The Signs of Advancing Victory
A. Bax. Hebrews 10:11-13 And every priest stands daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: Just as a man in early spring will fall down on some mossy bank over a pale primrose, with a keen joy in his heart, not so much for what it is in itself, but as the harbinger of the great glowing summer so surely advancing. As he looks at it, the leaden skies grow into sapphire clearness, the naked woodlands are once more dressed in living green, and the long winter silence is broken by the wild gushes of sweetest bird-music. He knows that behind that tender plant lies God's immutable covenant, that, "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter shall not cease" — lie those omnific forces that will soon fulfil all the promise of this prophetic flower. So Christ welcomed each little sign of His advancing victory. A few Samaritans, returning with the woman with whom He had previously conversed at the well of Sychar, drew from Him the exultant utterance, "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." The faith of one centurion is regarded at once as the earnest of the whole Gentile world" "And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." On another occasion two or three Greeks express a desire to see Him, and that desire fills Him with a holy transport. "The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified .... Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the Prince of this world be cast out." Aa eloquent expositor has said that "they were to Him as the first-fruits of the great flock of humanity; and their presence as the first stroke of the bell which sounded the fatal but glorious hour." And His attitude to-day upon His throne is still that of calm, quiet, confident expectation. (A. Bax.) Parallel Verses KJV: And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: WEB: Every priest indeed stands day by day serving and often offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins,