the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Music For the Soul
THE ATTACHMENTS OF FAITH
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. - Hebrews 11:13
THE great roll-call of heroes of faith in this chapter (Heb. 11) goes upon the supposition that the living spirit of religion was the same in Old and in New Testament times. In both it was faith which knit men to God. It has often been alleged that that great word faith has a different signification in this Epistle from that which it has in the other New Testament writings. The allegation is largely true; in so far as the things believed are concerned they are extremely different, but it is not true in so far as the person trusted or in so far as the act of trusting are concerned, - these are identical. It was no mere temporal and earthly promise on which the faith of these patriarchs was builded. They looked indeed for the land, but in looking for the land they looked "for the City which hath foundations "; and their future hopes had the same dim haze of ignorance, and the same questions unresolved about perspective and relative distances which our future hopes have; and their faith, whatever were its contents, was fundamentally the same out of a soul casting itself upon God which is the essence of our faith in the Divine Son in whom God is made manifest. So with surface difference there is a deep-lying, absolute oneness in the faith of the Old Testament and ours, in their essential nature, in the Object which they grasp, and in their practical effects upon life. Therefore these words, describing what faith did for the world’s grey forefathers, have a more immediate bearing upon us than at first sight may appear, and may suggest for us some thoughts about the proper, practical issues of Christian faith in our daily lives.
Observe that the words, "And were persuaded of them," in our Old Version are a gloss, - no part of the original text. Observe, further, that the adverb "afar off " is intended to apply to both the clauses: "Having seen them" and "embraced them." And that, consequently, "embraced" must necessarily be an inadequate representation of the writer’s idea; for you cannot embrace a thing that is "afar off"; and to "embrace the promises " was the very thing that these men did not do. The meaning of the word is, here, not embraced, but saluted, or greeted; and the figure that lies in it is a very beautiful one. As some traveller topping the water-shed may see far off the white porch of his home, and wave a greeting to it, though it be distant, while his heart goes out over all the intervening, weary leagues; or as some homeward-bound crew catch, away yonder on the horizon, the tremulous low line that is home, and welcome it with a shout of joy, though many a billow dash and break between them and it, these men looked across the weary waste, and saw far away; and as they saw, their hearts went out towards the things that were promised, because they "judged Him faithful that had promised." And that is the attitude and the act which all true faith in God ought to operate in us.
'Music For The Soul' daily readings for a year from the writings of the Rev. Alexander Maclaren, D.D., selected and arranged by the Rev. Geo. Coates, published by A.C. Armstrong and Son, 51 East Tenth Street, (1897). The original text is in the Public Domain and this electronic version is free for anyone without cost or obligation. This a year long daily devotional was written by the Rev. Alexander Maclaren over 100 years ago. This Scottish pastor had a heart to follow Jesus and a love for souls.
