false idea of deliverance from pains and penalties, but deliverance from the evil heart of unbelief which brings these. He need strive no more to escape a future hell; but let him labor to escape from the present captivity of sin, from the bondage of his lusts and passions, " into the glorious liberty of the children of God." This is heaven, or at least the beginning of it; and it is as real now as in the future, as possible on this side the grave as on the other. 1

SECTION II.

FIGURES AND METAPHORS ILLUSTRATING THE NATURE OF SALVATION.

There are numerous figures of speech in the Scriptures, which will help us to understand the kind of redemption which Jesus brings to the soul of man. A brief review of a few of these will add to the preceding argument, and shed light upon this important inquiry.

1 WESLEY seems to have seen the truth on this point: "By salvation, I mean not barely, according to the vulgar notion, deliverance from hell, or going to heaven, but a present deliverance from sin. Now, if by salvation we mean a present salvation from sin, we cannot say holiness is the condition of it; for it is the thing itself." Ward's "View of all Religions."

The following from an orthodox journal is prophetic of progress: "The general idea of salvation is, that it consists in going to a certain place, called heaven. With this place is connected the idea of being perfectly happy. This, however, is a very loose way of thinking on so momentous a subject.-It is not the place that makes the inhabitants what they are, but it is they that make the place what it is. Heaven is what it is because of the character of those who dwell there. Any world-any place would be a heaven, if filled with perfectly holy beings. Whether a man is saved or not depends on what he is, not on where he goes. The sinner desires salvation, or complete happiness. He will get it, not by a change of place, not by going out of the body, not by getting into the company of the good, but by getting rid of his moral malady-by becoming holy."

1. We are refined and purified as silver. Mal. iii. 1-3. "For he is like a refiner's fire, .... he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.”

This figure shows that Christ saves us from something from which we are to be purified, something that makes a part of us now, and from which we are to be separated by a refining process like that which separates the pure silver from the dross. Now, this language is not, in any sense applicable to punishment, to the penalty of the divine law, the wrath of God, or any of their equivalents. We cannot be purified from judgments, though we may be purified by them, spiritually refined and separated from our sins in the fiery furnace of suffering.

To say Christ is like a refiner of silver, because he saves us from the torments of hell, or bears the wrath of God in our stead, is to make a comparison where there is no likeness, no resemblance of the things compared. But there is a resemblance between him who purifies the soul from sin, and one who purifies the silver from dross. And in this sense Jesus is a Refiner and Purifier, separating the spiritual from the sensual, bringing out the heavenly from its mixture with the earthly dross, and preparing it to receive anew the image and superscription of God.

The thought, or truth, of this figure, is found in many other texts. Peter, speaking of the Gentiles, says: "God put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." Acts xv. Again,

he says, in his first Epistle: "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit." i. 22. Here the heart, the soul, are purified, which, of course, is an inward personal salvation, and not redemption from threatened judgments. John says: "He that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure." 1 John iii. How is Christ pure? In any sense that would represent him as saved from punishment? Of course not, but in the sense of entire freedom' from sin, "a lamb without spot or blemish."

2. We are cleansed and washed. The passage already cited from Malachi, declares also that the Saviour is "like fuller's soap," i. e. that his truth and grace act on the soul, as soap acts on a soiled garment; only in one sense, of course, that of cleansing, the one acting by spiritual, and the other by chemical laws. The idea embodied in this figure pervades the New Testament. After naming certain kinds of evil persons who cannot, as such, or while in that condition, enter the kingdom of God, or be received as followers of Christ, the apostle says: "And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified," &c. 1 Cor. 9-11. "Unto

him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." Rev. i. 5. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John i. 9. And the passage already quoted from the same chapter, "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin."

The metaphor running through these texts, is perfectly descriptive of the nature and process of salva

tion. You cannot wash a person from the penalty of the law; you cannot cleanse him from punishment. There is no fitness to the comparison; the figure fails altogether. But it is full of meaning and beauty when employed to describe gospel salvation, which is being "washed from our sins," and "cleansed from all unrighteousness," through the grace and truth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

3. We are healed as of a disease. This figure has been partially considered in the preceding section; but we call attention to it again, that the principle involved may be carefully considered in its negative and positive relations. Christ himself authorizes the language, when he justifies himself for keeping company "with publicans and sinners," by saying, "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." Matt. ix. 12. The Psalmist has the same metaphor: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases." ciii. 2, 3.

According to the parallelism of Hebrew verse, the forgiving iniquities and healing diseases in this passage, are the same thing. The forgiveness, or removal of iniquity or sin from the soul, which is salvation, is set forth by the figure of healing, or removing of disease from the body. But the physician who cures the sick man, does not do it by taking his sickness, or bearing the pain of it; but by driving out the disease. So Jesus does not save us by bearing for us the punishment of sin; but by driving out the sin from the heart. A man cannot be cured or healed of endless torment there is no point or meaning to such a figure-but he can be cured of

his moral disease; he can be healed of the leprosy of sin, by the grace of Jesus, by the Spirit of God.

4. Christ is our Teacher; and we are saved by the Truth. "We know that thou art a teacher come from God." John iii. "We know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth." Matt. xxii. This metaphor also illustrates the spiritual and personal nature of salvation, and shows in part what it is from-ignorance, error, and unbelief. When a man becomes my teacher, he does not stand as my substitute; he does not take upon himself and suffer all the evils of my ignorance; but he instructs me, he enlightens me by imparting knowledge, or helping me to obtain it. Salvation, therefore, if this metaphor has any propriety or significance in it, bears the same relation to the spirit which knowledge bears to the intellect.

....

And this element of salvation, and this method or process, are recognized in many important passages. "I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men, ... for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." 1 Tim. ii. Here "to be saved," and "to come to the knowledge of the truth," are equivalent terms, meaning the same thing. Hence the Saviour says: "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." John xvii. The knowledge of God and his Son is eternal life, salvation, deliverance from ignorance and unbelief, through the enlightening influence of the Gospel and the Spirit of Truth.