every precept of the Gospel to which you listen in this sacred place, while it enables you more effectually to seek for glory, honor, and immortality, increases the indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish which must finally come upon every soul of man that doeth evil. I counsel every one that hears me this night to consider diligently these things, lest that come upon you which is written, "ye shall begin to stand without and knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord open unto us: and he shall answer and say unto you; I know you not whence ye are. Then shall ye begin to say, we have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not, whence ye are, depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity." "For not the hearers of the law are justified before God, but only the doers of the law are justified."

Lecture XV.

EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS.

HEBREWS 8: 1, 2.-Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. We have such a high priest who is set on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord hath pitched and not man.

THE Epistle to the Hebrews, though the most complete in its plan, the most connected in its structure, and the most finished in its composition, is the least understood of any of the books of the New Testament. It is addressed to opinions, sentiments, prejudices, and traditions, which then had an existence, but are now forever passed away. As it is impossible for us to put ourselves in the place of those to whom it was addressed, to stand where they stood, to think as they thought, and to feel as they felt, it is impossible for us to realize its beauty, its ingenuity, and its force. Its authorship is altogether uncertain. There is nothing in the Epistle itself to fix it on any one known to us in the history of the Apostolic age.

There is a passage in it which would seem to show, that it was written by some one standing in the same relation to the Apostles with the Evangelist Luke, that is, of a hearer or companion of the Apostles. Luke says, in the beginning of his Gospel: "Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order, a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, who from the beginning were eye witnesses and ministers of the word." The writer of the Epistle says: "Therefore ought we to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we let them slip. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him." Of course the writer was not one of the original twelve, and seems to stand here only on the authority of a hearer of the Apostles.

The time when it was written is defined to be before the destruction of Jerusalem, for in the eighth chapter it is said: "For if he were on earth he would not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law." It was probably not long before that event, for it is said in the tenth chapter: "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see

the day approaching;" those great civil convulsions coming on in Palestine, which Christ had prophesied were to precede the breaking up of the old economy, and the introduction of the new.

It was addressed, as the name and every thing about it import, to the Jewish converts in the Christian church, particularly, I think, to those living in Palestine, to guard them against abandonment of Christianity, and relapse into their old faith. There were some causes in that age, which rendered them peculiarly liable to such defection. The religion of Jesus was then in its infancy. It had not the dignity which it has since acquired by ages of existence, and millions of disciples, numbering among them hosts of the most exalted characters of all time, and the brightest ornaments of human nature. The veneration of the world, excited by Christ's spiritual greatness, had not yet consecrated the cross as the symbol of heroic suffering, and man's salvation. It was a cross still, the emblem of all that was vile, and it communicated something of its infamy to that pure being, who was one day to plant it among the holiest things of earth.

The Jewish people and religion were still in existence, their temple service, a splendid ritual, was still celebrated, apparently recognized by God as a religion yet sanctioned by him. Then there was national pride, ready to be kindled by every circum

stance of their history as the chosen people of God, the giving of the law by the most stupendous divine manifestations, the personal and official greatness of Moses; the splendor and dignity of the Aaronic priesthood, and the temple service; the immediate and palpable communion with God, into which they were brought by the sacrificial rites; the assurance which they thus obtained of the pardon of sin, which is under all dispensations the great burden of this life. Christianity at first contrasted but ill with this outward magnificence. Its greatness was spiritual and inward. Its author, both in disposition and ap-. pearance, had been the humblest of the sons of men. His followers and Apostles had been men of an origin equally obscure with his own. And to all human appearance he had fallen vanquished before that very power which he had attempted to supersede. It was to be expected therefore, that the Jewish converts to Christianity, particularly in Palestine, should sometimes cast back a longing, lingering look to their old religion, and some of weaker faith and more wavering principles, relapse from their allegiance to Christ to the institutions of Moses.

To guard against this, is the whole purpose of the Epistle to the Hebrews. It is its object to run a parallel between Judaism and Christianity, the religion delivered to the fathers by the prophets, and that promulgated and established through the Mes