lay our hearts soft and open (iv. 7) before the
will of the Promiser. We must "be in earnest" to enter in (iv. 11).

[B] The "Jesus" (iv. 8) of the Authorized Version.

Then, at iv. 14, the appeal takes us in beautiful order more directly to
Him who is at once the Leader and the Promised Land. And again He stands
before us as a "great High Priest." Our Moses, our Joshua, is also our
more than Aaron, combining in Himself every possible qualification to be
our guide and preserver as we enter in. He stands before us in all the
alluring and endearing character of mingled majesty and mercy; a High
Priest, a great High Priest, immeasurably great; He has "passed through
the heavens" (iv. 14) to the Holiest, to the throne, the celestial
mercy-seat (iv. 16) "within the veil" (vi. 19); He is the Son (v. 5); He
is the Priest-King, the true Melchizedek; He is all this for ever (vi.
20). But on the other hand He is the sinner's Friend, who has so
identified Himself in His blessed Manhood with the sinner, veritably
taking our veritable nature, that He is "able to feel with our
weaknesses" (iv. 15); "able to feel a sympathetic tolerance [Greek:
metriopathein] towards the ignorant and the wandering" (v. 2);
understanding well "what sore temptations mean, for He has felt the
same"; yea, He has known what it is to "cry out mightily and shed tears"
(v. 7) in face of a horror of death; to cast Himself as a genuine
suppliant, in uttermost suffering, upon paternal kindness; to get to
know by personal experience what submission means ([Greek: emathe ten
hypakoen], v. 8); "not my will but Thine be done."

Such is the "Leader of our faith," so great, so glorious, so perfect, so
tender, so deep in fellowship with us. Shall we not follow Him into "the
rest," though a "Jordan rolls between" and though cities of giants seem
to frown upon us even on the other side? Shall we not dare thither to
follow HIM out of the desert of our "own works"?

Much, says the Epistle (v. 11, etc.), is to be said about Him; the theme
is deep, it is inexhaustible, for He is God and Man, one Christ. And the
Hebrew believers (and is it not the same with us?) are not quick to
learn the great lesson of His glory, and so to grow into the adult
manhood of grace. But let us try; let us address ourselves to "bear
onwards ([Greek: pherometha]) to perfection" (vi. 1), in our thought,
our faith, and so in our experience. The great foundation factors must
be for ever there, the