HIS distinguished preacher and teacher was born in Liverpool, England, on the 14th of August, 1822. The parents were rigid Episcopalians, and the son was, consequently, brought up in the communion of the Established Church. When only fourteen years of age, during a protracted meeting among the Methodist Protestants of Alleghany City, Penn., he was deeply impressed with the importance of religion, and was led to doubt the correctness of the position he occupied in the Episcopal Church. Although failing to experience the miraculous change, which at that time was a popular evidence of conversion, he was, nevertheless, received on probation, and finally into full membership in the Methodist Protestant Church. He was now conscious of a great change in his views, feelings, and conduct, but he was still unsatisfied with reference to his religious state. There were many passages of Scripture he could not harmonize with the teachings of the Church to which he belonged.

      In the fall of 1838 he made the acquaintance of the congregation of Disciples in Alleghany City, Penn., and was thus brought to review the grounds of his religious belief. This examination led to his immersion, on the 17th of February, 1839, by Elder SAMUEL CHURCH, then pastor of the Christian Church in Alleghany City.

      At the time he united with the Disciples he was an apprentice for five years, "learning the art and mystery of house-carpentry," in the city of Pittsburgh, and, of course, had very little time to devote to literary pursuits. Nevertheless, he collected quite a library of useful and entertaining books, and devoted all his spare hours to the acquisition of knowledge; and having joined a literary society, made considerable progress in the study of history, Belles-Lettres, Biblical Criticism, Natural Science, etc.

      On the 1st of January, 1843, he entered Bethany College, and, in the following year, began to preach for the church at Dutch Fork, seven miles from Bethany, and continued to labor there on Lord's days for three years. By the sale of his library, carpenters' tools, the small salary received for preaching, and occasional help from President CAMPBELL, he was enabled [207] to support himself at college. He subsequently returned all the means Mr. CCAMPBELL advanced, with interest on the same from date. While a student at Bethany, he was married to Miss MARIA THORNLEY, of Alleghany City, Penn.

      He graduated in July, 1847, dividing the first honors of his class with A. R. BENTON, and delivering the Latin salutatory. In December of the same year he entered upon a collecting tour for Mr. CAMPBELL, and spent nine months in traveling through several of the South-western States. It was during this tour that he co-operated with JOHN T. JOHNSON, in a protracted meeting of great interest, at Fayetteville, Arkansas, which resulted in the establishment of a fine church in that place, to the pastoral care of which he was soon afterward called. He removed to Fayetteville with his family in January, 1849. Here he finally succeeded in establishing Arkansas College, an institution which flourished till the war broke out, in 1861.

      In September, 1859, he left Arkansas for Harrodsburg, Kentucky, to take charge of the Chair of Belles-Lettres and History in Kentucky University, to which he had been unanimously elected. He held this position one year, during which time he gave great satisfaction to the friends of the University. He was induced to resign his professorship in 1860, and return to Fayetteville, with the view of becoming the General Agent of the Southern Christian Missionary Society. But the war breaking out, the whole arrangement failed, and, in the fall of 1862, he took charge of the First Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he labored with great acceptance till 1864, when he resigned and removed to Santa Rosa, California, and preached for the church, and taught an academy at that place, one year. He then spent one year in San Francisco, and succeeded in establishing a promising church in that city. In January, 1866, he was elected Presiding Officer of the College of Arts, and Professor of the School of English Language and Literature, in Kentucky University. He accepted, and entered upon his work in the following October, which position he now occupies.

      ROBERT GRAHAM has a finely-balanced organization--there being perfect harmony between the intellectual and physical natures. He is of low stature, but heavy-set, and weighs about one hundred and eighty pounds. He has a bright, florid complexion, large, light-blue eyes, and an orator's mouth. He is a ready extemporaneous speaker, and, on a great occasion, is capable of exercising wonderful power over an audience. He possesses a strong, active, sympathetic nature, and this gives him great influence in the social circle. Few men have more ability to control the masses, but this is never attempted at a sacrifice of dignity, or any characteristic of a Christian gentleman. [208]

      "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures."--JAMES I: 18.

T may be truly said that one-half of all the debates about the Gospel arise from a misconception of the nature of Regeneration. We are glad to think that many persons are regenerated who can not give a consistent and Scriptural view of this subject, even as many are refreshed by the cooling spring who know not the composition of water, and are regaled by the breeze of heaven who can not tell whether the atmosphere is a chemical or a mechanical combination. But this by no means implies that we ought to be satisfied with crude views upon a matter, the importance and interest of which is confessed by all; for while we may not be regenerated by merely understanding the nature of the process, it is equally clear that through this knowledge we may be saved from many pernicious errors, and become the recipients of greatly increased religious enjoyment.

      It is generally believed that Regeneration is one of "the things hard to be understood;" and, indeed, this is true, if we thread the labyrinth by the rush-light of modern theology. Following a light so pale and inconstant, [209] "spectres and chimeras dire" will start up on every hand, pit-falls will dimly reveal themselves at every step, and we shall be in constant danger; but once take the bright and sure light of God's Word, follow the guidance of Christ and his inspired apostles, and what was dark is at once illuminated, the difficulties are bridged, and we find ourselves in a hall built as by enchantment, filled indeed with wonders, but wonders revealed, not less to warm our hearts than to quicken our understandings. To speak without a figure, we affirm our conviction that with the New Testament in our hands, and free from the subtleties of scholastic divinity, Regeneration, in its source, instrumentality, and purpose, can be understood as clearly as any other fundamental item of the Christian revelation.

      As it has pleased God to reveal all for duty and nothing for mere curiosity, it is our interest and our happiness to obtain well-defined conceptions of the divine process by which we are quickened to a new life, for herein has our Father displayed his kindness to us "who were dead in trespasses and sins." His parental love, shown in the efficient means and final cause of our regeneration may well be to us, as it was to primitive saints and martyrs, the theme of perpetual meditation, gratitude, and praise. What is there so well calculated to elevate our minds as the contemplation of the simplicity and benevolence of the Gospel which reveals God's plan of saving sinners by faith, and causing their lives to abound with the fruits of righteousness to the praise of his glorious grace!

      As this discourse is for those mainly who depend not on Greek, but on English, for their knowledge of the living oracles, I shall not speak in a dead language to a living people. Moreover, I may say, once for all, that, [210] in my opinion, it is not absolutely necessary to a clear understanding of this subject that we should draw nice distinctions respecting the Greek words rendered in the common version sometimes begotten and sometimes born. We do not think the apostles, in their use of the words, made any refined physiological discriminations between generation and birth. With them, our new life in Christ begins when we enter his kingdom, and we enter his kingdom by a birth of water and Spirit--a process including the inception, progress, and consummation of a change in both character and state, without which, the Savior says, no one can see the kingdom of God.

      We shall then use the words begotten, regeneration, and born again--as we apprehend the New Testament uses them--to denote a process, and not an act, without stopping to inquire, in the case of each passage adduced, the particular stage of the process which may be uppermost in the mind of the sacred penman. I feel satisfied, from a careful examination, that the New Testament writers used the Greek words in their literal sense for both begotten and being born; and we are confident that, in their metaphorical sense, they may be similarly used without danger of ambiguity. The reason for this opinion will appear as we proceed.

      My method of discussion shall be direct and simple, suited to the humblest capacity, and as best serving the end in view. I shall endeavor to show:

      I. THE NATURE OF REGENERATION.

      II. ITS ABSOLUTE NECESSITY.

      III. ITS BLESSED CONSEQUENCES.

      And may he who never withholds his presence and blessing from those who humbly seek him, aid us by his Spirit, that we may understand the truth as it is in Jesus! [211]

      I. THE NATURE OF REGENERATION.

      In elucidating this part of our theme the text suggests a method at once clear and natural:

      1. The Source of our regeneration--"Of his own will."

      2. The Agent--"He," that is God, "begat us."

      3. The Means--"By the Word of Truth."

      4. The End--"That we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures."

      This passage sets before us four items in our Regeneration; as these are fundamental, mistake is dangerous; as it is clearly done, misapprehension is perversity. Indifferent to the beautiful in statement must be the mind that does not see in this verse a perspicuity worthy a divinely-inspired teacher. Is the first item clear? the second is no less evident. Is the third worthy of God's wisdom? the fourth is not less so of his benevolence.

      1st. The source of Regeneration is the will of God. It is alone of God's free and spontaneous volition, acting without necessity and without constraint, that men are begotten to a new life: it is of "his own good pleasure." Neither is it because of any worthiness in us, as is set forth in Titus iii: 5: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit." To keep our minds steadily fixed on this essential point, and to introduce--

      2d. The Agent of our Regeneration, we quote a most expressive passage from John i: 11-13: "He came to his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor [212] of the will of man, but of God." The meaning and application of this passage are plain. Our Lord came to his own people--the Jews--and, with few exceptions, they rejected him: but, to the few that received him, who believed on his name, he gave the privilege of becoming children of God. The apostle, keeping up the figure suggested by the word children, observes that those who received him were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

      We become children by virtue of birth. By a birth of flesh, we wear the image of Adam; by a birth of Spirit, we wear the image of Christ. Our flesh is born of flesh; our spirit is born of spirit. So Christ teaches. "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit." (John ill: 6.) Being, then, begotten by God, and born into his kingdom of grace, we are his children, and Christ is our elder brother. We are to each other brethren, not in Moses, nor in Plato, but in Christ. This being taught in very many passages of God's Word, and being generally conceded, we may pass on to consider the next item.

      3d. The means employed in our Regeneration. As this is the point about which there is most disagreement, I will be indulged, I hope, if I labor it at greater length than would otherwise comport with the unity of this discourse.

      "He begat us with the word of truth." This settles it that the word of truth is a means. Are we prepared to go one step farther, and say it is the means? We feel so constrained. There may be ten thousand secondary causes employed to bring men to the knowledge of the word of truth, for we and the powers of heaven and earth may be employed in carrying the Gospel to those sitting in darkness, and in the region and shadow of death, just as the [213] air and its happy denizens bear the seeds and pollen of fruits and flowers to the ends of the earth. While the will of God continues to be the source of our new life, and he himself the efficient cause of it, as long as he is our Father, so long will his word be "the seed of the kingdom;" and not till plants can be produced without seed, and animals without parents, will sinful men be made partakers of the Divine nature--the new life in God--without "the word of truth, the Gospel of our salvation."

      But it seems to me that the nature of the case excludes every other instrumentality. Does God beget some children by the word of truth, and others by different means? It behooves those who so affirm to show it by express Scripture statement or necessary implication. This, we are confident, never can be done. But the idea that God has a way of regenerating men by his word ordinarily, and by something else extraordinarily, is not less repugnant to the analogy of nature than contradictory to the analogy of faith. Correct views are removed equally from the extravagance of the fanatic, the obscurity of the mystic, and the cold philosophy of the rationalist.

      The common view of Regeneration is that it is an act performed by the Spirit of God before faith, and in order to faith; and that by it the heart of the sinner is instantly changed from the love of sin to the love of holiness. There is great variety of statement, from the wildest rant to the most carefully-worded proposition, but in meaning they are all the same. In opposition to this, we maintain that "the seed is the word of God," that this is his chosen instrumentality, and that when that word is received by faith into a good and honest heart, that heart is quickened into new life. That the Spirit of God is always with his word, and that if men are not regenerated the fault is [214] to be found in themselves or the unfavorable circumstances of their condition, and not in the will of God, nor the want of power in his word.

      To see what is the teaching of Scripture on a matter so vital and interesting, I quote from Peter's first epistle (i: 22, 23): "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." Can language be plainer than this? We are regenerated, not of corruptible seed; our bodies are generated of that, as we are informed by John, but our spirits are regenerated of this incorruptible seed of the living God. As he only hath life in himself, he communicates it to us through his word of truth. What James calls "the word of truth," Peter calls "the word of God," as the Savior teaches in his sacerdotal prayer, (John xvii: 17): "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth."

      The Savior, John, James, and Peter do, in these passages, teach a simple, but most important truth about Regeneration. We have only to remove from our eyes the films of prejudice and mysticism to see the admirable agreement of all these teachers, and the simplicity of their instruction.

      But you are ready to ask me, What is this word of God, which Peter, in this connection, calls the incorruptible seed of the kingdom? Read the concluding verses of this chapter: "And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." The germ, then, is the word of God in the Gospel of Christ. That word was given in charge to this man and his fellow-apostles, in the great [215] commission to disciple the nations: "Go ye," says Christ, "into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Compare, now, with this Paul's language in 1 Cor. iv: 15: "Though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel." That is, I, Paul, preached the Gospel to you Corinthians, by hearing and believing this Gospel, in which is the incorruptible seed, you have been begotten, and therefore I am, under God, your spiritual father.

      That such is the meaning of the apostle is more than conjecture. What did he do when he first preached at Corinth? In the eighteenth chapter of Acts, we have the report of his labors in this celebrated city, and it is singularly explicit: "After these things, Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth," the account goes on to say: "And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ." The result of all this is given thus: "And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing, believed, and were baptized." Such is the simple and unfigurative account of Paul's evangelical labors in Corinth. He preached the Gospel, testifying that Jesus is the Christ; the Corinthians, hearing, believe the testimony, and are immersed. Were not these persons born again? If so, how? It certainly was according to the will of God; and is it not just as certain that it was through the word of truth? That word was, beyond all cavil, the seed of the kingdom--the germ of their new spiritual [216] life. The fact is, language can not make any thing plainer than does this passage the following propositions:

      1. The Corinthians heard Paul prove Jesus to be the Christ.

      2. They believed his word.

      3. They were baptized. Consequently they were born of water and of the Spirit.

      The reference made by the apostle himself in the beginning of the 15th chapter of his First Epistle to these same Corinthians, confirms us in this view, if farther confirmation is necessary. He says: "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures: and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures."

      Comparing this passage with the one quoted from the 15th verse of the 4th chapter, and both of them with Luke's account in the 8th chapter of Acts, we can not see how any unprejudiced mind can avoid the conclusion that to be born again is to hear, believe, and obey the Gospel; that the Gospel is the good news concerning the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus; that these prove him to be the Christ, the Son of God; that this is the great central truth--the germ of spiritual life--which received into a good and honest heart, by faith, becomes the incorruptible seed of which we are begotten of God; and that when we are baptized into Christ according to the Gospel, and come forth out of the water, we are born of water and the Spirit. I confess that if this be not to be born again, [217] then is the whole thing a myth, and Christ's teaching to Nicodemus incomprehensible.

      How natural it is that Paul should say, (Philemon, 10th verse,) that he had begotten Onesimus in his bonds; and we can be at no loss to understand his meaning. Again, John affirms, (1 John v: 1:) "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born (begotten) of God; and every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him." How sweetly does the language of these texts fall in with the idea that the Messiahship of Jesus is the Gospel in epitome, and that this was the instrumentality used by the first preachers to bring men into the family of God!

      The resurrection of Christ is the crowning proof of his Messiahship, and therefore Peter well says, (1 Pet. i: 3:) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again to a hope of life by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." If, then, Regeneration be not what I have proved it to be by this simple, and, as I think, unanswerable argument I shall despair of ever understanding the meaning of language, and shall boldly affirm that to make a revelation of the will of God in the symbols of human speech is plainly impossible.

      4. The end proposed in our Regeneration is "that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures." In Deut. xxvi: 2-10, we have the law regulating the affecting ceremony of presenting the first fruits before God; and from it we gather that God required the first fruits of the land as an acknowledgment by the Israelite of the providential care that had watched over Abraham and his posterity from the beginning; that had now given the people an abundant harvest, and for his goodness deserved this tribute at their hands. [218] The first fruits were holy and dedicated to God; they were the choicest productions of the earth, and they were an earnest of the harvest about to be reaped. When a man is regenerated according to the Scriptures, he is wholly devoted to God. All his faculties and powers, his time, talents, and opportunities, his whole being and life are consecrated to him whose he is and whom he serves. He is a new creature in Christ Jesus, and his reasonable service is to present his body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. The principle of Regeneration is one that prompts to entire devotion to God. Changed in state, in life, and in purpose, his affections purified, and his soul freed from the thralldom of sin, the renewed man seeks conformity to his Divine model, and is thus prepared for his master's use. He is, indeed, "a kind of first fruits of his creatures."

      II. THE NECESSITY OF REGENERATION.

      And first, my brethren, let me say, that in calling the process by which we are introduced into the kingdom and patience of Jesus a birth, the Savior has brought before our minds one of the most appropriate and expressive comparisons imaginable. Let us be here distinctly understood: The change in both state and character of which we are the subjects in Regeneration, is as real as the creation of the world by God, or its redemption by Jesus; but the setting forth of that change under the similitude of a birth, is highly figurative, and is at once appropriate and instructive. Christ is one of the most figurative of teachers; his instructions abound in parables, metaphors, and beautiful analogies: hence the clearness and the charm in what he says. The deep supernatural truths of his kingdom are submitted to our minds and hearts in analogies drawn from the frame of nature; both these constitute but one system [219] of God, and of that system Christ as the Divine Logos is the author and the finisher.

      The New Institution may be contemplated in various points of view; it is many-sided, and hence the numerous parables employed by Christ to unfold its nature and excellence. It was foretold by the prophets, under the figure of a kingdom; and therefore, when John came announcing the good news of a "kingdom of God at hand," the Jews were at no loss to understand his meaning, though they were entirely ignorant of its spiritual nature. They supposed it was merely the old kingdom of God established by Moses, now to be made more glorious by the Messiah. It was no longer to be under the heel of the proud Cæsars; it was to triumph over Gentile oppression, and the chosen seed of Abraham were to possess it, because of their fleshly relation to him. Descent from him, according to the flesh, was the ground of their confidence, their boast, and their glory.

      John, therefore, laid great stress on the necessity of new principles, a new character, and a new life, as a preparation for the kingdom which he preached; and the seventy disciples were sent out to aid in the good work of preparing men in heart, profession, and conduct, for the kingdom of heaven shortly to be set up. To call the minds of these carnal Jews from their earthly views of the Messiah's reign, the Harbinger directed their attention to the fact that while he immersed them in water, Christ would immerse them in the Holy Spirit.

      One of the Jews, a master in Israel, came to Christ himself, and acknowledged him to be an inspired teacher, come from God, as proved by the miracles he wrought. True to the grand design of his kingdom, and in admirable harmony with its nature, the Savior affirms to him [220] the absolute impossibility of any man's enjoying it without being first born again. We are thus shut up by the great Teacher himself, to the conclusion that the birth of which he speaks has respect to a spiritual kingdom, just as we know that the word, in its literal sense, has respect to a literal kingdom. How natural, how apposite, how forcible is all this!

      In the New Testament, there are many allusions made to three distinct kingdoms of God; and into every one of these we enter by a birth. There is a beautiful analogy among these, and many passages of Scripture can be understood only as we keep this analogy clearly before the mind. We enter the kingdom of nature by literal birth. Adam was made; we are born. This is according to the will of man. We are born again, according to the will of God, and we thus enter the kingdom of grace; we shall be quickened by the Spirit and born of the grave before we enter the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

      We enjoy a life, in each of these kingdoms of nature, of grace, and of glory, suited to its character respectively. In the first, it is natural; in the second, spiritual; and in the third, it is eternal. We derive all from God; but the first is through our parents, the second through the Gospel, and the third through his power in our resurrection. Birth is for the sake of life, and this last is the efflorescence of the germ and bud of our being, the flower that shall know no blight in the paradise of God.

      The Spirit of God is the prime agent in all life. Till it brooded in the beginning on the abyss, there was no life; it became an embodiment in the word of the Almighty, and light and life flashed from the darkness and death of chaos, a cosmos of light and life came into being. The [221] Word was spoken, and through it the spirit of life, the spirit of power, the Spirit of God, generated and brought forth all animate things, and man himself, the crown and lord of all. Animal life is here the result of God's Spirit operating through his word. "His word is spirit and life." At this, "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy."

      If we look at spiritual life, how perfect the analogy! The Spirit of God is the author of our new life; but that Spirit is again in his word; its re-creating energy is there, and we are regenerated through the word of truth in the Gospel, "for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." The word of God was the envelope of his omnipotence in the creation of all things. It is not less so now in quickening us to a new spiritual life in Christ Jesus.

      The Spirit that raised up Christ shall again become embodied in a word of God; his voice shall be heard in the charnel house, and those mortal bodies shall throw off the cerements of the grave, and come forth to die no more. We shall enter into what Peter calls "the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." It is rightly so called, for it is the grand consummation of all God's purposes of grace and mercy toward his believing and obedient children.

      But, we have said, all birth is for the sake of life. Is it not thus? We are born into the world, not that we may simply exist, but that we may live. We eat and drink to sustain life; but that life is in the flesh, and is sustained by the bread and water that perish. We may eat and live thus, grow old and die, and yet be strangers to that bread that came down from heaven to give life to the world. It is in admirable harmony with our analogy of a new birth [222] and a new life that Christ says: "We must eat of the bread that he gives us;" and that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." If we do this, "we shall hunger no more, neither die any more." If we drink of the water he gives, "it shall be in us a well of water springing up to everlasting life." The morning of the resurrection shall witness our third and final birth; we shall then enter on an eternal life, to be forever nourished by the tree of life and tile river that issues from the throne of God.

      We are now prepared to affirm, and to affirm confidently, that the declaration of Christ is in every way consonant with all our conceptions of a kingdom and of life. Who can conceive of the former without subjects? of the latter without birth? And why the former, but for the sake and for the development of the latter? We can not live, in its proper sense, without being born; and, as soon as we are born, we enter a kingdom. "Except ye be born again ye can not enter into the kingdom of God."

      This passage, then, teaches one great truth about the new birth, and that is, its absolute necessity. We can not give too much emphasis to this declaration of the Master. In the nature of things, there is no entrance into the kingdom of God; there is no enjoying this new life but by being born again. The sense of the passage is one, and not manifold; there is one, and but one complete judgment of Christ's mind in the language under consideration; that judgment is one and the same to all who know the meaning of words; we do not ask you to admit it, we challenge the world to deny it--that single idea is, that Regeneration is absolutely necessary to the enjoyment of the kingdom of God.

      If this truth were appreciated as it ought to be, and if [223] we were prepared to accept its inevitable consequences, much misconception and wrangling about religion would disappear. Prejudices, such as were a hindrance to the Jew, and are yet so to many a Gentile, would give way. No longer would infant baptism, infant regeneration, infant church-membership, and, I blush to name it, infant damnation, hold a place in Protestant symbols of faith. These, with a score of exploded dogmas in relation to conversion, abstract spiritual operations, and what is improperly called experimental religion, would be known only as the lifeless creed of the dogmatist or the wild fancies of the enthusiast.

      We do not mean to say that professed Christians do, in words, deny the necessity of the new birth; we are more than pleased to know that there is a general agreement as to such necessity, but we fear it is more a concession for the sake of orthodoxy, than a conscious truth of the heart. If this be not true, they would hardly repudiate its obvious consequences.

      From the nature of the case, then, and from the positive teaching of Christ in this passage, we conclude a new birth to be a necessity in every case to which the language applies. What the Divine Father of all does with those who are incapable of hearing, believing, and obeying the Gospel, is not a question before us, nor is its discussion necessarily connected with our present purpose.

      We may now sum up what we have to say on both the nature and the necessity of Regeneration in a brief scriptural statement: It is the Spirit, the Spirit of God, that is the efficient agent in this wonderful transformation; the means employed is the word of God contained in the Gospel, more particularly the truth that "Jesus is the Christ;" which is, in fact, the whole Gospel in epitome. [224] Through this we are begotten to a hope of life by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. (1 Pet. i: 3.) The Father begets us through his Word, inspired into the apostles by the Holy Spirit, and spoken by them in their testimony that Jesus is the Christ; this Word, received into the heart of the sinner, dead in trespasses and sins, is the seed of the kingdom, which germinates there, and of it he is begotten, and of it only. When such a one comes forth of the water in which he has been baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, according to the Savior's command, the process of his Regeneration is completed. He is saved by the washing of Regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. (Titus iii: 5.)

      From what has been said it follows, as a matter of course, that mystical and abstract regeneration without the word of God, the means and motives of the Gospel, anterior to faith, and in order to faith, is opposed alike to the simplicity of the Divine teaching and the analogy of nature. It is opposed to the simplicity of the Divine teaching, for it leads to confused ideas of the whole plan of redemption; it contradicts the plainest teachings of Christ and the apostles; it nullifies the commands of the Savior, and leads the sinner to depend on an influence of the Spirit not promised, and never to be realized. It makes him the dupe of feelings inconstant and deceptive, and the hero of what would be a farce but for its seriousness and the interests involved. It is opposed to the analogy of nature, for it leads us to suppose that God has two processes of birth into the same kingdom; one ordinary, the other extraordinary; one normal, the other abnormal; one through means, the other without means. Is this true of his natural kingdom? Has God many ways, or one way, of producing animal, vegetable, or any kind of [225] life? Is not his glorious power in the production of myriads of beings in all departments of his physical world manifest in this, that what is necessary for the producing of one is so for all? and that nothing more than he has appointed is necessary?

      III. THE BLESSED CONSEQUENCES OF REGENERATION.

      The Pythagoreans, who believed in the metempsychosis or transmigration of souls, called the union of the soul with a new body a regeneration. The Greeks called the Spring, when the dormant energies of earth and air are waked to new life and activity, the regeneration of the year. Christ, in one of the only two passages where the word is found in the Scriptures, calls the renovation he came to effect a regeneration. "Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." (Matt. xix: 28.)

      Christ does two things for those who receive him in the Gospel, which, though co-etaneous and inseparable, are, nevertheless, very distinct. When we believe in Christ, and obey the Gospel, we are freely justified for his sake. According to the terms of the New Covenant, our sins and iniquities are remembered no more. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved," are the words of the promise, and the promise, too, of him whose truth never fails. This salvation is not only from former condemnation; it not only obliterates the past, and places us before God justified; but it embraces the implanting in our hearts a new principle of life. We are, henceforth, a new creation in Christ Jesus: "Old things are passed away, and all things are become new." There is [226] something done for us, and something done in us, by our Redeemer. This latter is the essential idea in Regeneration. It is a new life; but life has respect to a kingdom, and, therefore, we have a regenerated character and a regenerated state. Baptism is the consummation of the Divine process, and marks the point of transition from a state of alienation to one of reconciliation, pardon, and peace. He, then, who, according to the Gospel, puts on Christ, becomes in him a new creature; he is regenerated and born again. This is the spiritual metempsychosis. The new life in Christ is his, and, freed from the condemnation of sin, with the love of it eradicated from his heart, he begins a new existence; the spring of his new life has come; the old man of sin is destroyed, and the new man, created in the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness, lives in him. God has said to him: "Behold, I make all things new." The renovation is effected, and Christ is seated on the throne of his glory.

      2d. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." (1 John iii: 9.) Whereas, before his new birth, sin had power over him, he now has power over sin. "He sinneth not, because his seed abideth in him." What a blessed result is this! The child of God not only has a new life, a new nature given him--he not only lives in a new state, but, when tempted by the world, the flesh, and the Devil, he has the power to resist; he is strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. He not only has life, but he has it more abundantly. Would we all realized "the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ" brought to us in our regeneration!

      3d. We are adopted into the family of God. We are begotten of him, and, therefore, are his children. The spirit of adoption is sent into our hearts. Thus speaks the [227] Apostle Paul, (Gal. iv: 6:) "And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." There is not a blessing of the New Covenant that is not included in this. The newborn soul feels its relationship to God, angels, and the redeemed in this world and around the throne of God. There is not a promise it may not claim; there is not a privilege it may not enjoy; there is not an honor in heaven or earth to which it may not aspire.

      4th. We become heirs of God by our new birth. The wealth of the universe is ours; the riches of Christ are our patrimony. We may be as our Master was while on earth, poor and needy; but as our Master is, we also become heirs of the world. Thrones, and dominions, and powers are to be subject to us; for, as Christ overcame, and is seated on his Father's throne, so are we to overcome, and to be seated on Christ's throne. In a word, when we become children of God, we come into a new world; the powers and capacities of the soul are free from the thraldom of sin, and a new spirit is given us, and we are made heirs of God and joint-heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ. "All things are yours: whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

      Such, my brethren, is the teaching of Scripture on this interesting theme; and may God bless it to our minds and hearts that we may all come to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. Amen. [228]

[TLP 207-228]