obliged to seek a body among the accursed heathen. For what are we giving up all that God has ordained in the past, and which He has never in like manner abrogated?

It is to this people, and at this time, that the Epistle to the Hebrews appears to have been written. And we cannot conceive of anything better calculated to strengthen their faith, to guard them against apostasy, and to comfort them under their afflictions, than the arguments and exhortations herein contained. The most cursory view will show us that the first ten chapters-the strictly doctrinal portion-have for their one argument the superiority of the Christ to anything which the former Dispensation could furnish. In ch. i., ii. He is shown to be better than the Angels, by whose ministration the Law was given. Then we are bidden to consider Jesus as Apostle and High Priest of our profession: and in ch. iii., iv. He is shown to be greater than Moses the Apostle of Israel, in ch. v-x. to be in His Priesthood superior to Aaron and his succession. The argument is conducted almost entirely by citation from the Scriptures of the Old Testament, which would obviously be the best course when dealing with Hebrews. And two inferences are ever and anon suggested as following from the superiority of the Christ. First:-if He be greater than angels, than Moses, than Aaron, the new Dispensation which He inaugurates—its law, its ministry, its worship, its grace, its hope must be far superior to anything enjoyed under the Old Covenant. Second:-if Christ be so great, and His grace so precious, how fearful the sin of apostasy from Him. "If the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape, if we

neglect so great salvation?

"Let us therefore fear lest,

of

if

a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any you should seem to come short of it." "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance." "He that despised Moses' law died under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the Covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace?" Lastly" 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" (ch. ii., iv., vi., x., xii.).

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While this is the argument of the doctrinal portion of the Epistle, its concluding and more hortatory chapters bear witness to the same condition of those to whom they were written. Consider such passages as these—“not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is," cast not away your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward," "the just shall live by faith, but if he draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him," "looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God." There can be little doubt but that the persons thus addressed were in much danger of apostasy. Again, the opening verses of ch. xii. plainly reveal a state of persecution" Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. . . . My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor

faint when thou art rebuked of Him" (ver. 3-11). And from ch. xiii. 13, 14 we see that one form which this persecution took was excommunication. "Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. For here have we no continuing city; but we seek one to come."

Having thus ascertained the persons to whom the Epistle was addressed and the object of its composition, we have last to enquire into its authorship. It is by no means so certain as is commonly assumed that it was written by St. Paul. From the earliest dawn of Christian literature down to the end of the second century, we find considerable difference as to its authorship. Some few ascribe it to St. Paul himself: many more, recognising it as embodying his teaching, refer its actual composition to one of his companions, as Luke, Silas, Clement, or Apollos. One-Tertullian-speaks as if the African Church at least believed it to be the independent composition of the Apostle Barnabas. But the resemblance of the teaching of the Epistle to that of St. Paul was so strong, that the practice of citing it as his gradually spread over both Eastern and Western Churches, and our popular Bibles embody the view to this day. I believe that the general adoption of this tradition has been attended with great advantage. For, even though the scholars of the present day are almost unanimous in their opinion that the internal evidence is against the supposition that St. Paul was the actual author, still I think there can be little doubt but that the writer, whoever he was, was deeply imbued with St. Paul's thoughts, and thoroughly apprehended what he calls "his Gospel." If, as Tertullian so unhesitatingly asserts, St. Barnabas was he, we can well understand that St. Paul's

fellow-Apostle to the Gentiles would be likely to treat his subject much in the same way as St. Paul himself would have done. The Epistle then becomes the word of the Gentile Apostleship to the believers from among the circumcision; and shows that, whatever division of labour may for convenience be adopted, to every Apostle really pertains the care of all the churches.

FOURTH SUNDAY IN QUADRAGESIMA.

How Jesus feeds His people.

John vi. I-14.

THE narrative of to-day's Gospel instructs us as to the manner in which the Lord feeds His people when they gather to Him.

First, He does it out of such material as is furnished Him. It would have been as easy for Him to have created loaves and fishes as to have multiplied them. But He did not. He called upon His servants for what they could supply, and then made that suffice for the great multitude. And so it is now. He "speaketh from heaven," not with a naked voice, as it were new-made for the purpose, but through the lips and from the minds of men. He takes the few thoughts and feeble words they bring, and makes them effectual to quicken and sustain all who depend upon Him. "What are these among so many?" Nothing indeed, but for His multiplying blessing, for His word of bidding. But with these enough and to spare for multitudes ever so great.

Secondly, the barley loaves and the small fishes were themselves brought to the Apostles by one of the company; there is a lad here, which hath " them. The ministers of God do not stand alone : 66 we live, as ye stand fast in the Lord." They depend upon the body, as the body depends upon them. Only in their hands does the provision become multiplied for all: but it may