initial acts or attitudes of repentance, and of
"faith towards God"; the abandonment of the service of sin, including
the bondage of a would-be salvation of self by self, and the simple
turning God-ward of a soul which has come to despair of its own
resources--truths symbolized and sealed by the primal rites of baptism
and blessing (vi. 2); and then the great revealed facts in prospect,
resurrection and judgment, must be always remembered and reckoned with.
These however must be "left" (vi. 1), not in oblivion but in progress,
just as a building "leaves" the level of its always necessary
foundation. We must "bear onwards" and upwards, into the upper air of
the fulness of the truth of the glory of our Christ. We must seek
"perfection," the profound maturity of the Christian, by a maturer and
yet maturer insight into Him. Awful is the spiritual risk of any other
course. The soul content to stand still is in peril of a tremendous
fall. To know about salvation at all, and not to seek to develope the
knowledge towards "perfection," is to expose one's self to the terrible
possibility of the fate reserved for those who have much light but no
love (vi. 4-9).[C] But this, by the grace of God, shall not be for the
readers of the Epistle. They have shewn living proofs of love already,
practical and precious, for the blessed Name's sake (vi. 10). Only, let
them remember the spiritual law--the necessity of growth, of progress,
of "bearing onwards to perfection"; the tremendous risks of a subtle
stagnation; the looking back; the pillar of salt.

[C] I make no attempt here to expound in detail the formidable words of
vi. 4-8. But I believe that their purport is fairly described in the
sentence above in the text. Their true scriptural illustrations are to
be sought in a Balaam and a Judas.

In order that full blessing may thus be theirs, let them look for it in
the only possible direction. Let them take again to their souls the
mighty promise of eternal benediction (vi. 14), sealed and crowned with
the Promiser's gracious oath in His own Name, binding Himself to
fidelity under the bond of His own majesty (vi. 13). Aye, and then let
them again "consider" Him in whom promise and oath are embodied and
vivified for ever; in whom rests--nay, in whom consists--our anchor of
an eternal hope (vi. 19); Jesus, our Man of men, our High Priest of the
everlasting order, now entered "within the veil," into the place of the
covenant and the glory, a