of Hebrews the
duty of entertaining strangers, many of them necessarily Greeks, would
be peculiarly apt to be forgotten. When a Church wavered in its
allegiance to Christianity, the alienation would become still more
pronounced.

The constant going and coming of missionary brethren reminds the author
of the ministry of angels, who are like the swift breezes, and carry
Christ's messages over the face of the earth.[391] Sometimes they are as
a flame of fire. When they were on their way to destroy the Cities of
the Plain, Abraham and Lot entertained them, not knowing that they were
heaven-sent ministers of wrath.[392] It would be presumptuous in any man
to deny the possibility of angelic visitations in the Christian Church;
but the Apostle's meaning is not that hospitality ought to be shown to
strangers in the hope that angels may be among them. They are to be
received unawares; otherwise the fragrance of the deed is gone. But the
fact remains, and has been proved in the experience of many, that
kindness to strangers, be they preaching friars, or itinerant exhorters,
or persecuted outcasts, brings a rich blessing to children's children. A
Syrian builds for himself a hut on the riverside, and offers to carry
the wayfarers across on his shoulders. One day a child asks to be taken
over. But the light burden becomes every moment heavier. The exhausted
bearer asks in astonishment, "Who art thou, child?" It was Christ, and
the Syrian was named the Christ-bearer in remembrance of the event.[393]

The next exhortation is to purity. It is better not to attempt to
connect these exhortations. Their special importance in the case of the
Hebrew Christians is reason enough for them. Abstinence from marriage is
not commended. Our author is not an Essene. On the contrary, he would
discourage it. "Let marriage be held in honour among all classes of
men." It is the Divinely appointed remedy against incontinence. But in
the married state itself let there be purity. For the incontinent,
whether in the bonds of wedlock or not, God's direct, providential
judgments will overtake.

Then follows a warning against love of money, and the Lord's promise not
to fail or forsake Joshua[394] is appropriated by our author on behalf
of his readers. Their covetousness arose from anxiety, which may have
been occasioned by their distressing poverty in the days of
Claudius.[395] That the advice was needed shows the precise character of
their threatening ap