tament. It sets forth Christ the Lord
to us in a somewhat new light, and new relation. All the other books
of the New Testament are mainly occupied in setting forth Jesus as the
atoning Savior. But this book is preeminently taken up with Christ the
anointed High Priest of our profession. The other books tell what
Jesus has done to redeem the world from sin. This book tells what he
is now doing to save his people.

In his admonitions and instructions Brother Saylor beautifully
referred to the Olympic games celebrated by the ancient Greeks once
every four years. From these the figure of running a race, given in
the text, was borrowed. A man cannot run long and well with a load on
his back. You have no doubt seen the fabled demigod Atlas pictured
with the world on his shoulders. I have often thought of that old
Grecian representation of avarice, as being something like a true
picture of many professors of the Christian religion at the present
day. You see the old myth struggling along with this big round world
on his back, apparently casting his eyes upward at times as if he
might be longing to reach the top of Mount Olympus, the home of the
gods: but alas! his head is bowed and his back bent under the mighty
pressure, and he never got there. It will fare no better with the man
who tries to carry this world with him to heaven. The apostle says:
"Let us cast off every weight" that would hinder our progress.

You know the devil is called a serpent. No sane man ever yet invited a
snake to bite him. If one is bitten by a copperhead or rattlesnake, it
is either because he has gone where he ought not go, or else, if
compelled, he was not watchful, but was off his guard. Besetting sins
are these snakes in the grass and along the hedges. The apostle here
takes it for granted, as a thing settled long ago, that the Christian
has laid aside his habitual sins. Besetting sins are such as we meet
or overtake unexpectedly in the way, and like robbers that beset us
and take our goods, they spoil our peace and take away our joy. The
best way for all Christians is to keep out of the way of snakes and
robbers.

"And let us run with patience the race that is set before us." In
another place Paul says: "I press forward to the mark for the prize."
He represents the Christian as running, but not as uncertainly. Not as
if some one else might beat him and take the prize, and he thereby
lose it. No, no! In the Christian race there is a prize for