`For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any

man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition,

but of them that believe to the saving of the soul' (Heb. 10:37-39).

CHAPTER 11

`THE SUBSTANCE OF THINGS HOPED FOR'

(Heb. 11:1).

Chapter 10, as we have seen, ends on the exhortation to live by faith. The words `we are not of them who draw

back unto perdition' imply the alternative, `we are of them who go on unto perfection'.

For those who have a desire to `go on unto perfection', here in Christ is the supreme Example. Even as we say

the words, however, we are conscious of a great gulf between the Lord and ourselves. It is just here that Hebrews 11

so wonderfully fits in and comes to our aid. In this chapter, living by faith is subdivided for us, and we see one

phase in one example, and another phase in another, and are gently led on to contemplate the Perfecter Himself in

Whom all faith was resident in its fulness.

It will be profitable for us to turn aside for a moment from the written Word that we may obtain help from an

analogy in the works of God. The light of the sun untinted by the atmosphere through which it comes is pure white.

If falling rain or water-mist intercepts the rays of sunlight, we have the phenomenon called the rainbow. We have

all seen with pleasure in our childhood the colours of the rainbow caused by a decanter of water standing on a white

table-cloth, or by the prism-shaped pendant ornaments that our grandparents had upon the mantle-shelf. These are

but demonstrations of the fact that pure white light is made up of the three primary colours, red, yellow, and blue,

and these mingling form the secondaries, orange, green, and violet. For reasons the explanation of which lies

outside the scope of this book, the actual spectrum or rainbow is found to contain bands of seven colours, always in

the following order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

All colour in nature is dependent upon the fact that sunlight contains in itself the whole range of colour that

exists. The red rose is called red because the petals have the power of absorbing the blue and the yellow rays of

light, and throwing back to our eye the red. A leaf is green because it lays hold upon the red rays and throws back

the blue and the yellow. A white chalk cliff throws back all the rays, while a black felt hat retains all the rays.

Hence, a white dress is cooler than a black one as the light and heat rays are in measure treated alike. Now it is not

our intention to attempt to give a discourse upon the spectrum, wonderful though that may be, but to use the

spectrum as an illustration of the place of Hebrews 11.

The pure white light of the sun, as representing perfect light, composed of the perfect number of colours, will

represent Christ, as set forth in Hebrews 12:2. Hebrews 11 will then represent the prism of glass which has the

power of splitting up the perfect light of the sun, and so will split up the perfect faith of Christ, and focus a ray of

each colour, as it were, upon one or more examples, enabling us to see the better the sevenfold splendour of the

perfection of faith in Christ, after having seen the seven aspects of it separately in the lives of others.

Before we go further we must make certain that there are these sets of `sevens', and so taking nothing for granted

we begin to count, (1) Abel, (2) Enoch, (3) Noah, (4) Abraham, (5) Isaac, (6) Jacob, and (7) Sarah. Here the record

comes to an end for a time, while verses 12-16 speak of the pilgrim character of faith. lt will be observed that a

woman ends the series. We commence counting again in verse 17, (1) Abraham, (2) Isaac, (3) Jacob, (4) Joseph, (5)

Moses, (6) Israel, and (7) Rahab. We have another set of seven, again ending with a woman. In verse 32 the apostle

says that time would fail to tell of all that could be brought forward, but nevertheless the apparently haphazard list

that is assembled in this verse still presents the spectrum, (1) Gideon, (2) Barak, (3) Samson, (4) Jephthae, (5)

David, (6) Samuel, and (7) the prophets.

The seven-fold division of Hebrews 11 being an established fact, we can now proceed to a further examination.

How are these lists related to each other? It seems to be a Scriptural principle that truth is confirmed by two or more

witnesses. Believing this to be the case, we approached the double list of names that are mentioned in detail, and

found that they were arranged in pairs. For example, Abel and Enoch are both connected with death: