ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city" (11: 16), and the

"perfecting" of the spirits of just men in 12: 23.

It was toward this goal that the apostle urged the Hebrew believers to "go on unto

perfection". The "weight" which they were counseled to "lay aside" would include those

things mentioned in 6: 2, a passage we have already seen in close connection with Esau

and his vain seeking for repentance (6: 4-6, 12: 16, 17).

The section closes with a word of warning, very similar to the warning that precedes

chapter 11: In the structure in Volume XIX, page 77, we show it thus:--

Here we return to the teaching of chapter 2: In that passage the comparison is

between the words spoken by angels and the words spoken by the Lord, and the question

is put: "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" In the other passage

the angels are omitted, and the comparison is made between the seriousness of refusing

him who spoke on earth, namely, Moses, the servant, and of refusing the "Son", Who has

since spoken from heaven.

The epistle opens with the fact that God has spoken, and that He has spoken in two

ways; once through His servants, and now in His Son. The Hebrews were in danger of

minimizing the sin of refusing to hear what the Lord had said. The epistle as it continues

leads away from the ministry of angels, the mediatorship of Moses, the captaincy of

Joshua, the priesthood of Aaron, and the blood of bulls and goats, and focuses all its light

upon the Lord Jesus Who sums up and outshines them all. He has now spoken from

heaven. He is there at the right hand of God. There He ever liveth. There He sits

"henceforth expecting".

There are "much mores" of mercy, but in Heb. 10: 26-31 and 12: 25 contain "much

mores" of warning and judgment.

There remains the concluding passage, Heb. 12: 25-13: This we hope to consider in

our next paper, and our survey of this wonderful epistle then comes to a conclusion.