These words are a guiding and inspiring principle, alike in the life of the whole Church and in our individual souls.
I. The unlimited going on to perfection is the law only of a life that is spiritual, "hid with Christ in God." In all that is material, the law is of alternate growth and decay; life springs out of death, and death out of life; nor less over all the institutions of humanity, so far as they belong only to the outward world, the same law reigns. They have their day, short or long, of growth, maturity, and decay, and then they cease to be. Only what is spiritual in them the truth which they have taught, the beauty which they have created, the right which they have embodied in their institutions, the undying influences of their example and teachings remains to be treasured up in the greater wealth of the future.
II. If there is life, there must be growth. The cessation of progress is necessarily the beginning of decay. There should be progress (1) in our knowledge of God and Christ; (2) in our moral nature; (3) in the inner life of devotion; (4) in the struggle against sin.
III. Is there not something of weariness and bewilderment in the realisation of this ceaseless duty of advance? Not for a moment can we yield to it without degrading the higher instincts of humanity, without being untrue to the faith of Christ. There is a goal of perfection, but not here. For the individual soul there is the bliss of that perfect communion with God which we call Heaven. For the Church of Christ there is the second coming of the Lord, which is the consummation of all good, and the presentation to Him of the glorious Church the Church triumphant. Far away the light of this perfection shines, like some bright star, on the troubled waters of life. Far away, but sure and certain, it is infinite in glory, and for it we can be content to wait.
A. Barry, First Words in Australia,p. 179.
References: Hebrews 6:1. H. P. Liddon, Church of England Pulpit,vol. viii., p. 7; Homilist,2nd series, vol. ii., p. 601; S. A. Brooke, Christian World Pulpit,vol. i., p. 280; F. Wagstaff, Ibid.,vol. vi., p. 136; H. Phillips, Ibid.,vol. x.,p. 155; Ibid.,vol. xvi., p. 363; H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,vol. xxx., p. 65; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ii., p. 354.Hebrews 6:1-3. Archbishop Benson, Boy Life,pp. 302, 320; C. Stanford, Central Truths,p. 1.