(Heb. 11)
" We are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe [are of faith] to the saving of the soul." This is the brief and emphatic conclusion to the exhortations and warnings presented in the 10th chapter of this epistle. It is also the basis and groundwork of all that is unfolded, concerning the action and illustration and triumphs of faith, in the well-known chapter that follows. The peculiar force and pregnancy of the expression, " We are of faith," is the starting-point for the exhibition of the whole wondrous array of the examples of its power which this chapter is occupied in producing. •
Such a confirmation as this was especially needed by the Hebrews, disposed as they naturally were to attach undue and unwonted importance to outward and sensuous things. The natural mind universally is especially open to such appeals; but the Hebrews were surrounded by innumerable temptations to turn back again to these outward distinctions, and to be occupied again with the importance of ordinances and ritual observances, &c., which for a time had been displaced by the power of faith. But this power was now evidently on the decline. How seldom is it found in its true vigor! However, if faith be swerved from, which is the essential position of the gospel, the apostle shows that not only is the ground of Christianity surrendered, but the very characteristic distinction of all those who in every age have been acknowledged of God is surrendered too. For he adds, " By it [that is, by its possession] the elders obtained a good report "-were attested or borne witness of.
In the ' first living example of its power, which he adduces, he shows that, after sin had entered into the world, the only possible link of man's connection with God and ground of righteousness is that which faith supplies. In the subsequent examples, he as clearly lays open that the path of faith is the only possible pathway for the people of God through a world of evil, and is the only solution of its difficulties.
How faith is wrought in the soul is not the purpose of the apostle here to show. This may be learned from other sources, where we are taught that it is by the power of God's Spirit through the reception of the divine word. Here the distinctive points which are most strongly insisted on are its absolute necessity and its operative power.
The first verse of the chapter has been considered by some as presenting a logical definition of faith; but this is hardly so. It is rather a description of its power and province- the way in which it acts in those by whom it is possessed. The definition of faith is given in the passage, " He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true." It expresses its nature -that which makes it what it is. There may be every possible variety in the action and energy of faith, but it is this which constitutes its essence; and nothing can be more practically •important than that this should be clearly established in the mind. Because it is that which alone gives the word of God its due importance, by linking God Himself with the word.
In general statement, the first thing that is presented in the chapter is the action of faith in regard to future and unseen things: " Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." It gives to the discoveries of revelation, on which hope is based, an apprehended reality, a fundamental existence to the soul, which leads to the patient waiting for the things promised, and an unswerving expectation of their accomplishment. The apostle (Rom. 8:24,2624For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? (Romans 8:24)
26Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. (Romans 8:26)) taking notice of hope as regarding that which is unseen and future, says, " We are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth why cloth he yet hope for But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."
It would, I fear, startle some Christians, to be told that they were " saved by hope;" conscious as they would be, how little hope was an element in their salvation. But how much do we all need the effect of that prayer of the apostle, " Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost."
" Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." It is the demonstration or absolute conviction of their existence and character-their substantiation and embodiment to the mind within. So that it may be said not alone with reference to the scope and purpose of the heart swayed by the power of faith, but with regard to the perceptive faculty, " We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen."
The province of faith in regard to unseen things having been thus presented, it is next declared that creation comes within the scope of its cognizance. Not creation in its order and arrangement and vast extent-this the eye of man can contemplate, and science be occupied in unraveling. But creation as to its origination, which was the great puzzle of antiquity, and furnished a field of speculation where philosophic wisdom wandered, " in endless mazes lost," can alone be apprehended by the power of faith. " Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." The simple record of the first chapter of Genesis, we are thus told, is a record that can alone be scanned by the eye of faith. To unbelief it is a legend of impossibilities. To science it is an insoluble enigma; though it is ever busy in investigating the footprints of time, and attempting thus to invalidate what it cannot comprehend; or to declare that the simple statements of this record must be taken only in a mythic sense. To faith it is the lifting of the curtain of primeval ages to disclose the working and the majestic power of GOD. I repeat the declaration: " Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God [who " spake, and it was done,"] so that things which are seen are not made of things which do appear." So simply is the question about the eternity of matter set at rest! With so strong a hand are all the theogonies, whether ancient or modern, set aside! When I read the declaration, " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," if I reason, I of necessity disbelieve; because reason cannot reach up to the being and the power of God. Faith alone discerns that "GOD is." But then the difficulty vanishes; because I have God acting, and God revealing His acts.
I learn, then, " through faith," that the order and vastness and glory of creation are the effect of the powerful word of God. I learn, too, that the materials of this universe-its " elements," as they were wont, learnedly or ignorantly, to be called-received their being from God. Creation is not the mere impress of His hand to give order and beauty to a chaos that existed without His will and independently of His word. If untold ages had already run their course when that condition of matter was reached which is described by the earth being " without form and void," it only shows that the mind must travel back through the void of these untold ages until it reaches-" THE BEGINNING."
Because " in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," and " things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."
To most who may be expected to read these thoughts, perhaps, it will be matter of surprise that so much has been said about faith as the clue by which alone the mind can be guided through
the mystery of creation. Because simple minds formed by a habit of deference to the divine word may think that they scarcely find in it a mystery at all. That is because the secret is out. And the light of the divine word meeting with faith, the road is traveled with a confidence that never raises a question. But oh! if this clue were once withdrawn, not all the wisdom of man in all ages would be sufficient to guide a single soul through the hopeless labyrinth I Such is our indebtedness, even as to a knowledge of creation, to the inestimable word of God!
Faith is next presented as having to do with man's moral condition, and is seen to shed its light upon the question of righteousness before God. " By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that be was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he, being dead, yet speaketh."
Adam is passed by in the series of these examples, and is only presented in the divine word as " the figure of him that was to come." But this omission must not be construed into a proof of his continued or final alienation from God. By his act sin had entered into the world, and death and judgment became man's doom, and another is fitly presented as the example of righteousness brought in through sacrifice and grace, and the exercise of a faith which looked to God according to the light of the revelation He had made.
The details of the history, it is admitted, are brief and few; and the measure is not stated of the light possessed. But the elements of a judgment are strong and clear; and a special interest attaches to this first man standing forth on the dark background of sin, and condemnation, and death, and finding acceptance and an attestation by God that he was righteous. The exercises of his soul as a worshipper are not given; nor are the throes of conscience through which he might have passed, unfolded; but his faith is declared.
All that we see in the history is a man standing in the consciousness of the ruin and separation from God that has been produced by sin-himself and his parents, exiled from Paradise, the home of innocence, now the denizens of the earth that has been cursed with barrenness on man's account. The bread which he eats in the sweat of his face is the witness to him of his mortality; and he acknowledges that death is the righteous sentence of the judgment of God. He brings a lamb for a sacrifice-" of the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof" -he sheds the blood of his victim, and places death between himself and God. It is the expression of the faith he had as to his own condition, and the desert of sin before God, and of the way of deliverance from it; and we are told that he was thus accepted. " He obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts." Doubtless it was the faith of the offerer that stamped the sacrifice of Abel as more excellent than that of Cain. But there is more than this in it. In the selection of the offering there was declared the heart's submission to the solemn discovery made concerning sin by the revelation of God. In Cain's offering there was not only the witness of the absence of faith in him who brought it, but the rejection of the light of revelation which alone adequately disclosed man's ruin and God's way of deliverance. " Abel obtained witness that he was righteous;" but God testified of his gifts. So through Christ we have the personal attestation that we are righteous" justified from all things"-" made the righteousness of God." But this righteousness takes its character entirely from the worth and excellency of Christ's offering Himself to God. " He who-knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
In moral character, we know from Scripture that Abel was the opposite of Cain; and on this ground his presence became insupportable to him. As it is said, " Cain was of that wicked one and slew his brother, because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous." None who are not strangers to the truth will question the energetic power of faith in transforming the character; but prior to this the question to be answered is, " How shall man be just with God?" And blessed, infinitely blessed, is it to read the inspired statement, " When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." And " God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
(To be continued.)