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النشر الإلكتروني

CHAPTER XIV.

THE MIRACLE OF THE NEW BIRTH.

Regeneration wrought by special power of Holy Ghost against laws of our fallen nature-It is a miracle endorsing and authenticating Gospel-Each true believer "hath the witness in himself" that he has been born again, and that Gospel is true--Miracle of new birth evidence to all the world of Gospel's truth-Each participant of eucharist makes solemn affirmation by the act of participation that, according to his best belief, he has been born again-Such affirmation equivalent to deposition in court-These depositions amount to many hundreds of millions-Deponents all deceivers, or deceived; or else new birth a reality, and Gospel from God-New birth standing miracle.

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To the Jewish dignitary Jesus Christ declared, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Though this declaration seemed strange to the master in Israel, yet even reason must perceive and feel its truth, if, with the Gospel in her hand, she will contemplate the subject with the same candor and diligence which she is wont to bestow upon matters of secular science.

That man is by nature fearfully depraved is demonstrated, not only by Scripture, but also by the profane history of every age and country. The

world's annals are written in blood, and stained with crime. Nor are the codes of earthly jurisprudence less conclusive of the fall. Courts of law, civil and criminal, venerated as they justly are, would have been but useless incumbrances, with all their compulsive machinery, their remedies for violated pacts, their pains, penalties, and punishments, had man remained pure. Each jail, each penitentiary, each state prison, each gallows, bears melancholy testimony to the depravity of our apostate race. To restrain man from plundering and murdering his fellow-man, legislation has been obliged, at all times and places, to invoke all the resources of its wisdom and skill. Nor has human wickedness confined itself to the breach of the social duties. Had its might been equal to its will, it would have scaled the heavens and dethroned the Sovereign of the universe. Fallen man is at enmity not only with his fellow-creatures, but also with his God. If any one is inclined to deem this picture exaggerated, let him cast his vision inward, and learn its truth by profound and candid communion with his own heart.

Without a radical change of moral nature it is impossible that man should be happy here or hereafter. Sin and bliss dwell not together; happiness

and holiness are twin sisters, whose elements are so compounded that they cannot live apart. Crime blotted out earth's Eden; and "except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Should he with his natural heart be admitted into the upper sanctuary, it would be no paradise to him. How could he join, with lips uncleansed, in the pure psalmody of the skies? And there sits the everliving Jehovah, clothed in the robes of holiness, whose eyes are as a flame of fire." From that dread presence the unregenerate sinner would seek refuge even in the vaults of despair. Reason herself must perceive that renovation of heart is an indispensable preparation to admission into the kingdom of heaven.

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The regeneration of the soul is not within the compass of human effort. Though skilled in theological learning, Nicodemus could have devised no way in which a fallen creature can be born again. Man has accomplished much; he has moved onward with gigantic steps in the exploration of the universe; he has tamed into his service the potency of steam, and the mightier power of electricity. But his own little heart man has never changed. Unless touched by grace, it is the same now as it was in the days of Cain. The leprosy of moral

evil is cureless by sublunary skill. Human science has elevated the intellect; but it wields no lever of sufficient compass to lift the carnal soul from the depths of spiritual degradation. Heathen Athens and Rome were, in all their pride and glory, but moral Sodoms.

Regeneration is a miracle wrought by the Holy Ghost. Any suspension or variation of the physical laws of the universe is a miracle. The moral laws of human nature are just as inflexible as the laws of the physical world. The unregenerate man is "dead in trespasses and sins." His resurrection to spiritual vitality is directly opposed to the established laws of his fallen nature. Unaided humanity can no more regain its pristine holiness than the cataract can re-ascend the mountain height. Regeneration is, then, a miracle. And it is a miracle in its character more astounding than was the resurrection from physical death at the grave of Lazarus. Of the prodigies which rendered memorable the journey of the persecuting Saul, from Jerusalem to Damascus, the greatest of all was the removal of his "stony heart," and the substitution of "an heart of flesh." The light and the voice from heaven, and the blindness, and its unearthly cure, surpassed not, perhaps, in miraculous grandeur

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the arrest of the sun in its course. But the conversion of the heart was a miracle that required the sufferings and death of the incarnate Deity. The salvation of the soul could be purchased only by the blood of God.

It has been said that the age of miracles is past. The saying is not true. The ordinary miracles of the Gospel ceased, indeed, about the end of the first century of the christian era. But the extraordinary miracle of the new birth has pursued its noiseless, majestic, onward course, scattering its demonstrations throughout the world. All other miracles have been superseded and absorbed in this the mightiest of them all, as "the stars hide their diminished heads” in the presence of the king of day. This wonder of wonders, coeval at least with the days of Abel, will maintain its triumphal march until the angel, standing with his right foot upon the sea and his left foot upon the earth, shall lift his hand to heaven and swear by Him that liveth forever and ever that time shall be no more.

The miracle of the new birth incontestably establishes the inspiration of the Sacred Oracles. They are replete with predictions of the triumphs of the Gospel by regenerating grace. Every new birth is a fulfilment of scriptural predictions. Prophecy

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