hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the Ught, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil
We have in these verses the second part of the conversa- tion between our Lord Jesus Christ and Nicodemus. A lesson about regeneration is closely followed by a lesson about justification ! The whole passage ought always to be read with afiectionate reverence. It contains words which have brought eternal life to myriads of souls.
These verses show us, firstly, what gross spiritual igno- rance there may he in the mind of a great and learned man. We see a "master of Israel" unacquainted with the first elements of saving religion. Nicodemus is told about the new birth, and at once exclaims, " How can these things be ?" When such was the darkness of a Jewish teacher, what must have been the state of the Jewish people ? It was indeed due time for Christ to appear ! The pastors of Israel had ceased to feed the people with knowledge. The blind were leading the blind, and both were falling into the ditch. (Matt. xv. 14.)
Ignorance like that of Nicodemus is unhappily far too common in the Church of Christ. We must never be surprised if we find it in quarters where we might reason- ably expect knowledge. Learning, and rank, and high ecclesiastical ofiice are no j^roof that a minister is taught by the Spirit. The successors of Nicodemus, in every age, arft far more numerous than the successors of St. Peter. On no point is religious ignorance so common as on the work of the Holy Ghost. That old stumbling-block, at which Nicodemus stumbled, is as much an ofience to thousands in the present day as it was in the days of Christ. 'The natural man receiveth not the things of