The whole misapprehension of this portion of scripture, in my judgment, arises from a single error-an error, too, which is extremely prevalent: I mean the transferring to eternity what belongs exclusively to time, transferring to the future world what belongs to the present; and the equivocal import of the word saved is the occasion. The usual meaning of saved or salvation, in the sacred oracles, is preserved or preservation, delivered or deliverance; and this preservation or deliverance almost uniformly refers to the scene of things now passing before us, to temporal advantages or privileges, to the near earth, and not to worlds beyond the sky. Hence arises the ambiguity.

Now if it be inquired, as it is very natural to inquire, from what the Ephesian converts were saved, preserved, or delivered, the answer is clear and unequivocal-an indisputable certainty. The Christians of Ephesus were emancipated from their gentile state, from heathenism, idolatry and vicious practices; delivered from the worship of false gods, and admitted to the knowledge of the only living and true God; and this deliverance was wrought through the grace or unmerited favor of Jehovah. It was altogether his gratuitous goodness; a gift, of which they both were, and felt themselves to be, wholly undeserving. Like the air they breathed, freely provided for the maintenance, of their animal existence, this breath of life, the gospel, was God's free provision for their spiritual being.

The following, therefore, is the simple import of the apostle's assertion: 'By the favor of the Supreme Being, ye, Ephesians, are delivered from your heathen state

through confidence in the Messiah; and this deliverance is not effected by yourselves; it is the bestowal of your Maker. You are admitted to this state of privilege, not through any works, exertions, or worthiness of your own, lest you should boast or glory. For we, as Christians, having been created or

are his spiritual workmanship, fashioned through Jesus Christ--that is, moulded or renewed by means of christian principles, maxims, instructions-created to good works, in which God before designed that we should walk.'

Thus were the Ephesians saved by grace, saved from heathenism and admitted to the gospel; and if it be asked how this doctrine is applicable to ourselves, I give this plain answer: So far as our condition and circumstances resemble theirs, precisely in the same manner. By the free bounty of the Sovereign Disposer, we, like the christian converts of Ephesus, are rescued from a state of disadvantage through belief in the Saviour; and this escape is not accomplished by ourselves: it is the unmerited bestowal of Heaven. Like them, we are admitted to this state of privilege, to this brightness of gospel day, not through any study, application, or merit of our own, but through the benignity of our Father, so that none of us can boast of his own wisdom or sufficiency. For we, as well as the Ephesian Christians, are of divine workmanship, created through Jesus Christ for the performance of christian duties, which it was the purpose of Infinite Wisdom that we should practise.

Here we perceive the design of our religion. So far from introducing us to a state of security, assurance, or impunity, it admits us merely to a state of privilege, to

opportunities of greater exertion and greater recompense. As in the parable of the talents, mankind are responsible only for advantages bestowed. Pagans have their one talent, the light of nature, and for that alone are they responsible; Mahometans may be said to possess two; the Jews, five; Christians, ten; and an allwise, alljust, and allgracious Being, we have reason to believe, determines the allotment of all according to their individual use, abuse, or neglect of those talents.

There is no mention made in this sentence, nor, I may add, anywhere in the Bible, of a certain elect number, who are received into heaven through the special favor, the distinguishing kindness of the Supreme Being. In the whole passage, indeed, there is not the slightest reference to the invisible state. The salvation or deliverance, as I have explained before, relates altogether to the present world-to the communication and reception of christian privileges. That these privileges may become instrumental in promoting our eternal salvation, this indeed is the very object of infinite goodness; since we are formed through Jesus Christ, that is, we are admitted into his earthly kingdom, to exemplify the principles of his dispensation. Our great Benefactor imparted these blessings and talents, that we might use them-might occupy until he come--might be preserved from the evil that is in the world, and become capable of enjoying the good that is in heaven. Our high priest is able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by him; and to all who thus obey him, he becomes the author of eternal salvation.

Are we Christians? There has been a new creation.

Of this I wish my reader to form a distinct conception. Our first creation was that of human beings, when we were introduced into the world; our second creation, or new birth, was that of Christians, when we were made sharers in the dispensation of the Saviour; and both these creations or births are of grace, that is, of unmerited goodness or free bounty. As we may thus speak of ourselves as twice created, so we may consider salvation as twofold;-salvation on earth, and salvation in heaven. Our earthly salvation or deliverance is entirely of grace, a bestowal altogether unmerited and gratuitous; but in accomplishing our salvation in regard to a future world, the case is somewhat otherwise we then co-operate with divine goodness and power. Salvation is submitted to our free-agency-is made to depend upon the use we make of our privileges and power; and thus, to employ the condescending terms of revelation, we are said to be fellow-workers with God. While we are commanded to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, we at the same time have the animating assurance, that it is God who is working in us both to will and to do.

Has our Maker discovered the riches of his grace in creating us, in delivering us from a gentile state, in admitting us to the advantages of the gospel, and in affording us continued life, strength, and opportunity to avail ourselves of them? Our duty as rational and accountable beings lies before us, claiming our regard; and having entered the school of immortal life, it becomes us so to observe its holy discipline, that we may secure that

eternal salvation, of which our present is the mere image, symbol, or resemblance.

If the reader has accompanied me in these statements and expositions, and I have been so happy as to render them intelligible and familiar, I hope he will make them his own. With these views of christian salvation I wish you to peruse the sacred records, comparing passage with passage whenever the word may occur. Become a Berean. Search the scriptures daily, and ascertain whether these views are the truth of inspiration. The question of Philip to the royal treasurer of Ethiopia was a very natural one, and one which we ought invariably to ask ourselves: Understandest thou what thou readest? Revelation is not a meteor, that leads its followers into the wilds of delusion, and there leaves them wandering in darkness it is a dayspring from on high, pure and holy, which lifts upon them its dawning of salvation in time, and the splendor of its perfect day in eternity. May we never cease to remember this grand aim of our new creation-that we are to live and die for our Maker, endeavoring to accomplish the purpose of our existence -even the highest degree of happiness of which our faculties are susceptible.

These views, addressed to our more ingenuous nature and nobler principles, are such as it is most delightful to unfold. The goodness of God ought assuredly to lead us to repentance, ought to draw us to him as with the cords of a man, the bonds of love. Something of that myste rious sympathy, which draws together individuals of congenial temper and taste, sentiment and pursuit, and unites them in the bonds of interest and affection, ought to in