soners, marriage, and contentment. The ministers
who had formerly had rule over the readers are to be remembered. We
are not to be unsettled by strange teachings. "We have an altar" of
which the Jewish priests may not partake. Our sin offering, Jesus, is
given to us as food. We must go to Him outside the camp of Judaism.
After an injunction to obey the clergy and a request for prayers, the
Epistle concludes. Just before the end it is stated that "our brother
Timothy hath been set at liberty" (xiii.).

The whole Epistle is peculiarly dignified, eloquent, and {216}
persuasive, and its elegant Greek and delicate Alexandrian philosophy
make it a literary treasure.

We may conclude with some further remarks on the writer's doctrine of
Christ's Person and of the Jewish Law.

Knowing that these Christians were in danger of drifting away from
Christ, the writer calls their special attention to His Person, in
order that they may carefully consider who He is before deciding to
part from Him. The doctrine corresponds most exactly with that which
we find in Colossians and in John. It is declared in the most positive
manner that Christ is essentially divine. He reflects His Father's
glory, is the expression of His essence, and the Sustainer of the
universe (i. 3). He is the God whose throne is eternal, and the Lord
who made the earth (i. 8, 10). Yet He became "a little lower than the
angels" (ii. 9), and, though entirely sinless, He was so truly human as
to become the pattern of obedience (x. 7), humility (v. 5), reverent
piety (v. 7), and fidelity (iii. 2). By the discipline of suffering He
was made perfect for His redeeming work (v. 8, 9). It is made evident
that this process of perfection did not consist in the diminution of
sin, but in the development of goodness. Nowhere do we find a more
profound view of suffering and virtue, or a more pathetic delineation
of the character of Jesus.

It has already been hinted that the author regards the Jewish Law
differently from St. Paul. The latter had lived under the goad of a
Pharisaic interpretation of the Law of Moses, which laid down so many
regulations as to what ought to be done, and gave so little assistance
towards doing it, that escape from such a system was like an escape
from penal servitude. When he speaks of the Law, he regards it
primarily as a system of stern moral requirements. But the author of
Hebrews regards the Law as primarily a system of worship.