sheep, "that I might take it again," and "give unto them eternal life." The "very great stone" has been removed "from the door of the sepulchre;" and now in place thereof, another stone presents itself to the eye of faith-a "chief corner stone," "a living stone," by believing contact with which we also become "living stones," not only to form a spiritual house here for spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, but to be integral parts of that postresurrection, “holy city, new Jerusalem, which cometh down from God out of heaven, as a bride prepared for her husband."5 4 Until this consummating act of salvation passes upon us, in the union of a risen body with a bloodbought, blood-washed spirit, the whole tale of God's wondrous love to guilty man has not been told; His whole provision for His fallen creatures' need has not been appropriated; the full import of that blessed name JESUS has not been unfolded, until sung in the choir of the risen or changed redeemed; when there shall be bodies to wear the white robes, and hands to wield the victor's palm, and tearless eyes, lips also tuned to sing "with a loud voice"-"Salvation unto our God, and unto the Lamb !"6 This is that "salvation" which is "nearer than when we believed;" "unto" which we "are kept by the power of God through faith"-a salvation which is the subject of hope; with patience to be waited for, until "unto them that look for Him, He shall appear without sin unto salvation.” It is true that we are saved, in a blessed sense, when converted, justified, and accepted. Faith, in the simple reception of the Gospel, acting on the death of Christ, effects this. But this only introduces us to the continuous need and experience of salvation, in a further sense, flowing from the life of Christ. We may see this in the last verse quoted"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." In Heb. vii. 24, 25, we read-"This Man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood; wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." Let special note be taken of the force of the illative particle "wherefore," as connecting the two verses together; also of the true import of the expression, "to the uttermost," (in the margin, "evermore,") or, to give the Greek its full meaning, perfectly—altogether—right through to the end.2 8 1 Pet. i. 5. 9 Rom. viii. 24, 25; 1 Thess. v. 9; Heb. ix. 28. 1 Rom. i. 16, iii. 24-26, v. 1, 10. 2 Bloomfield, in his Lexicon, renders avτελns, "to be wholly ended." It nowhere else occurs in the New Testament, except in This end once reached-the end of all our conflicts here below, the end of all our need of supplies of "mercy" and "grace" from the store-house of the sympathising heart of our High Priest, salvation ceases to be continuous, and meets its close in that phase thereof which, we have seen, is connected with the future coming of the Lord Jesus. Not until the longing hopes of His Church are realized at that coming, not until, "when Christ who is our life shall appear,” we “shall appear also with Him in glory," and, seeing “Him as He is,” “we shall be like Him,” —not until then shall Jesus present Himself to His Church as the Saviour, in the full extent of the term, raising up at the last day all those whom the Father had given to Him, thus consummating all that He had undertaken with the Father to effect for them." In Phil. iii. 20, 21, we have our attention directed to Jesus, in this prospective aspect of Him as the Saviour "Our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for THE SAVIOUR, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." Luke xiii. 11, and in the same adverbial form as here, and is there associated with the negative particle, and rendered in our version— "in nowise." In Luke xviii. 5, siç réλos (without the term of entirety nas, making up the complex word here used), signifies-" to the end”—“continuously.” 8 Heb. iv. 15, 16. John vi. 37-40. 4 Col. iii. 4; 1 John iii. 2. Again, in Titus ii. 13-"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and OUR SAVIOUR Jesus Christ." "Salvation! O the joyful sound! "Tis music to our ears; A sov'reign balm for every wound, A cordial for our fears." To give to this song a full-bodied tone of melody, to make its theme a balm for every wound, we must award to it an extended range of action beyond its usually accepted limits. Our knowledge of, and our dealings with salvation, in the threefold sense alluded to, can alone supply "a sovereign balm for every wound." In its first aspect, it brings peace to a guilty conscience, exempting from the condemning power of sin; in its second, it brings the believer, saved in that sense, into constant contact with "the grace that is in Christ Jesus." "The whole head," ofttimes "sick," and "the whole heart," ofttimes "faint," the "wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores" of inbred corruption are, by virtue of the increasing "supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,” closed," "bound up," and "mollified." But the soul, thus abundantly ministered to from moment to moment, and delivered from the reigning power of sin," is still yoked to "this body of death." "If the priest 6 2 Tim. ii. 1. 7 Phil. i. 19. 8 Isaiah i. 5, 6. 1 Rom. vii. 24. shall come and look; and, behold, if the plague be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house; it is unclean;" and the decisive injunction, in such a case, was- "He shall break down the house, and the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house."2 In the believer as in the unbeliever, "the body is dead because of sin."" Excepting those of His saints who, "alive at His coming," "shall be changed," all are destined to the grave; for "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." "Our earthly house of this tabernacle" must be "dissolved," and replaced by "an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." This consummating act of our saving God belongs to the third aspect of salvation, when, having been delivered from the condemning and reigning power of sin, we shall be freed also from its very existence, and then blessedly realize that He, whom we have known as "made of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification," is the Saviour, the Redeemer, the Mighty One," to put us in possesion of our forfeited inheritance, in "our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."s "Grave, the guardian of the just; |