1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

When Paul said we are "encompassed with so great a cloud of witnesses," he did not mean that we are surrounded by spirits in the air; but that we have a great company of people to look back to who have borne witness to the truth before us. You will see this if you consider the context.

He had enumerated many faithful men, beginning with Abel and coming down to the time of the Maccabees, who had suffered for the truth, of whom he said the world was not worthy, and who were all laid away, waiting the time when they should be glorified together. See the list in Heb. 11.

Having completed the list, he says,

"Seeing we are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,"

be ye strong also;

"let us lay aside every weight of the sin which doth so easily beset us, looking unto Jesus,"

who, like them,

"for the joy set before him endured the cross."

It is not that dead men are looking upon us but we have it in our power to look upon them, and to take courage from their good example.

The Christadelphian, Dec 1898

Let us lay aside every weight

Men on a journey do not unnecessarily burden themselves. A man running to catch a train puts up with the dust and discomfort of his hurried exertion. The principle is the same. In the race for life eternal, there are many things lawful enough in the abstract; but that viewed in relation to the object to be attained, are highly inexpedient, and to be "laid aside," as Paul advises.

It is a simple, and a safe, and a reasonable, and a wise rule, and one that will give us much cause for joy at the last, to dispense with every habit or pleasure, or practice, or occupation, or friend that hinders our progress in the narrow way. This is but another way of saying what Christ said:

"If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out. It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into the fire of Gehenna."

It is better to make our calling and election sure at the expense of worldly friends and engagements, and advantages, than to secure all these, in this present time, and find, at last, that we have cherished them at the expense of Christ's approbation, and have to pay for them with the loss of the kingdom of God.

These considerations may fall faintly now on the heart, pre-occupied with the affairs of this life; but in the day certain to come—as certain as the final flight of the life that is every hour passing with us now—they will be felt with a force and a grief that will cause "weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth."

The Christadelphian, Aug 1873

While taking care to use the means to keep awake, it is necessary to avoid the things that tend to draw us into the universal slumber. On this head, there are books not to be read, companions not to be kept company with, pleasures not to be followed, pursuits not to be engaged in, habits not to be practised, objects not to be aimed at.

There are "weights" to be "laid aside"-to use another of Paul's figures when comparing the calling in Christ to a race. Every earnest man will be able to recognise these for himself. They are discernible by the simple test of whether they interfere or not with the growth of Christ dwelling in our heart by faith.

By this test, novel-reading will be abandoned. There is no more powerful spiritual sleeping draught than this. It conjures a fictitious picture before the mind. It invests human life with a beauty that does not exist in fact, and teaches men to be interested in trifles, and to be interested even in important things and in men from the wrong point of view. It excludes God from sight, draws a veil over real wisdom, and hides the glory to be revealed.

The Bible appears a very dull object to the eyes of man or woman just turned from the dazzle of brilliant story-telling.

So companions who know not God, and have consequently no symphony with divine objects, motives, and prospects of life; pleasures that excite a narrow-minded emulation, or bring us into friendly relation with godless people; pursuits in politics or science that would give us an interest in the property of the present order of things, or in other directions;

pursuits that have an ill-savour, or exact too much of our time and energy; habits that identify us with the unholy, debase the mental powers, defile nature, or make holiness a dim idea; objects which, in the process of their attainment, would require us to sacrifice all opportunities of the service of Christ, or in their realisation would expose us to a dangerous fellowship with the world (such as aiming to be wealthy)-all these are things to be avoided, and that will be avoided, by those who have earnestly set their faces for the kingdom of God.

Such are not to be scared away from the path of wisdom by outcries which have their origin elsewhere. We have to remember that the world at large have not only forgotten the theory of the truth, but that they have never realised to what it is that men are called when they are called to be sons of God, and brethren of Christ, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

From this unenlightened world most brethren have but recently come. Consequently they are liable to bring the world's maxims with them. Casting about for the right one, the only safe plan is to rely for guidance on the word only. Brethren are only trustworthy in so far as they echo its sentiments and principles.

Seasons 1.65.

Men of the high calling will leave the engrossments of merely literary or scientific or any other kind of life apart from the gospel, which though interesting in some respects, has a tendency to take up all the time and absorb all the mind, and which when life is gone, is worth nothing at all. There will be plenty of time for intellectual sweets, when we have attained to life eternal. To gain this, we have now to neglect many other things. We have to choose the disagreeable.

We are not fools in doing so. A man will always choose the disagreeable if he sees something good at the end; a man will go down into a mine and endure darkness, and fatigue, and danger, if he thinks it will set him up for the rest of his life.

And a person who sees in his mind's eye, Christ, the future ruler and possessor of the world, will be very glad to share in the sufferings of Christ in this present time; knowing that this is exacted as one of the conditions of participating in the glory to be revealed.

The Christadelphian, Apr 1872

5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

Consider how high and great is the position offered to the friends of Christ, and that death will never terminate their felicity. Realizing this, we cannot marvel that we are called on to suffer now. It is a rule among men that the severity of a mans training is in proportion to the eminence of the position for which he is intended. If you want farm laborers, there is no need for training of any kind. Any education or no education will do; but if you want a man to lead an army or guide a state, you must bring to bear much preparatory discipline.

Now, though the qualifications required in men for divine use are very different from that which human employment calls for, the same necessity exists for discipline and preparation- The use to which God intends to put His chosen is great and lasting, and, therefore, the trial is sharp and long. Peter tells us to 'think it not strange'. We are enabled to catch his thought by such reflections as these. Apart from these reflections, we are liable to 'think it strange' very strange < that God should hide His face and leave those who seek and love Him in affliction. Human nature < weak and blind < is apt to grow weary and doubtful under the process.

...The Scriptures enable us to endure with patience. They do so by the perceptions they impart. Wherever we dip into them, we find something to aid us in this matter.

Exhort Bro Roberts - Fortified to Endure

7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

To be without chastisement is to be without God.

This is the argument of Heb. 12:5–8. Chastisement is an indispensable item in our preparation for the Kingdom of God. Chastisement is productive of much good;

"it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."

Christ forcibly expressed in figure the working of chastisement—

"Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit."

How easy is it to recognise this in theory! but how difficult to do so in practice. How many have taken umbrage when God has put His method into operation! Let us endeavour to succeed where others have failed. Let us not forget the Scripture which says;

"If ye endure chastising God dealeth with you as with sons."

We should not faint under chastisement, for God is as pitiful with us as a father is with his children. In receiving correction, as in everything else, we want to exhibit Christ's spirit. As evil crosses our path we require to feel that it either comes from God or is regulated by Him for our highest good. We should be able to say as calamity arises:

"Thou couldest have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above."

Bro AT Jannaway

The Christadelphian, Jan 1888

13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

We ought to follow after righteousness with a careful and even a painful strictness,‭ ‬knowing that even‭ "‬the righteous shall scarcely be saved‭" (‬1.‭ ‬Pet.‭ iv. ‬18‭)‬,‭ ‬and that‭ "‬without holiness,‭ ‬no man shall see the Lord‭" (‬Heb.‭ xii. ‬14‭)‬.‭

But at the same time,‭ ‬we must not shut our eyes to the fact that‭ "‬like as a father pitieth his children,‭ ‬so the Lord pitieth them that fear him,‭ ‬for he knoweth our frame:‭ ‬he remembereth that we are dust,‭" ‬and that‭ "‬as heaven is high above the earth,‭ ‬so great is his mercy towards them‭" ‬all of whom will say at last,‭ "‬he hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities‭" (‬Psa.‭ ciii. ‬10‭–‬14‭)‬.‭

...‭ "‬If any have caused grief‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬ye ought rather to forgive him and comfort him,‭ ‬lest perhaps such an one should be swallowed up with over-much sorrow‭" (‬2‭ ‬Cor.‭ ii. ‬5,‭ ‬7‭)‬.

The Christadelphian, Oct 1894. p393

14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

Holiness is compulsory on the members of the house of Christ—holiness in everything—"in all manner of conversation" "in both body and spirit." These are apostolic definitions and according to reason.

Whatever is physically offensive or tends to lead away from Christ (as smoking, drinking, theatre-going, novel reading, court summonsing, &c.) is inconsistent with holiness, and will be decisively repudiated by the truly enlightened son of God.

What if some brand holiness as "bigotry" and "prejudice:" it is nothing new for good to be called evil. If we are to please the carnally-minded, we shall soon be the friends of the world, and in a state of spiritual shipwreck. Life as it now is will soon be gone. Christ's standard will decide all at last. We must conform now.

There is no popery in declaring the truth.

TC 02/1887

17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

The apostle cites the case of Esau as a warning to believers lest any of them should "fail of the grace of God." All who are Abraham's seed by being in Christ have obtained the birth right; and are thereby entitled to the blessing of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that hereafter

"people should serve them, and nations bow down to them; and that they should be lords over their brethren."

But, if for some temporal advantage they should "sin wilfully," and thus barter it away, "there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries" (Heb. 10:26-27).

There is no scope afforded to such for repentance; for they have placed themselves precisely in Esau's position. Hence, the apostle exhorted his brethren to look diligently to it, that none of them proved to be "a profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright: "for," said he, "ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no possibility of a change of (Isaac's) mind (METAUOIAS TOPOU OUCH EURE) though he sought it carefully with tears" (Heb. 12:15-17)

God is merciful; but He is also jealous; and "will by no means clear the wilful." If His children sell their birthright to the world for anything it can tempt them with, His mind, like Isaac's, is immovable; and transgressors cannot change it, though they may seek carefully to do so with tears, and prayers, and with great and exceeding bitter cries.

Elpis Israel 2.3.

The reference to Esau shows the meaning.‭ ‬The man who deliberately bargains himself out of the divine covenant is doubtless in a hopeless position.‭ ‬This was Esau's case.‭ ‬He‭ "‬sold‭" ‬his birthright.‭ ‬Believers may do the same.‭

There were many in times of persecution who bartered away their title to the kingdom by some overt act of conformity to the dominant diabolism required at their hands as the condition of immunity:‭ ‬such as formally denying Christ,‭ ‬or formally doing homage to Cæsar,‭ ‬or openly taking part in the lascivious festivals of the gods.‭

A man bargaining himself out of Christ for any present advantage is in Esau's position doubtless,‭ ‬but this is a different thing from those acts of infirmity which are the grief of a righteous man's soul,‭ ‬and for which he makes daily petition of forgiveness.

The Christadelphian, Oct 1894. p391-393.

22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

Now, the children in Isaac become the children of the heavenly Jerusalem by believing "the exceeding great and precious promises" set forth in "the manifold wisdom of God." They hope to see Canaan and Jerusalem under the new covenant, which will constitute them both heavenly.

They are even now said to have

"come to Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, and to the heavenly Jerusalem";

but it is as yet only in spirit, that is, by faith and hope: and as the city and land will be made heavenly by the Lord from heaven, their glorious attributes are in truth "above;" to believe, then, in what will be brought down to the city from above, is for the children of the promise in Isaac to stand related to "Jerusalem which is above, the mother of them all" (Gal.4:26).

Hence, the apostle exhorts them, saying,

"If then ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead (to earthly things) and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then, shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3:1-4).

Elpis Israel 2.2.

We do not know where the angels live.

This need be no difficulty. There is plenty of room. Even if some of them live upon the earth, which is possible, seeing they manage it at present, we would not be likely to see them, as they are sensitive as to the intrusion of mortals and have the power of veiling themselves from sight.

We shall see plenty of them if we have only patience to wait long enough. There will be myriads in attendance upon Christ in the day of his coming: but whether they will be our friends or the mere distant well-bred officials of the heavenly court, will depend upon whether Christ feels justified in confessing us before them or not.

The Christadelphian, Dec 1898

23 To the general assembly and ecclesia of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

The general assembly and ecclesia of the firstborn

...every man admitted to that assembly is "without fault before the throne of God" - iniquity forgiven, nature perfected, blemishes removed. Think of it, that not a flaw will disfigure - not a weakness mar a single member of that glorified assembly - all of them "jewels" - so described by God Himself "made up" - in splendid cluster and setting for His royal use in that glorious day. Then only will the truly "finished work of Christ" be manifest, and its greatness be seen.

It is being done in detail now, in the preparation of the sons of God. It is a work to which Christ is accessory. It is greatly an individual work - each in the separateness and privacy of his own case, getting tried and polished - sometimes in furnace heat, sometimes in darkness and friction, sometimes the sharp rasp of the file, sometimes the smart blow of the hammer.

The process is often painful; sometimes the alleviations of love and light are permitted, but ever forward it goes to that final attainment when the heart, weaned from all carnal things, and fully opened and quickened to the high and mighty and the subtle things of God, is prepared as a "polished stone most precious" for use in the heavenly city.

24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

As Cain was of the evil one by transgression so Abel was of God by the obedience of faith, which evinced that "God's seed remained in him." Hence, though both of them were born of Eve according to the flesh, their spiritual paternity was as opposite as light and darkness. Cain was a man of sin; and Abel, an accepted son of God. In these characters, they stood at the head of two divisions of their father's family; and proximately represented the seed of the serpent, and the Seed of the woman. Cain bruised his brother's heel; but God appointed a substitute for Abel in the person of Seth, by whom Cain's headship was bruised, and his posterity superseded in the earth.

Eve, says Moses, "bare a son, and called his name Seth: for, said she, God hath appointed ME another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew." She had many other sons, but none of them are mentioned except Cain, Abel, and Seth. When, therefore, we are informed, that Seth was "'appointed, instead of Abel," and trace the posterity of Seth terminating through a certain line in Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, we are taught that Cain lost his excellency by sin, and was therefore, set aside, and Abel provisionally appointed to be the progenitor of the Seed, who is to bruise the serpent's headship over the world.

But, Abel having been bruised in the heel, it became necessary, in order to carry out the divine purpose, and to answer allegorically the indications of the sentence upon the serpent, to appoint another son of Eve in the place of Abel. According to this arrangement, Abel became the type of Jesus, wounded in the heel, but whose sprinkled blood speaks better things than Abel's (Heb. 12:24), which cried only for vengeance, while Seth typifies Him in His re-appearance among the sons of men to bruise sin under foot, and to exterminate in the course of His reign, the serpent's seed from the face of the earth.

Elpis Israel 1.4.

26 Whose voice then shook the earth [by the Babylonish Power] : but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more [in AD 70] I shake not the earth only, but also heaven [ the priesthood and the civil government].

‭"‬Thou art He‭"—‬the Eternal Spirit in flesh whose years shall never fail.

Paul testifies that this prophesy is verified in Jesus, "justified in Spirit;" and he tells us, that, while he was writing to the Hebrews, those heavens,

"which had decayed and waxed old were ready to vanish away"—ch. 1:10–12; 8:13.

They were to be abolished by the Son of Man, who had become Lord and Christ, or Yahweh, and as the time was near at hand, he said,

"Yet a very little while, and He that cometh will come, and will not delay"—c. 10:37:

and quoting Haggai 2:6, as bearing upon the end of the Mosaic Aion,

"Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also the heavens," he proceeds to comment upon the phrase "Yet once more."

The Mosaic earth had been shaken out of its place; and its heavens had been dissolved; and continued so for several years. But they had partially recovered from the shaking they had experienced by the Babylonish Power.

The same Eternal Spirit, now incarnate in the Son of David, was about to shake the Kingdom "once more." Paul says, that by that phrase "once more" was signified

"the removal of the things that are shaken as of things that have been appointed, that those things not being shaken may remain."

The things removed were the High Priest, or Prince, the sacrifice, the altar, the festivals, all the temple service, the priesthood, the civil government, and so forth. As constituted by the Mosaic law, they were all incompatible with the rights of David's Son, who by "the word of the oath" in Ps. 110:4, was High Priest as well as King of the Hebrew nation.

It was necessary to shake them out of the way. Hence, the Kingdom of God, Mosaically constituted, in the hands of the Chief Priests and Pharisees, was a kingdom that could be shaken, and in shaking, fell. It was taken from them by Him they crucified, who in punishing them avenged upon them all the righteous blood shed upon the land.

The things unshaken are enumerated in ch. 12:22–24. These remain, and ultimate to those who held on to them, in their

"receiving the kingdom which cannot be moved,"

the kingdom of the age to come which cannot be destroyed.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Aug 1859

28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

Our state of mind

—our "views"—are of the first importance here.

Do we see God in His true position of sovereignty? Do we understand and recognise our place in the universe as but permitted forms of His power, whom sin has deprived of all title to continuance? If so, it is well.

God has revealed that to such He will look: with such He will dwell—those who are

"humble and broken in heart, and who tremble at His word."

If we do not, God is patient with us; He is long-suffering, but His views of our position will at last prevail. We shall certainly die out of sight and memory. His point of view is the governing one. The world forgets this—even the world that considers itself not the wicked world—the moral world, the religious world, the broad-minded, charitable, cultured world.

They have invented for themselves a doctrine that is not in the Bible—that God is a universal Father and will save men without reference to their attitude to Him. This doctrine is pleasing and convenient, but it is not true. The cross of Christ contradicts it. Why did Christ die? Because of sin: And why is sin so dreadful as to require such an awful ingredient in the process of remedy! For the very reason that God is so great and terrible a majesty.

This is the last thing men of our generation rise to: yet it is the first lesson in true godliness—the godliness that God will accept (and none else is worth talking about).

Sunday morning 191

The Christadelphian, June 1888