as I love, I rebuke and chasten". Those desirous of searching out this matter more fully

will doubtless find opportunity. Sufficient has been here noted to show that the primary

idea of Heb. 11: 1 is "Faith is a substance of things hoped for, a reproof of things not

seen". This, however, does not convey sense to English ears, so we must consider the

matter further. As the verse stands in the A.V. we have a repetition. Faith is a substance

and an evidence. When we look at the actual thing in progress and in fact, we find that

faith has a two-fold association: (1) It looks forward to a future glory; (2) It endures

present suffering. The two are linked "For the joy . . . . . He endured the Cross".

The Hebrew believers would readily believe that faith was the substance of things

hoped for. They would rejoice in Enoch's translation; but would they so readily rejoice

in Abel's death? They would rejoice in Noah's preservation and inheritance, but would

they so readily rejoice in Abraham's surrender? Were they ready for the fact to be

applied to themselves that these examples of faith all died "NOT HAVING RECEIVED

the promise"? Were they ready to follow Moses not only for the future reward, but in the

reproach and suffering of the present? What is this "reproof" then? It is the Lord's

discipline meted out in love to every son, to every one of the "many sons" who by this

very selfsame Author, Captain, and Perfecter of faith are being led as He Himself was led

through suffering to glory (Heb. 2: 10). It is the Gethsemane experience of Heb. 5: 7-9,

for there in the garden, the Lord sweat as it were great drops of blood, and in Heb. 12: 4

is the application to "every son": "Ye have not yet resisted unto blood". Here then is the

twofold character of perfected faith. A hand that reaches out on either side to join

together suffering and glory. No one can fail to see the tremendous value of such a word

to those who were passing through the experiences of these Hebrews at the time of

writing the epistle. Here then, in this present time, faith is hope in embryo, with its

accompanying sorrows; it is both substance and reproof, both crown and cross.

In attempting the translation of Heb. 11: 1 and retaining the rendering "reproof", care

must be exercised in ascertaining the meaning of the genitive case expressed by "of". It

may be the genitive of character, like "the bond of perfectness"; or of origin, "the gift of

God"; or of possession, "the sword of the Spirit", i.e., "the Spirit's sword"; or of

apposition, "the firstfruits of the spirit", i.e., "the firstfruits (of our inheritance), that is to

say, the spirit"; or of relation, "the reproach of Christ", i.e., reproach in connection with

Christ. Of all these the last appears nearest to the meaning of Heb. 11: 1, "The reproof

in connection with faith" being very parallel with "The reproach in connection with

Christ", and in this way we should translate the passage. Faith assumes the invisible.

Every believer should be able to say, though with purer intent than she who first uttered

the words,

This faith characterized the elders who received a good report. Report is martureo,

and this constitutes them the great cloud of witnesses (martur of Heb. 12: 1). These

elders come before us again at the end of the chapter, "These all, having obtained a good

report through faith, received not the promise" (Heb. 11: 39), but although they received