born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

"And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." I do not think this means the blood of Abel, but the blood of Abel's sacrifice. That was accepted of God for reconciliation and forgiveness, but the blood of the Mediator of the new covenant speaketh better things; inasmuch as it has brought us into the most holy place, within the veil, into this spiritual community of earth and heaven. As the apostle said to the Ephesians: "Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." We are now one family, Jesus being in the midst, a Mediator. All is peace, God reconciled, our Father and our God. But even this revelation of earthly bliss must be followed by exhortation.

"See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven.

"For our God is a consuming fire."

I must here notice one or two remarkable features of this epistle. First, St. Paul does not use in it the name JEHOVAH, as he does in other epistles. In Phil. iv. 4 we read: "Rejoice in the JEHOVAH alway; and again I say rejoice." In Eph. vi. 24 we read: "Grace be with all them that love our JEHOVAH Jesus Christ in sincerity;" and similar expressions throughout his epistles. The more spiritual union with those to whom he was writing, the more

often did he use this form of expression: not so in writing to the Hebrews. Here, when he uses the title, it is either when he is quoting from the Jewish Scriptures, or, I think once, where the passage may have been of the Laodicean epistle. I will point out the passages, and then inquire why this was so. Heb. i. 10; Psa. cii. 25, 26; Isa. li. 6, xxxiv. 4; Heb. x. 16; Jer. xxxi. 31, xxxiii. 34; Heb. xii. 5, 6; Job v. 17; Prov. iii. 11, 12; Heb. xiii. 6; Psa. xxvii. 1; Heb. xiii. 20; Rom. xv. 33. Now why was it that St. Paul did not use the name JEHOVAH, at most, but once in writing to the Hebrews? Most certainly it was not from fear he did not fear a martyr's death, and therefore we are sure he did not fear using the name. On the contrary, he dared have rung it out throughout the land, if that could have saved Israel. Was it from indifference to the subject? Did he descend to a spirit of compromise? No, that man of gigantic faith did not do that. The Jews had a superstitious awe of the name JEHOVAH, and after the captivity of Babylon they forbore even to pronounce it, substituting for it Adonai or Elohim. I have shown before, it very likely came into disuse in Babylon, as during the seventy years of the captivity we do not once find Daniel using it till he turned to the prophecy of Jeremiah, and found that the seventy years had expired (Jer. xxv. 11, 12, xxix. 10). Then his supplication was to the JEHOVAH GOD, and he obtained the most striking answer to prayer recorded of men (Daniel ix.). Had the apostle declared to the Hebrews that Christ was the great JEHOVAH, the name, and the Being that was more venerated, more feared, and whom they them

selves believed they more worshipped than any other Being, it would have been considered by them blasphemy too gross and too satanic to be tolerated; and if he had put his name to an epistle to them, with such a declaration, he would at once have suffered death for blasphemy. Instead of this, therefore, he most judiciously quoted from their most revered prophets, from David particularly, from whose royal house they expected their Messiah, Deliverer, King; brought the ineffable name forward; and then mark the remarkable course he adopted. In the eighth verse of the thirteenth chapter he wrote: "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever;" which was the plain and known meaning of the great name -the name in other words, or in another form. The meaning of the name is, not only that He is existing, but also that He is Existence, present, future, and past in One. With Him, time has no place, all is comprehended in Himself, and by Himself. "Before Abraham was, I am." Or, I was the great I AM" (Exod. iii. 14), the eternal God of the covenants. "Then the Jews took up stones to cast at Him" (John viii. 59).

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Now mark how ably the apostle conducted his case. In the twentieth verse he said: "Now the God of peace"-"God of peace" because of the Mediator of the new covenant before spoken of (Heb. xii. 24)— "that brought again from the dead our JEHOVAH Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” This was a declaration of the resurrection of Christ, the substantiation of the great name.

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the JEHOVAH, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

"I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen." Here again was simply the explanation of the name, and the proclamation of the fulfilment of it (Rev. i. 8-18).

"That great Shepherd of the sheep." This was again a reference to many direct prophecies in the Jewish Scriptures of Christ: "From thence is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel" (Gen. xlix. 24; Isa. xl. 11; Ezek. xxxiv. 23; xxxvii. 24; 1 Peter v. 4). "Ye are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls" (1 Peter ii. 25).

Shepherd was the common expression for a pastor of a Church, but both St. Peter and St. Paul meant by it the great Head of the Church; and in this instance of the latter, it was a reference again to the Eternal Priesthood of Christ. By the Almighty power and advocacy of His own covenant blood He was raised from the dead.

And then mark in verse 21, St. Paul ascribed to Him the glory of the JEHOVAH—as in Gal. i. 5; 2 Tim. iv. 18; Rev. i. 6-"Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Quoting, I suppose, from Isa. vi. 3.

JEHOVAH is the signature of God in His covenant with mankind. It was so under the old covenant and it is so under the new. No other testament or document in the world has the same.

This leads me again to the subject of the eternal Priesthood of Christ, which is the most remarkable

feature of this epistle, one of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible. The name JEHOVAH not only means He who subsists of Himself, but also He who gives being to others- spiritual life, even His own Divine nature. This is the sequence of the Godhead of Christ, and of His Headship of the Church. On the day of Pentecost that spiritual Headship was extended to the whole Gentile world, and the gift of the Spirit was without respect of persons. St. James gives us a remarkable illustration of this truth: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James i. 17), or, changing. As the sun, moon, and stars, are to us sources of light, so God, in and through Christ the Head of the human race (Rom. viii. 29; Col. i. 15-18), is to us the Author of all light, of spiritual knowledge, and consequently of spiritual life: "Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth." "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." And this eternal Author of light and life could say nothing less than "I am the life. I am the light of the world."

And then mark, He does not change, as the heavenly bodies do; He does not even vary as they do. He is a fixed Body, without variableness or shadow of turning. Ever the great Head of the Church, the Eternal Fountain of light and life to her; that in time He

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may present her to Himself, a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but holy and without blemish" (Eph. v.). As justified and sanctified, or set apart as holy by the Eternal Word,