l out the golden legend of His unalterable glory.

In contrast to Him, thus unchangeably Himself, place the "teachings
variegated and alien" (ver. 9) which would draw you from beside Him
([Greek: parapheresthe]) back to an outworn ceremonial distorted from
its true purpose. "Looking unto Jesus," stay still and be at rest in
Him. The ritual law of "food" ([Greek: bromata]) had its perfectly
befitting place in the age of elementary preparation. But to make it now
a rival to the message of that "grace" which means a life lived by faith
in the Son of God, is to defraud "the heart" of that which alone can
"establish" it in peace, holiness, and hope. To walk in Him is to go
from strength to strength. To "walk in them" ([Greek: hoi
peripatountes]) is to miss the very "benefit" you seek. It is to move
away from the light, backward, into spiritual death.

Here follows in close sequence a passage of pregnant significance. It
begins with ver. 10, and the connexion is not finally broken till ver.
16. The Writer, prompted perhaps by the allusion to a ceremonial law of
"meats," turns abruptly to the still existing ritual of the Law,
familiar to his Hebrew readers as to himself. From it he leads their
thoughts once more to the profound import and ultimate efficacy of the
supreme atoning Sacrifice, in all its shame and all its glory, and to
the call which that great fact conveys to the believer to break for
ever, at whatever cost, from the old order, _considered as a rival to
the Cross_. Such is the true bearing of this often debated passage, if I
am not greatly mistaken. The "altar" which "we have" (ver. 10) is not,
if I read the argumentative context rightly, either the atoning Cross,
at least as to any direct reference of the word, or the Table of the
Christian Eucharist. As to this latter conjecture indeed the reference
is totally unsupported by any really primeval parallel.[T] And _in this
Epistle_ it is scarcely conceivable that, if that were the meaning, if
we were to be abruptly informed here that we Christians have in the Holy
Table a sacrificial altar, no allusion, however slight, should intimate
that the Christian minister is not a "leader" only but a sacrificing
priest. The whole Epistle may be said to circle round the great topic of
Priesthood. From various points of view, and with purposes as practical
as possible in regard of faith, hope, and life, that topic has been
handled. But is it too much to say that, for the Writ