) The meaning of the phrase, “From faith to faith,” (8.) Not all that is now revealed is the gospel, (9.) Holding the truth in unrighteousness, who do it, (10.) The moral history of man, (11.) What the natural conscience of man can do, (12.) God’s judgment of man in respect of conscience and of law, (13.) The place of the Jew in this estimate of man, (14.) Condemned by that in which he blindly made his boast, (15.) Righteousness of God, what is it? (16.) Printer—mission of sins, (17.) God looks for the sinner’s submission, not his victory, (18.) The question is not what man should be for God, but what God can be and is for man, (19.) Abraham the proof of the value of faith in justification before God, (20.) Abraham’s circumcision never constituted his righteousness, (21.) The connection of the promise to Abraham with resurrection, (22.) What gives peace with God? (23.) Creature standing gone forever; the glory of God the only ground now, (24.) The difference between man’s guilt and man’s nature, (25.) Justification of life, (26.) Sin and death are proof of one man’s disobedience with or without law, (27.) Life and liberty are proofs of one man’s obedience, (28.) Practical holiness is not founded on Christ having died for my sins, but on my being dead to sin, (29.) Baptism means not that I must die to sin, but that I have died to it, (30.) Remission of sins and deliverance from sin essentially different, (31.) Christ dead and risen is the answer to both, (32.) God has not only pardoned the sinner, but condemned the fallen nature, (33.) Flesh and Spirit contrasted, (34.) The Spirit as a power, a divine person dwelling in us, (35.) How does the gospel affect Israel’s distinctive place? (36.) The blessing of being a son of Abraham depends on its descent through Isaac, (37.) Israel, lost but for mercy, are but on a level with Gentiles, (38.) The stumbling-stone the key to Israel’s coming ruin, (39.) “Whosoever,” (40.) Israel forced to bear witness that the heathen should be brought in, (41.) Israel past, present, and future, in Romans 9-11. (42.) Zion the scene of final triumph, (43.) Our reception of one another according to Christ’s reception of us, to the glory of God, (44.) True ministry gives not merely truth but suited truth to the saints, (45.).
II. FIRST CORINTHIANS. The unfolding of the assembly in a practical way is the object of this epistle, (46.) The unbelief of Christendom tries to annul this epistle more than any other, (47.) No amount of gift, in few or many, can of itself produce holy spiritual order, (48.) Corinth saw the early rise of the Church of God among the Gentiles, (49.) Christ crucified puts all man’s glory in the dust, (50.) Jew and Greek— opposite as the poles— agree thoroughly in slighting the cross, (51.) The cross more than redemption merely, (52.) Christ crucified the death—knell for all man’s wisdom, power, and righteousness, (53.) Man incapable of fathoming the depths of divine things, (54.) The Holy Spirit the sole means of communicating blessing to the saints, (55.) How little many a young convert knows what will best lead him on! (56.) What care each servant needs to take how and what he builds! (57.) The Apostle’s lowliness a source of reproach among men, (58.) his highest glory before God, (59.) Church discipline, (60.) Who are to exercise it? (61.) The Holy Spirit’s estimate of sin; what is a railer? (62.) Brother going to law with brother, (63.) Why personal purity is essential to a Christian, (64.) Revelation and inspiration, (65.) The commandment of the Lord, and a spiritual judgment, (66.) Marriage. The position of a slave, (67.) What a wonderful antithesis of man is the Second Man! (68.) Without responsibility nothing is more ruinous than power and liberty, (69.) What grace does in respect to matters of right, (70.) How to use a gift, (71.) The danger of liberty lapsing into license, (72.) True ground is no ground for false conduct, (73.) The grace of Christ and the authority of the Lord, (74.) People generally fail in that of which they boast most, (75.) Woman’s place in the assembly, (76.) What became her if she had the gift of prophecy? (77.) The Agape and its influence on the Lord’s Supper, (78.) The Apostle’s regulation concerning it, (79.) Spiritual powers and their source, (80.) In the spiritual body there are important members not seen at all, (81.) The church a vessel of power for the maintenance of God’s glory, and responsible for this here below, (82.) Gifts that suppose the exercise of spiritual understanding have a far higher place than others, (83.) The aim and purpose of prophesying, (84.) The difference between the power of the Spirit and the power of a demon, (85.) The connection between Christianity and the resurrection, (86.) From what root of evil clerisy has grown, (87.) Man likes to understand before he believes—this is ruinous to faith, (88.) What is meant by a “mystery,” (89.) We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, (90.) Do we every one of us give as we are prospered by the way? (91.) A selfish personal keeping to ourselves of what we have is even worse than a too lavish expenditure, (92.) Liberty and responsibility of ministry in their mutual relations, (93.) It is good to maintain the specialty of ministry in the Lord, (94.)
III. SECOND CORINTHIANS. Contrast between first and second epistles, (95.) Resemblance to the Epistle to the Philippians, (96.) Contrast with Philippians, (97.) Mutual consolation and affliction, (98.) The power of the Holy Spirit working in the new man lifts the believer completely above the flesh, (99.) “Yea and nay,” (100.) Satan has not lost but acquired in the dominion of the world a higher place by the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, (101.) The devotion of apostolic love, (102.) Directions for dealing with the humbled delinquent of the first epistle, (103.) There is nothing like a manifestation of grace to call out grace, (104.) Righteousness in Christ connected with heavenly glory, (105.) The saints a letter of commendation, (106.) The Lord that Spirit that giveth life, (107.) The Spirit of the Lord, (108.) The ministrations of death, life, righteousness, and glory, (109.) The ministration of the Spirit over and above life, (110.) come down from the exalted man in glory, (111.) The vessel that contains the heavenly treasure, (112.) Liveliness of nature hinders the manifestation of the treasure, but its judgment leaves room for the light to shine out, (113.) For we which live are always delivered unto death, (114.) “Clothed” and “naked,” (115.) Clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up of life, (116.) Always confident, (117.) The judgment-seat of Christ, (118.) and those who stand at it, (119.) The effect of manifestation, (120.) Contrast of Messianic hopes with a higher glory, (121.) A Christian not occupied with a Messiah come to bless the world, (122.) In Christ, and what it signifies, (123.) God was in Christ (not is), (124.) A sinner awakened takes God’s part against himself, (125.) It is never right to be narrow, and always wrong to be lax, (126.) Responsibility, individual as well as corporate, (127.) Inspiration far above the will of man, and the fruit of the action of the Holy Spirit, (128.) Contributions for saints, (129.) Trials of the Apostle in his labors of love, (130.) The prizes and honors the world gave him, (131.) A man in Christ taken up, in contrast with Paul in a basket let down, (132.) Patience a sign of apostleship, (133.) Conclusion, (134.)
IV. GALATIANS. A serious and grieved spirit manifest in the epistle, (135.) The fountain of grace touched by the intrusion of perverted law, (136.) Christianity knows nothing of successional arrangements, (137.) The facts of Christianity, and their value for the mind and walk, (138.) Abruptness of the opening of the Galatian letter, (139.) Integrity of the gospel as preached by Paul; any departure from it for another fatal, (140.) Rome, seeking to derive her authority from Peter, proclaims her identity with the circumcision, (141.) Connection between a servant and his testimony, (142.) Jealousy of man, when the grace of God works in a new channel and gives the go-by to antiquity, (143.) The Apostle separated from man by God, in order to proclaim more strikingly the singular ministry peculiar to him, (144.) Conference with flesh and blood out of place with a perfect revelation, (145.) Revelation of His Son in Paul and to Peter and the rest, (146.) Man, craving an appearance of unity and strength, sacrifices heaven for earth, Spirit for flesh, (147.) True desire for unity knows how to walk alone with God, (148.) Singularity of Paul’s conversion set in the highest place at the outset, (149.) Tenderness towards his nation does not prevent his snapping every earthly link with it, (150.) His testimony characteristically heavenly, (151.) Unity secured by deciding at Jerusalem the question of circumcision for Gentiles, (152.) The case of Titus, (153.) No interference with the work which others had been given to do, (154.) The gravity of Peter’s easy-going yieldingness to the Judaizing party, (155.) Peter’s act went to maintain a difference between Jew and Gentile, (156.) The true way to measure things is by their effect on Christ’s glory, (157.) The history of the flesh is soon over, but the history that faith opens into never closes, (158.) Everyone who goes back from such a gospel frustrates, as far as it goes, the grace of God, (159.) The cross judges the legalism of Galatians, as it judged the worldliness of Corinthians, (160.) The law holds out, but never gives, blessing, (161.) Gentiles were not under the curse of the law, (162.) The relation of law to the promises, (163.) “The seed” in its plurality, (164.) “The seed” in its unity, (165.) Christ the true Heir of all the promises of God, (166.) Promise was before the law, and flowed out of the grace of God, (167.) “God is one,” contrasted with the law which supposed two parties, (168.) In grace God in the person of His Son speaks and accomplishes all, (169.) Had grace and law been working together, there would have been two antagonistic roads to blessing, (170.) A person is not baptized into his own death, but into the death of Christ, (171.) Old and New Testament saints contrasted, (172.) “Abba,” the cry of the saint and Christ, (173.) Going back to Judaic elements is going back to heathenism, (174.) Idolatry no less gross because Jesus is the subject of it, (175.) Days and months and times and years, sensible helps to idolatry, (176.) “Be as I am; for I am as ye are,” (177.) An infirmity in the flesh, (178.) A stickler for law proves himself an Ishmaelite, (179.) Jerusalem and its desolate condition under law, (180.) There is no power for walk resulting from mere forgiveness of sins, (181.) Sense of duty is not power, (182.) Liberty first, power and love afterward, (183.) Occupation with Christ alone produces the love the law claimed, (184.) Power may be lost, responsibility never, (185.) Eternal life in a double sense: I have it and I seek it, (186.) If you take up the law in one particular, you must take it up altogether, (187.) Christianity brings everything to a climax, and settles all questions, (188.) “The marks of the Lord Jesus,” in contrast with circumcision, (189.)
V. EPHESIANS. God from Himself and for Himself, as the adequate motive and object before Him, even His own glory, (190.) The tendency to set aside what is personal for what is corporate, (191.) There is no place good enough for Christ, the Son, but heaven, (192.) Our blessing independent of the old creation, (193.) Angels not adequate judges of what pertains to us, (194.) “Child” differs in dignity from “Son” in its application to the Lord or the saints, (195.) The mistakes of human philosophy in its thoughts of the Godhead have arisen from importing the question of time, (196.) A divine nature given to us in its qualities of holiness and love, (197.) The terms wisdom and prudence applied to the saints, (198.) Not to be taken up as names or barren titles, (199.) There is nothing to indicate to mankind at large what God purposes to do, (200.) Nature and relationship, (201.) The riches of the glory of the inheritance, (202.) The Christian is even now the object of the very same power that raised up Christ from the dead, (203.) Christ was not raised up as an insulated individual, severed from others, (204.) The sinner’s place contrasted in Romans and Ephesians, (205.) Jew and Gentile in their mutual relation as sinners, (206.) God’s new workmanship, (207.) which workmanship we Christians are, (208.) A new man in which Jew and Gentile lose their distinctive place, (209.) The heavenly and the earthly aspect of the church, (210.) That which was first in counsel is last in revelation, (211.) The mystery revealed to holy apostles and prophets was not revealed by them all, (212.) The mystery does not mean the church merely, (213.) but Christ, and the church as a consequence, (214.) What the principalities and powers behold, (215.) The difference between the prayer of the first and that of the third chapter, (216.) Rooted that ye may be able, and so forth, (217.) Knowing Christ’s love, though unknowable, and God’s fullness, though infinite, (218.) The unity of the Spirit, (219.) Intrinsic unity, and of profession, (220.) Universal unity, (221.) Diversities, (222.) A man seated on the throne of God has given gifts to men, (223.) In vain to look for the church’s prosperity, if individual saints do not grow up unto Christ, (224.) Our duties flow from what we are or are made, (225.) God would have us imitate His own ways, as they have shone in Christ, (226.) Nor is there full Christian service, except in proportion as it is according to this pattern, (227.) Light is a necessity of the new nature, (228.) Christ is the pattern and perfection of grace in every relationship, (229.) What true Christian conflict is, (230.) not with flesh and blood, or nature, but with Satan, (231.) The armor of God, (232.) Activity for others, dependence for ourselves, (233.)
VI. PHILIPPIANS. Practical appeal rather than doctrine the subject of this epistle, (234.) Mingling Christ with the affairs of every day, (235.) Joy undimmed in the midst of the trials and sorrows of ordinary life, (236.) There is no theory that first love must necessarily cool down, but the contrary, (237.) The power of testimony destroyed by the allowance of evil insinuations against him who renders it, (238.) but Christian experience is developed in abounding love (239.) Begin with Christ, go on with Christ, until the day of Christ, (240.) Looking to the Lord, (241.) Once right about Christ, you are right about everything while He is before you, (242.) The moral harmony in the fact, that he who preached the gospel of the glory of Christ should be a prisoner at Rome, (243.) “My bonds in Christ,” (244.) Affliction added to bonds, (245.) “This shall turn to my salvation,” (246.) “In nothing I shall be ashamed,” (247.) “I” and “me” of Romans and Philippians contrasted, (248.) Fruit of labor; its meaning, (249.) Conversation becoming to the gospel of Christ, (250.) Fear and trembling has no dread or doubt in it, (251.) Suffering for Christ’s sake is a gift of His love, (252.) Energy apt to give occasion for strife and vain-glory, (253.) Two chief stages of Christ’s humiliation flowing out of His perfect love, (254.) All error founded on a misuse of a truth against the truth, (255.) An archangel at best but a servant, and can never rise above it. Jesus emptied Himself to become one, (256.) The difference between reconciliation and subjection, (257.) The Apostle’s picture of the saint resembles the Master, (258.) The true source of humility in service, (259.) Unselfish love, (260.) The third chapter parenthetical, to bring in the active side of the Christian in contrast with the passive, (261.) The only allusion to flesh in this epistle is in connection with its religious form, (262.) What it is to win Christ, (263.) To be in Christ is better than to have the righteousness of the law, (264.) Resurrection from the dead, (265.) Critical note on τὴν ἐξανάστασιν τῶν νεκρῶν, (265.) continued, (267.) Forgetting those things that are behind refers to the progress that we may make, (268.) “Differently minded” is not agreeing to differ, (269.) The name of Christ is the true center of the saints, (270.) The last chapter founded on the active and passive aspects of the Christian, (271.) A woman shines most where she does not appear, (272.) Labor or conflict in the gospel, (273.) Moderation, (274.) Requests, to whom to be made known, (275.) Having committed what is miserable to God, we can go on rejoicing in His goodness, (276.) Independence founded on dependence, (277.)
VII. COLOSSIANS. A counterpart, but a supplement, to Ephesians, (278,) the one presenting the Head, the other the body, (279.) Resemblance to Peter’s Epistles, (280.) The essential place of the Holy Spirit in Ephesians, (281.) The striking absence of allusion to Him in Colossians, (282.) This epistle a recall to Christ Himself, (283.) One may bow to Christ as Lord, and yet be painfully insensible to the higher glories of His person, (284.) Christianity is a thing of gradual growth in the soul, (285.) and not circumscribed by known limits, like philosophy, (286.) The inheritance of the saints in light, (287.) Christianity, instead of being helped by human philosophy, is only hindered and extinguished by it, (288.) Why is Christ first-born of all creation? (289.) As Creator of all things, (290.) How is Christ Head of the body? (291.) As firstborn from the dead, (292.) The fullness of Godhead dwelt in Jesus, (293.) but man would have none of it, and proved it above all in the cross, (294.) Satan allowed, apparently, to go on as if he had won the final victory, (295.) “If ye continue in the faith,” (296.) A minister of the gospel and of the church, two different spheres, (297.) Only Paul treats of justification by faith, (298.) The gospel to every creature under heaven; the church a select body, (299.) A gap, which Paul was deputed specially to write about, (300.) altogether in contrast with ancient or millennial glory, (301.) He who knows best the faithful love of Christ, is none the less an energetic laborer, (302.) What God is actually doing is the truth that needs pressing, (303.) The secret of true wisdom and blessing is in going on to know more of Christ than is already possessed, (304.) Ritualists and rationalists play into each other’s hands, (305.) The cross of Christ is the death-knell of the world, (306.) Atheism and Pantheism are the ultimate results of philosophy, (307.) The doctrine of baptism here is contrasted with Romans, (308.) One cannot be quickened with Christ without having all trespasses forgiven, (309.) In what consists “not holding the head,” (310.) There was no Christianity before Christ rose from the dead, (311.) The Ritualistic system traitorous to Him who died on the cross, (312.) Striving to be dead to what is wrong is but the law in a new and impossible shape, (313.) Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, (314.) Ought I not to share my Master’s shame and dishonor here? (315.) Corruption of inner feeling in contrast with that which goes on outside of us, (316.) Put on charity, (317.) The peace “of Christ,” (318.) Continuance in prayer, (319.) What a spring of power is the love of Christ! (320.) Paul narrowed himself to no local ties, (321.) There are no portions of the sacred writings lost, (322.)
VIII. THESSALONIANS. Any truth specially given by God is immediately the object of Satan’s continual and subtle attacks, (323.) “In God the Father” suggests an infantine condition rather than an advanced stage, (324.) How to deal with the entrance of error and the dangers that threaten the children of God, (325.) We should consider the manner God deals with saints in any special place, (326.) Simplicity is the secret for enjoying the truth as well as for receiving it, (327.) Do not attempt to draw from Scripture more than it undertakes to convey, (328.) What the first chapter teaches in respect to the Lord’s coming, (329.) How the Apostle adapted his ministrations to the advancing requirements of the Thessalonians, (330.) A sketch of that suffering which faith entails, (331.) Why men oppose the truth, (332.) Christianity not dreamy nor sentimental, but most real in its power of adapting itself to every need, (333.) The two prayers in this epistle, (334.) Love always precedes holiness, (335.) which is the fruit of the love to which the heart has surrendered, (336.) Why Thessalonians should be warned of even the grossest sins, (337.) The Aristotles and Platos not fit for decent company, (338.) Disadvantages Thessalonians labored under, and which do not fall to our lot, (339.) They had no fear of being lost, but were not clear what the Lord would do with them, (340.) Newly entered light gives occasion to the perception of much which we cannot solve at once, (341.) The character of the “shout,” and by whom it will be heard, (342.) The “day of the Lord” never applied to any dealing with the Christian as on the earth, (343.) It was too notorious a period to need fresh words about it, (344.) The presence of the Lord and the day of Jehovah, if confounded, reveal a secret of the heart, (345.) “Wake or sleep,”—beware of verbal analogies, (346.) For some to be over others in the Lord did not depend on apostolic appointment only, (347.) Disorderly folk are apt to know nobody over them in the Lord, (348.) The object of the second epistle, (349.) The terrors of “that day” used by the enemy to unsettle during a period of persecution, (350.) Traceable to a lack of that “patience of hope” which characterized an early faith, (351.) The two classes on whom vengeance will fall in “that day,” (352.) Gentiles know not God, and Jews obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, (353.) Both are the guilty tools of Satan, and shall be punished with everlasting destruction, (354.) Ἐνἐστηκε does not mean “at hand,” but “actually come,” (355.) The trouble of “that day” will befall the enemies, not the friends, of the Lord, (356.) If one is taught a truth by God, why be troubled about what comes from any other quarter? (357.) Some of the most important parts of Satan’s means for bringing about the apostasy are now actively at work, (358.) Jerusalem and Rome, (359.) The restraint and the restrainer, (360.) Every Christian waits for Christ with more or less intelligence, (361.) Events following the removal of the restraint, (362.) With startling rapidity events in our day are leading on to the brink of the precipice, (363.) The idea that the Roman empire is the restraining power not altogether wide of the mark, (364.) The patience of Christ is a keynote maintained from first to last, (365.)
IX. FIRST AND SECOND TIMOTHY. Confidential communication from the Apostle to some of his fellow laborers, (366.) A Saviour God is in contrast with His dealings under law or government, (367.) Mellowed tone observable in the writings of the apostle as he drew to the close of his career, (368.) How the term “commandment” is sometimes misused, (369.) The negative use of the law, (370.) The law not enacted for the Christian, (371.) Sound doctrine—what is comprised in it, (372.) Ordinary duties of life in connection with the gospel of the glory, (373.) The faith and a good conscience, (374.) Delivery to Satan—its object, (375.) How often pre-occupation within makes us forget those without, (376.) Exhortation pursued in respect of that which would meet the eye even of an unconverted person, (377.) The way in which a woman can contribute to a right and godly testimony, (378.) Woman, and her lot here below, (379.) The personal qualifications of an overseer, (380.) Home influence in its relation to the house of God, (381.) The invalidity of present appointment to office, (382.) The qualifications of deacons and their wives, (383.) We are called to be a manifestation of the truth before the world, (384.) Faith waits till it gets a distinct word from God, (385.) The mystery of godliness, (386.) and its connection with the minutest affairs of work-a-day life, (387.) Every creature of God is good, (388.) Those who seek to give out had better take care they take in, (389.) The decorum that becomes everyone, especially a young man, enjoined upon Timothy, (390.) There is nothing either too great or too little for the Holy Spirit, (391.) The value of piety with a contented mind, (392.)
The character of the second epistle, (393.) A deep sense of what can be owned in nature can only follow a due apprehension of what God is— nature set aside, (394.) Timothy’s sensitive nature finds full sympathy in the Apostle’s large heart, (395.) while he accustoms his mind to expect hardship instead of shirking it, (396.) The disorder of the house of God in this epistle, (397.) In such a state of things, do the will of God; let others say what they please, (398.) There are very few saints from whom we may not derive some good, though not always in the same way, (399.) A single eye to Christ and His grace made Paul consistent, (400.) The firm foundation of God stands, (401.) Why one cannot deal as simply with people now as in apostolic times, (402.) It is not maintaining the unity of the Spirit to couple with the name of the Lord that which is fleshly and sinful, (403.) Isolation never desirable, though sometimes necessary, (404.) “Physical Christianity” a heathenish phrase, but designating much that finds its place in these last days, (405.) It is a matter of no little importance who says this or that, (406.) The importance of preaching the word when men will not endure sound doctrine, (407.) The coming of the Lord in no way manifests the faithfulness of the servant; the appearing will, (408.) A book or a cloak not too small a matter to bring the Spirit of God into, (409.)
X. Titus. More prominence is given to external order in writing to Titus than to Timothy, (410.) To acknowledge the truth which is after godliness is always a duty, even after the house of God has been grievously affected, (411.) God’s elect, (412.) The truth of eternal life is brought out far more fully in the decay of Christian profession, (413.) There was no such thing as preaching known during the most considerable part of the world’s history, (414.) The universality of the testimony of grace in contrast with the narrow limits of law, (415.) Summary of the world’s history, to show that eternal life in Christ before the world began shines out most brilliantly at its close, (416.) The circle of Divine life may seem narrow, but nothing can rival it in point of large and deep affection, (417.) When a ministry of death and condemnation was in question, a limit was good and wise; but with eternal life and remission of sins, how different! (418.) John takes up the very point at which Paul leaves off, (419.) The present state of Christendom renders it fitting that there should be “things wanting” now, (420.) but then that makes the Word of God the more precious to those who feel the lack, (421.) No one can appoint, save those who have authority so to do, (422.) A state of ruin always tests the heart more than when things are in primitive order, (423.) Eldership is likely to be passed by, under the more attractive service of the word in public work, (424.) If we see men who have the qualities, and do the work of elders, we should respect them as such, (425.) Elders are a local charge, (426.) National character to be taken into account when dealing with souls, (427.) Never interpose the teacher, nor the mere letter of a duty, between the soul and the Lord, (428.) Nothing more marks Christianity than its elasticity and breadth, (429.) The power of Christ lends dignity to the very smallest thing that occupies the heart and mind, (430.) There is no relationship, not a single thing of the most ordinary kind, that does not become a test, (431.) If God pays particular attention to any, it is to those that man as such despised-slaves, (432.) Distinction between worldly and fleshly lusts, (433.) The falsehood of either ameliorating human nature or of improving the world will soon end in worse confusion and in sorest judgment, (434.) The antagonist of the Son of God has prompted men to abuse His grace so as to deny His glory, (435.) The difference between “the washing of regeneration” and “the renewing of the Holy Ghost,” (436.) Plain everyday need goes along with the deepest truth, (437.) What is a heretic? (438.) What to do with a heretic, (439.) The whole root of it is self, (440.) Heresies in 1 Corinthians 11:1919For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. (1 Corinthians 11:19), (441.) It is a great mistake to suppose that there may not be such a thing as arrangement in ministry, (442.) Yet it is not everybody that possesses a competent judgment about such a matter, (443.)
XI. PHILEMON. This has altogether a different character from the epistles that have lately been occupying us, (444.) Philemon, Apphia, Archippus, (445.) What movements of heart about a runaway slave! (446.) The most excellent of men have broken down occasionally by the pettiest things that entice or provoke self, (447.) Would Paul the prisoner and the aged make an ineffectual claim on the heart of Philemon? (448.) The delicacy of feeling and the sense of propriety which grace forms are truly exquisite, (449.) It is not always a question of doing a right thing, but of doing it in the right way, (450.) Christianity is not a system of earthly righteousness, but the unfolding of the grace of Christ and of heavenly hopes, (451.) The heart that could stand out against such appeals of grace was far from Philemon, (452.)
XII. HEBREWS. Reasons for supposing Paul to be the writer of this epistle, (453.) His name suppressed because he takes the place of a teacher and not of an apostle, (454.) The epistle is a consummate treatise upon the bearing of Christ and Christianity on the law and the prophets, (455.) Paul would show them thus the infinite dignity of the Messiah whom they had received, (456.) Who so suitable to introduce Jesus, the rejected Messiah, at the right hand of God, as Saul of Tarsus? (457.) A striking absence of allusion to the one body, (458.) But there was One dearer to the heart of Paul than the church itself, (459.) Reduce the glory of Christ, and you equally lower your judgment of the state of man, (460.) Previous revelation to Israel partial and piecemeal, but in Christ the fullness of the truth shines out, (461.) The place angels held in the Jewish mind, (462.) used to bring into greater relief the astonishing place of man in the person of Christ, (463.) God never singled out an angel, and said, “Thou art My Son!” (464.) But unto the Son He saith, “Thy throne, O God,” (465.) Messiah is called “Jehovah,” and that in His deepest shame, (466.) The perfection of Messiah’s submission in contrast with the permanence of Jehovah, (467.) Then His exaltation on high as man till the hour of judgment on His foes, (468.) The glory of Christ as Son of Man, (469.) Man—his position in the world to come, (470.) Christ’s death the ground of reconciliation for the universe, (471.) The doctrine of the epistle, and its suitability to the wants of the believer traversing the wilderness, (472.) Common place of the Sanctifier with the sanctified, (473.) Sin atoned for, persons reconciled, (474.) Chapters 1 and 2 introduce the basis of the high-priesthood; chapters 3 and 4 a digression, linking themselves, however, with the first two, (474a.) The Apostle and high priest of our profession is in contrast with that of the Jews, (475.) Difficulty at first in reconciling the fact of a Messiah come, and gone to glory, with a people left in shame and sorrow, (476.) explained by the fact, that the path of the people of God is a path of faith now, just as it was before, (477.) What is the meaning of the rest of God? (478.) “We which have believed do enter into rest”—its bearing, (479.) God had rested from His works, but had never rested in them, (480.) The rest is still beyond, (481.) “There remaineth therefore a rest,” (482.) Mistake to apply the rest to rest of conscience, (483.) In chapter 5 we enter on the priesthood, (484.) “For every high priest taken from among men” cannot apply to Christ, (485.) Such is not the Priest God has given us, (486.) At the same time there is no forgetfulness of the suffering obedience of Christ’s place here below, (487.) Religious tradition and philosophy are the main sources of spiritual dullness, (488.) Hebrews pressed as to their excessive danger of abandoning Christ for religious traditions, (489.) The word of the beginning of Christ, (490.) The description of a confessor with all the crowning evidences of the gospel, but not a converted man, (491.) κοινωνὶ and μέτοχοι, (492.) Renewal to repentance an impossibility, and why, (493.) The promise to Abraham, and the hope set before us, (494.) The weakest faith that the New Testament acknowledges—fleeing for refuge, (495.) Followed by strong consolation—even that which enters within the veil, (496.) The great theme—Christ a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec—resumed, (497.) The time for the proper exercise of the Melchisedec priesthood of Christ is not yet arrived, (498.) Meanwhile the Spirit of God directs attention, not to the exercise, but to the order of the Melchisedec priest, (499.) The indisputable superiority of the Melchisedec priesthood to that of Aaron, (500.) This Priest was to be a living, undying Priest, (501.) Jehovah’s oath, (502.) A Priest always in connection with the people of God; never as such with those outside, (503.) It became God that Christ should go down to the uttermost—us that He should be exalted to the highest, (504.) “On high” and “in the heavens,” (505.) The exercise of the functions of Christ as a Priest, (506.) and as a Mediator of the new covenant, (507.) Remarkable how little the Holy Spirit appears in this epistle, (508.) Why the tabernacle is always referred to, and not the temple, (509.) Why allusion to the sanctuary is made, (510.) The rent veil, (511.) διαθήκη means “testament” as well as “covenant,” (512.) Why it should be “testament” in two places alone and covenant in all others, (513.) ὀ διαθέμενος is rightly rendered “the testator,” (514.) The contracting party had not to die, (515.) The death of Christ, both in the sense of a victim sacrificed and of a testator, though a double figure, is evident to all, (516.) There is but one offering and one suffering of Christ once for all, (517.) He who was without sin in His person and all His life, had everything to do with sin on the cross, (518.) Christianity comes in between the work of Christ and His coming in glory, (519.) “Conscience of sins” means a dread of God’s judging one because of his sins, (520.) A book which none ever saw but God and His Son, (521.) Εἰς τὸ διηνικἐς does not express for eternity, but “for continuance,” (522.) The Jew never understood his law till the light of Christ on the cross and in glory shone on it, (523.) In chapter 6 are warnings for those who turn from Christianity; in chapter 10 for those who turn from the one sacrifice, (524.) Similarities in the two chapters, (525.) What faith is, (526.) A simple word of Scripture settles a thousand questions, (527.) Reason is ever drawing conclusions: God is, and reveals what is, (528.) Faith brings God into everything, (529.) Abraham and his faith, (530.) Moses acts in faith, not policy, (531.) What is the “better thing” provided for us? (532.) The reward of the life of faith, (533.) In this epistle the old and new natures are not separated, as in the other epistles, (534.) Saints are here dealt with as to their walk, (535.) There is nothing more serious than to set grace against holiness, (536.) A magnificent picture of Christianity in contrast with Judaism, (537.) Sinai and Zion, (538.) The special glories of Zion, (539.) The heavenly city that Abraham looked for, (540.) The spirits of just men made perfect, (541.) How the most awful threat is turned into the most blessed promise, (542.) Practical exhortations, (543.) Christendom takes the middle ground of Judaism, (544.) Access into the holiest involves also the place of ashes outside the camp, (545.) Are these two things true of you? (546.) All the effort of Christendom is first to deny the one, and then to escape from the other, (547.) God’s final call, (548.) Two kinds of sacrifice to which we are now called, (549.) Closing remarks, (550.) No place of death to sin, the law, or the world, no privilege of union with Christ, will enable a soul to dispense with the truths contained in this Epistle to the Hebrews, (551.)