New Birth is that change of affections, desires, and interests, by which the heart is turned away from earth to heaven, with an earnest effort to realize in itself, the divine life of Christ. Salvation is that effort realized, that divine life attained, as far as possible in this world; it is that spiritual condition in which the whole tide of thought, desire, purpose, character, and conduct, sets steadily and strongly totoward God, and to whatsoever is pleasing in his sight.

СНАРТER V.

BALVATION-WHAT IT IS? THE NEW TESTAMENT DOCTRINE,

The subject of this chapter is the most important, perhaps, in the whole range of religious discussion and inquiry. It is more personal than any other: it relates to the highest interest of the soul; it appeals to our fears and our hopes, to our affections and aspirations, to all that we love and all that we desire; it is the question of destiny for time and eternity.

It is not alone what is to become of mankind, but what is to become of me? What am I? Whence came I? and whither do I go when the "silver cord " of this life is loosed? What is the purpose of my being on this earth? What does Christ come to me for? and what does he seek to accomplish in me? and for me? How is he a Saviour? and what does he save me from? What is redemption through his blood? Is it present or future; before death, or after death, or both? Is it deliverance from the evil of our own hearts, or from some evil outside of us? from judgment and punishment, or from a moral condition and life which bring these? Is it union with God, the life of Christ in the soul, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, whenever and wherever these are realized?

These are the questions which crowd upon us at the very threshold of any inquiry into the object of

Christ's mission, or the nature of Christian salvation. I can only indicate the way, and point out some of the leading features of the question; and then leave the reader, with the New Testament in his hand, to follow the investigation to its results, confident that he cannot miss the truth on this all-important subject.

It is singular that it has so long been taken for granted, in the Christian church, that salvation is deliverance from punishment, from the penalty of the divine law, from hell in the sense of endless torment, from the consequences of sin; instead of from sin itself, from the dominion and bondage of an evil heart and a wicked life, and a translation into the glorious liberty of the children of God. And it is the more so from the fact, easily verified by examination, that never, in a single instance of the multitude of texts where the words Saviour, save, and salvation, are used, are they connected with any such idea or definition of salvation. Nor is there more than one'passage in which the usage of the terms could suggest such a mistake in regard to the true nature of redemption by Christ.

It is possible that Romans v. 9, might be taken inferentially, to mean something of this sort: "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." The word "wrath" here may be supposed to refer to the judgment of God against sin; but even if it do, it is not the judgment or punishment of sins already committed, that is meant. What the apostle intends to say is, that we are saved, by Christ, from a sinful and wicked life; and, so far, are saved from the judg

ments which follow, as the natural and necessary consequence of a wicked life.

Beside, the phraseology in this case is peculiar. It is not by the death of Christ, through which, according to the popular theology, the atonement is made, but by his life that we are saved from this wrath. "We shall be saved from wrath through him; for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." That is, the death of Christ, as an exhibition of divine love, has reconciled us to God, filled our hearts with gratitude and affection; and the beauty of his divine life wins us to himself, and so saves us from all the evils of a sinful life, and that "wrath of God which cometh upon the children of disobedience." Eph. v. 6; Col. iii. 6.

Let us proceed now to the direct testimony respecting the nature of the salvation which Christ came to work out in man, and for man. In the first of the following passages, the Saviour speaks for himself, and that, too, at the very commencement of his ministry on earth. He reads the words of the prophet Isaiah, in the synagogue at Nazareth, and applies them to himself. Of course, he knows what God the Father sent him into the world to do; he knows whether he came to save the world from sin, or from the punishment of sin; whether his salvation is internal and spiritual, or external, from some evil coming upon the soul from without.

SECTION I.

DIRECT TESTIMONY RESPECTING THE NATURE OF SALVATION.

Luke iv. 16-22. "And Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. .... And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." 1

In this public announcement of the objects of his advent on earth, and the character of the salvation he was sent to work out in the soul of man, there is no allusion to deliverance from the wrath of an angry God, or the penalties of the divine law, or the legitimate claims of divine justice, or the terrors and torments of an endless hell. And his entire silence on these points, in this his inaugural address on entering upon his ministry, is the most demonstrative and conclusive proof of the falsehood of these dogmas of the churches and schools.

It is plain enough, to the most indifferent reader, that the salvation which Jesus sets forth, in his prophetic testimony, as the work on which he was sent

Why did Jesus stop in the middle of the sentence, and leave out the important declaration, "and the day of vengeance of our God?" doubly and trebly important if he came to save us from this. How do believers in this doctrine explain the omission! See the passage in Isaiah Ixi. 1-3.