DUTIES IN VIEW OF JUDGMENT
‘Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering … and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.’
The ‘day’ here spoken of is, according to the constant use of Holy Scripture, a day of judgment. But it is not the judgment of all mankind, the last judgment of the world, that the writer of this letter sees approaching. It is the judgment of Jerusalem, the destruction of the Holy City and the Temple, the awful punishment of the ancient people of God.
What ought our attitude to be towards coming partial judgments of the world and the Church? We are always bound by our Lord’s precept to watch, since any one of them may be a speedy precursor of the last judgment, and all of them prepare the way for it.
The three duties enforced in our text are intended to heal a troubled condition of Church life.
I. Faithfulness to our baptismal confession is, in the mind of the writer of this Epistle, as in that of St. John, faithfulness to that central article which was the real test to a Jew, ‘I believe that Jesus (or Jesus Christ) is the Son of God’ (see Hebrews 4:14). This is becoming, again, the test for ourselves.
II. The second duty is to provoke to love and to good works by a considerate attitude towards our fellow-Christians. This means especially to look favourably on such good causes as are unpopular or imperfectly popular, and I would instance in particular the causes of temperance and foreign missions. Both need consideration and not merely kind words. Both need, for instance, economy of effort, training of the young, study of new methods as well as perseverance in the old.
III. The third duty is that of assembling yourselves together for worship.—Try to get some work to do for or in the Church in connection with the people among whom you live. It is those who know us whom we can help and who can help us by their criticism and encouragement. It is now well understood that easy gifts and subscriptions are not Gospel charity. But it is also a very old Christian saying, ‘Let your alms grow hot in your hands until you know to whom you are giving them.’ Collections in church are important because they are put into the hands of responsible people, but chance-given alms usually do more harm than good.
Bishop J. Wordsworth.
Illustration
‘There are many things in our day to make us fearful. There is the materialism and indifference of a large portion of modern society; there is the corruption which pervades a great part of civil and commercial life; there is the inordinate and passionate life of pleasure, and the vices which follow in its train—the gambling, the sensuality, the intemperance, the utter selfishness and thoughtlessness which often leads to real suicide (unconnected with insanity)—the crowning sin of a life of sin. Even those who have still a sort of respect for religion are often half-hearted about it. They make the Lord’s Day their own day, and so deprive their religion of what was intended to be its most regular and common element of sacrifice and self-denial.’