Messages from the Epistle to the Hebrews

Messages from the Epistle to the
Hebrews, by

Handley C.G. Moule This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at
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Title: Messages from the Epistle to the Hebrews
Author: Handley C.G. Moule
Release Date: August 4, 2007 [EBook #22237]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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MESSAGES FROM THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS

MESSAGES FROM
THE EPISTLE TO
THE HEBREWS
By HANDLEY C.G. MOULE, D.D. BISHOP OF DURHAM

LONDON: ELLIOT STOCK 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 1909
THE BIBLE IS THE SKY IN WHICH GOD HAS SET CHRIST THE
SUN.
JOHN KER, D.D.
First Edition May 1909 Second Impression July 1909

PREFACE
The following chapters are the work of intervals of leisure scattered
over a long time. The exposition had advanced some way when an
unexpected call to new and exacting duties compelled me to put it aside
for several years. Accordingly a certain difference of treatment in the
later chapters as compared with the earlier will probably be seen by the
reader, particularly a rather fuller detail in the exposition. But purpose
and plan are essentially the same throughout.
No attempt whatever is made, here or in the course of the work, to deal
with those literary and historical problems which so conspicuously
attach themselves to this Epistle. Who the "Hebrews" were is nowhere
discussed. Nor is any positive answer offered to a question to which

assuredly no such answer can be given, the question, namely, of the
authorship. In my opinion, in face of all that I have read to the contrary,
it still seems at least possible that the ultimate human author was St.
Paul. All, or very nearly all, the objections to his name which the
phenomena of the Epistle primâ facie present, and some of which lie
unquestionably deep, seem to be capable of a provisional answer if we
assume, what is so conceivable, that the Apostle committed his
message and its argument, on purpose, to a colleague so gifted,
mentally and by the Spirit, that he might be trusted to cast the work into
his own style. The well-known remark of Origen that only God knows
who "wrote" the Epistle appears to me to point (if we look at its context)
this way. Origen surely means by the "writer" what is meant in Rom.
xvi. 22. Only, on the hypothesis, the amanuensis of our Epistle was, for
a special purpose presumably, a Christian prophet in his own right.
In any case the author, if not an apostle, was a prophet. And he carries
to us a prophet's "burthen" of unspeakable import, and in words to
which all through the Christian ages the soul has responded as to the
words of the Holy Spirit.
HANDLEY DUNELM.
Easter, 1909.

CONTENTS
I PAGE
CONSIDER HIM 1 Heb. i.-ii.
II
A HEART OF FAITH 8 Heb. iii.
III
UNTO PERFECTION 14 Heb. iv.-vi.

IV
OUR GREAT MELCHIZEDEK 23 Heb. vii.
V
THE BETTER COVENANT 32 Heb. viii.
VI
SANCTUARY AND SACRIFICE 42 Heb. ix. VII
FULL, PERFECT, AND SUFFICIENT 51 Heb. x.
VIII
FAITH AND ITS POWER 61 Heb. xi. (I.).
IX
FAITH AND ITS ANNALS 71 Heb. xi. (II.).
X
FOLLOWERS OF THEM 80 Heb. xii. 1-14.
XI
SINAI AND SION 90 Heb. xii. 14-28.
XII
APPEALS AND INSTRUCTIONS 100 Heb. xiii. 1-14.
XIII
LAST WORDS 110 Heb. xiii. 15-25.

MESSAGES
FROM THE
EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS
CHAPTER I
CONSIDER HIM
HEB. i.-ii.
Let us open the Epistle to the Hebrews, with an aim simple and
altogether practical for heart and for life. Let us take it just as it stands,
and somewhat as a whole. We will not discuss its authorship,
interesting and extensive as that problem is. We will not attempt,
within the compass of a few short chapters, to expound continuously its
wonderful text. Rather, we will gather up from it some of its large and
conspicuous spiritual messages, taken as messages of the Word of God
"which liveth and abideth for ever."
No part of Holy Scripture is ever really out of date. But it is true
meanwhile that, as for persons so for periods, there are Scripture books
and Scripture truths which are more than ordinarily timely. It is not that
others are therefore