also tilled, receiveth blessing from God: but if it
beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse;
whose end is to be burned."--HEB. v. 11-vi. 8 (R.V.).

In one of the greatest and most strange of human books the argument is
sometimes said "to veil itself," and the sustained image of a man
battling with the waves betrays the writer's hesitancy. When he has
surmounted the first wave, he dreads the second. When he has escaped out
of the second, he fears to take another step, lest the third wave may
overwhelm him. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews has proved that
Christ is Priest-King. But before he starts anew, he warns his readers
that whoever will venture on must be prepared to hear a hard saying,
which he himself will find difficult to interpret and few will receive.
Hitherto he has only shown that whatever of lasting worth was contained
in the old covenant remains and is exalted in Christ. Even this truth is
an advance on the mere rudiments of Christian doctrine. But what if he
attempts to prove that the covenant which God made with their fathers
has waxed old and must vanish away to make room for a new and better
one? For his part, he is eager to ascend to these higher truths. He has
yet much to teach about Christ in the power of His heavenly life.[83]
But his readers are dull of hearing and inexperienced in the word of
righteousness.

The commentators are much divided and exercised on the question whether
the Apostle means that the argument should advance or that his readers
ought to make progress in spiritual character.[84] In a way he surely
means both. What gives point to the whole section now to be considered
is the connection between development of doctrine and a corresponding
development of the moral nature. "For the time ye ought to be
teachers."[85] They ought to have been teachers of the elementary
truths, in consequence of having discovered the higher truths for
themselves, under the guidance of God's Spirit. It ought to have been
unnecessary for the Apostle to explain them. At this time the "teachers"
in the Church had probably consolidated into a class formally set apart,
but had not yet fallen to the second place, as compared with the
"prophets," which they occupy in the "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles."
A long time had elapsed since the Church of Jerusalem, with the Apostles
and elders, had sat in judgment on the question submitted to their
decision by such men as