Hebrews 11:38

Hebrews 11:38

Great Men.

I. It behoves us to have a care how we judge the men of our own day who take a leading part in the conduct of affairs, and compel the notice of their fellows. It is easy enough to load them with flatteries if they be on our side; but should they be teachers of new things, with new ways and new ideas and new modes of speech, which some denounce and others mock at, then it behoves us to be cautious and patient. Great things are not so well seen when you are close to them. You may stand beneath the facade of St. Peter's at Rome, and form but a feeble conception of its magnitude; and even when you remove to some little distance, it is obscured by the crowd of vulgar buildings which surround it. But when you have journeyed twenty miles away across the level campagna, and then turn and look for Rome, it is St. Peter's which you see, as though it hung from heaven, suspended in the lucid air, and the crowding, encircling meanness has disappeared. And so it is with great men. We need to be at a distance rightly to estimate their magnitude.

II. Of some of the men in this list you would scarcely say that they were moral or religious men. But they were all alike said to have been faithful men; that is, men full of faith. And herein we may notice that the possession of faith is the prime capability for a religious life, as it is also the first qualification for the successful conduct of any great undertaking. By faith I mean the firm grip of some conviction, some purpose or other, so that there is decision and earnestness, and a marked out line in life. The man who takes up a cause and holds by it, and fights for it, even if the cause be a mistaken one; the man who is loyal and true to a person, and stands by him and speaks out for him, such a man, however worldly he may be, however selfish or however immoral, may by God's grace be converted to genuine piety.

W. Page Roberts, Reasonable Service,p. 117.

References: Hebrews 11:38. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xv., p. 406; Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 303; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. i., p. 217. Hebrews 11:39; Hebrews 11:40. Homilist,3rd series, vol. vii., p. 145; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. vi., p. 94; R. Duckworth, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxx., p. 273; Preacher's Monthly,vol. vi., p. 289. Hebrews 11:40. Homiletic Magazine,vol. xii., p. 114.