SERMON I. THE APPROACHING NEARNESS OF SALVATION. (A New Year's Address). “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.' -ROMANS Xiii. 11. "THE Lord is risen! !” On the morning of the Lord's day, the early Christians were wont to address one another in these words by way of fraternal greeting; and the greeting was both expressive and appropriate. It was as good as saying, "All is well,-well with Him, and therefore well with us. He has paid our debt and obtained a full discharge. He has expiated our guilt and brought in an everlasting righteousness. He has made atonement for our sins, and Divine anger is turned away. God is reconciled in Christ, and by grace we are saved." And why should there be less of Christian faith and hope in our salutations now? "Peace with you" was the Master's salutation to His disciples on the first of Christian Sabbaths; and with His example it is not amiss to say that there ought to be much more of a devout spirit in even the ordinary civilities of life, in so very simple a matter as even the expression of our kindly wishes for one another. Alluding to the Scripture-story of the ancient harvest-field, when the farmer hailed his reapers in words of prayerful wellwishing, and they responded in like spirit and manner to his pious courtesy, it has been said that, considering the day, the place, and the purpose, of the assembly, it were a beautiful and appropriate thing when ministers and people meet in the house of God, to meet after the manner of Boaz and his people, the minister on entering the pulpit, saying, "The LORD be with you," and the people responding, "The Lord bless thee." I cannot say that I desire to see any practice of the kind prescribed in the rubric of our common order; for, like all merely liturgic ceremonial, it might soon degenerate into the mummery of a cold and heartless formalism; but, surely, as Christians, we have good reason to interchange salutations, and I may, therefore, be permitted to address the words of the text as a congratulation of heavenly hope to my brethren in Christ Jesus, along with an assurance of my most earnest prayers for their Christian welfare; "For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." The quickening influence of such a congratulation may be advantageously brought to bear upon you, as setting out to-day on, as it were, a new stage in life's progress; and with this view, let me invite you to consider with attentive practical application, the nature of salvation and the blessed hope of its approaching nearness, as these two topics are presented in the text. I. THE NATURE OF SALVATION. The word "Salvation" is variously employed in Scripture. Whenever one believes in Jesus Christ he becomes, according to the gospel, a participant of His salvation; the sentence of justification is passed upon him; the process of sanctification is begun in him; his title to heaven is secure, and, as soon as his meetness for it is complete, he will not be out of it for a day. But the "salvation" of the text looks beyond the present privileges and attainments of believers in union to Christ, and participation upon earth of new covenant blessings. It denotes their glorification or communion with Christ in the blessedness of the heavenly state, their actual and full enjoyment of eternal glory. Now we must not go away with an explanation of the word, as all that is necessary to set before us the nature of this salvation. Let us consider the explanation. Let us try to take up its meaning. What is salvation in the sense of glorification? What is communion with Christ in the eternal blessedness of heaven? The question is easily asked, but it is not so easily answered. It asks more than the wisest and holiest among men can tell. It is impossible for the most enlarged capacity on earth to conceive in an adequate degree, as it is alike impossible for the most exuberant language on earth to express in any corresponding D degree what salvation is. Even an angel's description would fall short of the reality, and in truth an adequate description would be useless to us; like the full blaze of sunlight on an infant's eyes, it would blind us altogether; its very brightness would plunge us into total darkness. And so it must remain beyond human thought and human speech, till it is matter, not of believing hope, but of actual enjoyment. ""Tis misty all, both sight and sound- As Heaven outshines the taper's light."* After all, there are some brief hints in the word of God, some faint views or glimpses, by means of which we may obtain a not inaccurate, although it be an inadequate, conception of salvation; and, instructed by them, this much at least we are warranted to say, that, in its ultimate reference, or in the sense of glorification, it includes a state of complete holiness and consummate happiness in the immediate and uninterrupted vision and fruition of our God in Christ for ever. Let us take note of the component elements of salvation in its completeness as discovered by these hints. 1. It is a state of complete holiness. For all the sin of the earthly state, so sadly defiling and depraving as * Keble's "Christian Year." Fourth Sunday in Advent. it always is, will then be done away with entirely and for ever. There will be no deceitful heart, no degrading appetite, no unhallowed feeling, no accusing conscience, not the slightest vestige or even taint of evil, in one of the countless millions before the Throne. Whatever may have been their character among men, once perhaps bemired and blackened by the pollutions of the world, in heaven they will be pure as Christ is pure, and perfect even as their Father there is perfect; all of them holy, and unblameable, and unreprovable, in His sight; not an imperfect saint among them; not an angel, even the most exalted, more immaculate in his sanctity; every one holy and without blemish, without spot or wrinkle; altogether faultless in the adornment, the peerless beauty, of the full-orbed and full-summed excellencies which form the moral character of God Himself. And this is salvation. It is a state of complete holiness. And 2. It is also a state of consummate happiness. how shall this be ever described, or so much as indicated? No wearisome nights or toilsome days, no apprehension of evil, or bill of mortality, or agony of separation, to vex any saint in heaven. Aching heads, bleeding hearts, farewells, and adieus, unknown; all the crosses, trials, distresses, afflictions, bereavements, gone for ever. What a joy the very thought of it! "There shall be no more death; ne crying; neither shall there be any m former things are passed away." tion. It is a state of consummate h |