Hebrews 2:6

Hebrews 2:6

Faith.

I. When man rises above the merely savage state, he begins to show some signs of faith; some evidences of his looking forward to a future; some reliance upon powers which are unseen. For, observe, the savage lives by his bow or his nets; the next step is to the pastoral or agricultural life. The shepherd must trust to the sun that warms and to the rains that moisten, and the ploughman must trust to the bounteous earth and the gracious season, and look forward to the harvest which promises, and guard against the scarcity which threatens. He begins, then, to show faith, and a firm conviction that he will have the good things he looks for, though the ripened grain and blessed harvest be as yet unseen.

II. As man advances in the scale of civilisation, this faith in the future goes on ever increasing; there is a more unselfish looking forward, a more far-reaching prudence, a desire to conciliate even a posterity as yet unborn. As men get nobler and wiser and holier they look further and further. According as a man is animated by a lofty purpose or a merely selfish one, so his view is wider and far-reaching, or confined and paltry; according as his faith in things hoped for is firm and unwavering, and his conviction of the reality of things unseen is deep and reverent, so is he ready to dare and suffer to the utmost in any way his faith requires of him. They that love God, the Unseen, must trust Him, must believe that He is; and they that seek Him humbly and devoutly, will find their faith in Him grow, and their love for Him increase, and so receive from Him ever a fuller and fuller assurance of their acceptance.

A. Jessopp, Norwich School Sermons,p. 108.

References: Hebrews 2:6. T. B. Dover, A Lent Manual,p. 66. Hebrews 2:6; Hebrews 2:7. W. H. Dallinger, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxii., p. 360. Hebrews 2:6. A. Rowland, Ibid.,vol. xx., p. 164; W. H. Dallinger, Ibid.,vol. xxxiv., p. 200.