be dropped until we reach the end of chapter 12: It may be helpful as a side light upon

this theme to note what the wisest King of Israel is alleged to have said:--

"For honourable age is not that which standeth in length of time, nor is it measured by

number of years. But wisdom is the gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age.

He pleased God, and was beloved of Him: so that living among sinners he was translated.

Yea speedily was he caught away, lest that wickedness should alter his understanding, or

deceit beguile his soul . . . . . He, being made perfect in a short time, fulfilled a long time"

(Wisdom of Solomon 4: 8-13).

The reader may have missed the familiar comment which sees in Enoch's translation

the rapture of the church, but we trust he will have gained by having attention drawn both

to the difficulties of the case, and of its fitness with the theme of the Hebrews:--

"Let us go on unto perfection . . . . . leaving . . . . . a resurrection of dead ones . . . . .

for a better resurrection . . . . . and the spirits of just men made perfect."

That the prize of Phil. 3: may be considered parallel, the reference to "reward" in

Heb. 11: 6 will show, and that "to walk and please God" is the high goal of faith,

Heb. 11: and the bulk of the epistles testify.

#50.  Noah.

The faith that inherits (11: 7).

pp. 140 - 143

However personal we may feel the application of this or any other scripture, we

deprive ourselves of much that is helpful in its interpretation when we lose sight of the

original purpose of its writing, and the conditions under which it was written. Heb. 11: is

so full of teaching that we are apt to isolate it from its context in the appreciation of its

present application. The aspect of faith we are to consider under the names of Noah and

Abraham, while containing much that has a direct personal application to ourselves, was

nevertheless written in the first place to the Hebrews, and written to them in

circumstances that make the examples cited of supreme importance in the process of the

apostle's instruction.

The faith that inherits.

Among the items of prominence in the message to the Hebrews is that which deals

with the relation of faith to inheritance. Chapters 3: and 4: are devoted to the idea of

the necessity of faith in connection with inheriting. "So we see that they could not enter

in because of unbelief" (3: 19). It is time, however, that we saw for ourselves that