the heirs have that they are to be partakers with Abraham in the inheritance when it is entered upon. Concerning this, Paul speaks as follows (Heb. 6: 16-18), "For men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife." He then proceeds to show the relation that Abraham's children and joint heirs sustain to the oath that God sware to Abraham, whereby we may see what surety we have that, when Abraham enters upon his inheritance, we may also enter upon the inheritance with him, or as he said to the Galatians, "Be blessed with faithful Abraham." Therefore he continues, "Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things (first the promise, and after that the oath) we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us."

Now observe the goodness and mercy of God in this matter, as pointed out by the faithful apostle to the Gentiles. God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things we might have a strong consolation to lay hold of the hope set before us. The first immutable thing is the promise of God to Abraham and his seed, for God cannot belie his promise. The second immutable thing is the oath of God, for it is impossible for God to perjure himself. The hope set before us in the promises made to Abraham and his seed is guaranteed to all the heirs by the promise and oath of the living God, who inhabiteth eternity, and who faileth not. This may well be pronounced by the apostle a strong consolation.

But be it known to all men that these two solid guarantees are not given of God to support and sustain the hope set before us in these days by the religious teachers of the great sects and denominations that now fill the world, the hope which they set before us and which is so universally believed by the unthinking masses of mankind, the hope of going to heaven where Jesus is, at death, and so entering upon a blissful immortality! This hope is a spurious hope; it is a false hope, and therefore there is nothing in the promises of God to sustain it; neither is there anything to be found in the oath of God, as recorded in the twenty-second chapter of the Book of Genesis, to support it. And there is not a clergyman upon the face of the earth that can show throughout the Holy Scriptures, from beginning to end, a covenant that sets forth such a hope as that, or a promise supported by the oath of the living God. He may pick up a few sayings through the Scriptures which at first sight may appear to favor his theory, but which, when scripturally understood, are found to favor no such doctrine. But to point to a covenant made and confirmed by the oath of God to support such a hope, is an impossibility, for there is no such hope, neither is there any such covenant or oath to support it.

ENTERING WITHIN THE VEIL

Concerning the true and only hope set before us in the Scriptures Paul says (Heb. 8: 18-20), "We have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil, whither the fore

runner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." Now Paul says in the words before us that the hope which we have fled for refuge to lay hold of, is sure and steadfast and reaches within the veil whither Christ the forerunner is for us entered. Jesus has already passed through the veil for us, and he is therefore called a forerunner, which means that others are to follow after and pass within the veil as he has done. Now what is the meaning of the words which Paul uses when he speaks of Jesus having entered into that within the veil?

The Tabernacle had two apartments which represent the body of Christ in two states. They were separated by a veil; the first apartment of the Tabernacle was occupied by mortal men employed in the priest's office; the second apartment was occupied by an immortal man, the God of Israel, where no mortal man was allowed to come save the high priest, who went in once a year with blood to make atonement for the people of Israel. The veil, therefore, was a division between the mortal and the immortal, and therefore represents that which divides the present mortal state, and the future immortal state. This veil is the mortal flesh, and so Paul says, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh."

Christ's mortal flesh, therefore, was the thing that was represented by the veil; and when Christ's flesh was rent by the hands of the wicked, the veil also of the Temple was rent from the top to the bottom; and when he was put to death and laid in the tomb, and born again of the Spirit on the third day, and made alive for evermore, then he had passed through the veil and appeared in the holiest of all within the veil, as our forerunner. Being born of the Spirit by resurrection from the dead, he was now immortal, or made perfect. Now the time that he required to pass through the veil, from the mortal to the immortal state, was just the time which lay between his death and the resurrection, which, in his case, was only three days and three nights. With those who are afterwards to run into the holiest where he has gone, it will consist also of the time that lapses between their death and resurrection from the dead, whether that time be long or short.

Thus the hope set before us is taught not only in plain language, but by symbols, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the Tabernacle, "For see, saith he, that thou make all things according to the patterns showed thee in the mount." The Tabernacle, with all things pertaining to it, was a pictorial representation of things spiritual. These patterns are called patterns of things in the heavens." These patterns and all the vessels of the ministry, and the people, were dedicated with blood, the blood of beasts, which represented the blood of Christ which is employed to sprinkle and dedicate the things that the patterns represented, called the heavenly things themselves, which are the saints, the members of the body of Christ, first as they appear in the present mortal state, and after that as they will appear in the immortal state, in the resurrection, when they, with Christ, enter upon their work to execute the judgments written (Heb. 10). There is thus but one hope, whether it be taught by symbols or in plain language: that hope Paul himself entertained, and he suffered the loss of

all things and endured suffering and persecutions and finally the loss of his own life by the hand of the enemy; and all this he did and submitted to, as he said to the Philippians, "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." And in his defence before King Agrippa he speaks of this hope in the following language saying, "And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers, unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come; for which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead?" Here the matter is plainly stated.

The hope which he had accepted, and for which he was persecuted of the Jews, was the hope of salvation by resurrection of the dead, and this hope he declares was made of God unto our fathers,— that is, unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and as these patriarchs were promised a resurrection from the dead to life eternal in the covenant that God made with them, that hope they would teach and submit to their posterity. Consequently the wise among their descendants, although placed under the fiery law and made subject to vanity by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, would nevertheless always cherish the same hope, and therefore Paul says, "Unto which hope, our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come." The wise among the tribes of Israel constituted the real twelve tribes, although they were but a remnant of the tribes in the gross. They were the ones who, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come to the resurrection of life at the last day.

Therefore again when Paul came in bonds to Rome, he sent for his Jewish brethren who dwelt there and said unto them, "For the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain." Now observe that Paul was not bound with that chain because he believed in the heathen doctrine of the immortality of the soul and hoped to get to heaven when he died, but because he believed in the scriptural hope of the resurrection of the dead for salvation, and preached Jesus and the resurrection of the dead through him, as the only hope of man. These things, as it is testified in the Scriptures, "are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that findeth knowledge."

GOOD WORKS

It is not only necessary to salvation that we should understand God's holy covenants and the promises which he made to the fathers of the house of Israel, and the things which he revealed to wise men from the beginning, and the hidden meaning contained in those divine revelations (which, as Paul said, were kept secret and hid from the ages and generations till the times of Christ, and which after his resurrection were made known by the Spirit to his holy apostles that they might go into all the world and make them known to every creature under heaven for the obedience of faith), but men are also to do and manifest those good works, the works of righteousness, which God has pointed out, and which he requires at the hands of all those who are to inherit the promises, which Paul in his letter to the Ephesians (2:10) speaks of in the following manner, saying, "For we are

his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them." These good works are not the works that Paul refers to when he speaks of the works of the law. These are the works of faith. These are the works that grow out of the two greatest commandments contained in the law.

When Jesus was but twelve years of age, the wise men in Jerusalem were astonished at his questions and answers, and during his ministry the scribes and Pharisees had good proof of his wisdom, for he was never baffled, because he taught the truth and not a lie. Therefore, on one occasion, when he had answered the Sadducees touching the resurrection of the dead, so that the multitude which heard his answer were astonished at his doctrine, it is said by Matthew that when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them which was a lawyer asked him a question, “tempting him and saying, Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Now it is worthy of note that these two commandments are not copied out of the ten commandments at all, and yet all the law and the prophets hang upon these two. Consequently these two do not grow out of the ten, but on the contrary the ten grow out of the two, insomuch that the ten may be abolished (as Paul says they are), and yet there is nothing wanting. Therefore Paul says in his letter to the Romans (13: 8-10), "Owe no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." Then he illustrates, quoting from the ten commandments, "Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."

Consequently if a man is at any loss to interpret the royal law which says, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, Paul here assists him by showing that the last five commandments of the ten explain the meaning thereof; and if there is still any doubt remaining on any point, Jesus makes it all plain and clear where he says, “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets." Put yourself in your neighbor's place, and whatsoever ye would have done to yourself in that position, so do to others.

Again if a man is in any doubt as to the meaning of the first great commandment of all, which says, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," the first three commandments of the ten interpret the meaning thereof saying: first, "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me "; second, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters underneath the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord thy

God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments"; third, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless, that taketh his name in vain."

Now in the above the Lord says he will show mercy unto thousands of them that love him and keep his commandments, and therefore it is written. again (Eccles. 12:13), "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." Again it is written (Mic. 6: 8), "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" And again it is written, "Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations."

But how does the Lord do with those that hate him and disregard his commandments? Listen to this, ye despisers of his law, for he adds, "And repayeth them that hate him to their face to destroy them; he will not be slack to him that hateth him; he will repay him to his face" (Deut. 7:9-10). Again the Lord saith, "Them that honour me, I will honour; and they that despise me, shall be lightly esteemed "; and in the Psalms it is testified of the Lord, saying, "With the merciful, thou wilt show thyself upright, with the pure, thou wilt show thyself pure, and with the froward thou wilt show thyself unsavory."

THE MERCIES OF THE NEW COVENANT

The new covenant, says Paul, was established upon better promises than those contained in the old. The new covenant spoken of by the prophet Jeremiah, which was brought into force by the death of Christ, is established upon the principles of mercy and forgiveness, contained therein, as Paul states in Hebrews (8: 12), “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."

Now wherein is the reason why we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind? Because he has made a covenant, and when we enter into it by the obedience of faith, he is merciful to our unrighteousness, and our sins and iniquities he remembers no more. That is, he forgives them through the blood of this covenant, which is the blood of his Son, and makes us heirs and joint heirs with Christ, of life eternal and the kingdom of God, and the glories of the ages to come. Now if God has so loved us, then we should love God and one another, for "if we love not our brethren whom we have seen, how can we love God whom we have not seen?"

LOVE IS THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW

The love which God accepts is of the most practical character, for he has so constituted things in this present world that ample scope is furnished for its exercise, and one of the principal ways in which he requires it to be employed is in showing mercy to the poor and needy; when he gave laws to Israel touching this matter, he declared, The poor shall never cease out of