IV

One of the main ideas of the Epistle to the Hebrews is the abiding character of the priesthood of Christ. He is a High Priest for ever. This carries with it the idea also of the abiding character of His sacrifice. It is one sacrifice for ever. In union with Christ and His heavenly sacrifice Christian worship and life are spoken of in the Epistle as possessing a sacrificial element. “Through Him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which make confession to His name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” So also, Christian life and worship as a whole are regarded as affording a parallel to the Jewish sacrifices; and in a contrast between Christians and Jews it is said, “We,” that is, Christians, “have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle”. It is quite possible that in the word “altar” there is a reference to the cross of Christ, or to Christ Himself; but the word “eat” distinctly suggests a connection with the Eucharist, and implies that in this rite, forming as it does the centre of the earthly worship and life of Christians, there is access to the abiding sacrifice of Christ in heaven and to the heavenly High Priest Himself, as the earthly sanctuary affords the means of approach to the heavenly worship in which Christians “come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that of Abel”.