having shown himself as much greater than the angels as the Name that he has inherited surpasses theirs.

For, if the Message which was delivered by angels had its authority confirmed, so that every offence against it, or neglect of it, met with a fitting requital,

God has not given to angels the control of that Future World of which we are speaking!

No; a writer has declared somewhere-- 'What is Man that thou shouldst remember him? Or a Son of Man that thou shouldst regard him?

Thou hast made him, for a while, lower than angels; With glory and honour thou hast crowned him; Thou hast set him over all that thy hands have made;

Thou hast placed all things beneath his feet.' This 'placing of everything' under man means that there was nothing which was not placed under him. As yet, however, we do not see everything placed under man.

What our eyes do see is Jesus, who was made for a while lower than angels, now, because of his sufferings and death, crowned with glory and honour; so that his tasting the bitterness of death should, in God's loving-kindness, be on behalf of all mankind.

It was, indeed, fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, should, when leading many sons to glory, make the author of their Salvation perfect through suffering.

Therefore, since human nature is the common heritage of 'the Children,' Jesus also shared it, in order that by death he might render powerless him whose power lies in death--that is, the Devil--

It was not, surely, to the help of the angels that Jesus came, but 'to the help of the descendants of Abraham.'

And consequently it was necessary that he should in all points be made like 'his Brothers,' in order that he might prove a merciful as well as a faithful High Priest in man's relations with God, for the purpose of expiating the sins of his People.

The fact that he himself suffered under temptation enables him to help those who are tempted.

While the faithful service of Moses in the whole House of God was that of a servant, whose duty was to bear testimony to a Message still to come,

the faithfulness of Christ was that of a Son set over the House of God. And we are his House--if only we retain, unshaken to the end, the courage and confidence inspired by our hope.

Therefore I was sorely vexed with that generation, And I said-- "Their hearts are always straying; They have never learned my ways";

Be careful, Brothers, that there is never found in any one of you a wicked and faithless heart, shown by his separating himself from the Living God.

For we now all share in the Christ, if indeed we retain, unshaken to the end, the confidence that we had at the first.

And with whom was it that God was sorely vexed for forty years? Was not it with those who had sinned, and who fell dead in the desert?

And who were they to whom God swore that they should not enter upon his rest, if not those who had proved faithless?

We see, then, that they failed to enter upon it because of their want of faith.

We must, therefore, be very careful, though there is a promise still standing that we shall enter upon God's Rest, that none of you even appear to have missed it.

Upon that Rest we who have believed are now entering. As God has said-- 'In my wrath I swore--"They shall never enter upon my Rest;"' Although God's work was finished at the creation of the world;

On the other hand, we read in that passage-- ' They shall never enter upon my Rest.'

Since, then, there is still a promise that some shall enter upon this Rest, and since those who were first told the Good News did not enter upon it, because of their disbelief,

Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter upon that Rest, so that none of us fall through such disbelief as that of which we have had an example.

There is no created thing that can hide itself from the sight of God. Everything is exposed and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we have to give account.

Nor does any one take that high office upon himself, till he has been called to do so by God, as Aaron was.

For whereas, considering the time that has elapsed, you ought to be teaching others, you still need some one to teach you the very alphabet of the Divine Revelation, and need again to be fed with 'milk' instead of with 'solid food.'

Ground that drinks in the showers that from time to time fall upon it, and produces vegetation useful to those for whom it is tilled, receives a blessing from God;

But about you, dear friends, even though we speak in this way, we are confident of better things--of things that point to your Salvation.

For God is not unjust; he will not forget the work that you did, and the love that you showed for his Name, in sending help to your fellow Christians--as you are still doing.

But our great desire is that every one of you should be equally earnest to attain to a full conviction that our hope will be fulfilled, and that you should keep that hope to the end.

This hope is a very anchor for our souls, secure and strong, and it 'reaches into the Sanctuary that lies behind the Curtain,'

and it was to him that Abraham allotted a tithe of all the spoil. The meaning of his name is 'King of Righteousness, ' and besides that, he was also King of Salem, which means 'King of Peace.'

Those descendants of Levi, who are from time to time appointed to the priesthood, are directed to collect tithes from the people in accordance with the Law--that is from their own Brothers, although they also are descended from Abraham.

Now no one can dispute that it is the superior who blesses the inferior.

In the one case the tithes are received by mortal men; in the other case by one about whom there is the statement that his life still continues.

If, then, Perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood--and it was under this priesthood that the people received the Law--why was it still necessary that a priest of a different order should appear, a priest of the order of Melchizedek and not of the order of Aaron?

For it is plain that our Lord ad sprung from the tribe of Judah, though of that tribe Moses said nothing about their being priests.

All this becomes even yet plainer when we remember that a new priest has appeared, resembling Melchizedek,

and that he was appointed, not under a Law regulating only earthly matters, but by virtue of a life beyond the reach of death;

for that is the meaning of the declaration-- 'Thou art for all time a priest of the order of Melchizedek.'

but Jesus remains for all time, and therefore the priesthood that he holds is never liable to pass to another.

And that is why he is able to save perfectly those who come to God through him, living for ever, as he does, to intercede of their behalf.

This was the High Priest that we needed--holy, innocent, spotless, withdrawn from sinners, exalted above the highest Heaven,

To sum up what I have been saying:--Such is the High Priest that we have, one who 'has taken his seat at the right hand' of the throne of God's Majesty in Heaven,

where he ministers in the Sanctuary, in that true Tabernacle set up by the Lord and not by man.

Every High Priest is appointed for the purpose of offering gifts and sacrifices to God; it follows, therefore, that this High Priest must have some offering to make.

(These priests, it is true, are engaged in a service which is only a copy and shadow of the heavenly realities, as is shown by the directions given to Moses when he was about to construct the Tabernacle. 'Look to it,' are the words, 'that thou make every part in accordance with the pattern shown thee on the mountain.')

If that first Covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.

"This is the Covenant that I will make with the People of Israel After those days," says the Lord. "I will impress my laws on their minds, and will inscribe them on their hearts; And I will be their God, and they shall be my People.

It is true that even the first Covenant had its regulations for divine worship, and its Sanctuary--though only a material one.

In it is the gold incense-altar, and the Ark containing the Covenant, completely covered with gold. In the Ark is a gold casket containing the manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets on which the Covenant was written;

but into the inner only the High Priest goes, and that but once a year, and never without taking the blood of a victim, which he offers on his own behalf, and on behalf of the errors of the People.

By this the Holy Spirit is teaching that the way into the Sanctuary was hidden, as long as the outer part of the Tabernacle still remained.

For that was only a type, to continue down to the present time; and, in keeping with it, both gifts and sacrifices are offered, though incapable of satisfying the conscience of the worshiper;

But, when Christ came, he appeared as High Priest of that Better System which was established; and he entered through that nobler and more perfect 'Tabernacle,' not made by human hands--that is to say, not a part of this present creation.

Nor was it with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, that he entered, once and for all, into the Sanctuary, and obtained our eternal deliverance.

And that is why he is the intermediary of a new Covenant; in order that, as a death has taken place to effect a deliverance from the offenses committed under the first Covenant, those who have received the Call may obtain the eternal inheritance promised to them.

saying, as he did so-- "This is the blood that renders valid the Covenant which God has commanded to be made with you."

And in the same way he also sprinkled with the blood the Tabernacle and all the things that were used in public worship.

For it was not into a Sanctuary made by human hands, which merely foreshadowed the true one, that Christ entered, but into Heaven itself, that he might now appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

That is why, when he was coming into the world, the Christ declared-- 'Sacrifice and offering thou dost not desire, but thou dost provide for me a body;

And it is in the fulfillment of the will of God that we have been purified by the sacrifice, once and for all, of the body of Jesus Christ.

Every other priest stands day after day at his ministrations, and offers the same sacrifices over and over again--sacrifices that can never take sins away.

'"This is the Covenant that I will make with them after those days," says the Lord; "I will impress my laws on their hearts, and will inscribe them on their minds,"'

by the way which he inaugurated for us--a new and living way, a way through the Sanctuary Curtain (that is, his human nature);

And let us not, as some do, cease to meet together; but, on the contrary, let us encourage one another, and all the more, now that you see the Day drawing near.

How much worse then, think you, will be the punishment deserved by those who have trampled underfoot the Son of God, who have treated the blood that rendered the Covenant valid--the very blood by which they were purified--as of no account, and who have outraged the Spirit of Love?

We know who it was that said-- 'It is for me to avenge, I will requite'; and again-- 'The Lord will judge his people.'

For you not only sympathized with those who were in prison, but you even took the confiscation of your possessions joyfully, knowing, as you did, that you had in yourselves a greater possession and a lasting one.

Do not, therefore, abandon the confidence that you have gained, for it has a great reward awaiting it.

You still have need of patient endurance, in order that, when you have done God's will, you may obtain the fulfillment of his promise.

And it was for faith that the men of old were renowned.

Faith enables us to perceive that the universe was created at the bidding of God--so that we know that what we see was not made out of visible things.

Faith made the sacrifice which Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain's, and won him renown as a righteous man, God himself establishing his renown by accepting his gifts; and it is by the example of his faith that Abel, though dead, still speaks.

Faith led to Enoch's removal from earth, that he might not experience death. 'He could not be found because God had removed him.' For, before his removal, he was renowned as having pleased God;

But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that God exists, and that he rewards those who seek for him.

It was faith that enabled Noah, after he had received the divine warning about what could not then be foreseen, to build, in reverent obedience, an ark in which to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world, and became possessed of that righteousness which follows upon faith.

It was faith that enabled Abraham to obey the Call that he received, and to set out for the place which he was afterwards to obtain as his own; and he set out not knowing where he was going.

It was faith that made him go to live as an emigrant in the Promised Land--as in a strange country--living there in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who shared the promise with him.

Again, it was faith that enabled Sarah to conceive (though she was past the age for child-bearing), because she felt sure that he who had given her the promise would not fail her.

And so from one man--and that when his powers were dead--there sprang a people as numerous 'as the stars in the heavens or the countless grains of sand upon the shore.'

Those who speak thus show plainly that they are seeking their fatherland.

If they had been thinking of the land that they had left, they could have found opportunities to return.

It was faith that enabled Abraham, when put to the test, to offer Isaac as a sacrifice--he who had received the promises offering up his only son,

of whom it had been said-- 'It is through Isaac that there shall be descendants to bear thy name.'

For he argued that God was able even to raise a man from the dead--and indeed, figuratively speaking, Abraham did receive Isaac back from the dead.

It was faith that enabled Isaac to bless Jacob and Esau, even with regard to the future.

Faith caused the parents of Moses to hide the child for three months after his birth, for they saw that he was a beautiful child; and they would not respect the King's order.

It was faith that caused Moses, when he was grown up, to refuse the title of 'Son of a Daughter of Pharaoh.'

For he counted 'the reproaches that are heaped upon the Christ' of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, looking forward, as he did, to the reward awaiting him.

Faith led him to institute the Passover and the Sprinkling of the Blood, so that the Destroyer might not touch the eldest children of the Israelites.

Women received back their dead raised to life. Some were tortured on the wheel, and refused release in order that they might rise to a better life.

since God had in view some better thing for us, that they, apart from us, should not attain perfection.

Seeing, therefore, that there is on every side of us such a throng of witnesses, let us also lay aside everything that hinders us, and the sin that clings about us, and run with patient endurance the race that lies before us,

our eyes fixed upon Jesus, the Leader and perfect Example of our faith, who, for the joy that lay before him, endured the cross, heedless of its shame, and now 'has taken his seat at the right hand' of the throne of God.

Weigh well the example of him who had to endure such opposition from 'men who were sinning against themselves,' so that you should not grow weary or faint-hearted.

for it is him whom he loves that he disciplines, and he chastises every child whom he acknowledges.'

It is for your discipline that you have to endure all this. God is dealing with you as his Children. For where is there a child whom his father does not discipline?