ST. JOHN III. 5 157
slow fires of their sarcasm. I have watched them score it with the keenest infidel blades. I have seen it pilloried and hung in effigy before an admiring crowd. To all of which there is just this to say — and I believe it can be substantiated with vital truth — that of all the Master's doctrines none is more self- evident and philosophical than this. There was nothing in it to bewilder Nicodemus or any man of us. Jesus touched the bedrock of common-sense when He insisted that there is no way into His Kingdom except through " a second birth." ^
A New Attitude to God.
1. To be "born again" means to get back to our child- hood. Who has not cried, " Oh, that I were a child again ! If only I could start life over again, free from all the errors and disasters, free from all the stains and soils of the past!" We may, we can. We can get back to childhood again. For Naaman there was the river that washed away the leprosy of the flesh ; for us " there is a fountain opened in the house of David for sin and uncleanness," where the soul may be washed clean. To get back to childhood, to get the weight of sin removed, to start anew — Jesus says we can. Science tells us that all that is wanted to create a new star is a start. There are the vast floating nebulae. If they will only cohere at some little point, then the globe will begin to form, and presently you will have a star. All that we want is the point of contact, the cohering point ; then the new life will begin to stir in us, and the new soul begin to grow into the starry image of Christ.
2. When a child is born in common life it is born into a sonship ; it becomes at once a member of the family ; and there and then, before it has done a thing to merit it, the little child has a right to its father's and mother's love. It is exactly the same with the new birth of the child of God. Every person born of the Spirit is born into a sonship, and is received at once as a beloved child into the family of God. This is what St. John teaches us (John i. 12) : " As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name " ; and what St. Paul teaches (Gal. iv. 4, 5) : " When the fulness of
* G. C. Peck, Ringing Questions, 161,
158 A NEW BEGINNING
the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."
3. Now this new attitude to God, which is here called'a new birth, is necessary — " Ye must be born again." It is necessary for the acknowledged sinner, since his attitude is openly and admittedly wrong. But it is necessary also for every person whose highest aim in life has been to do his duty. He must be born anew as a son and begin to live a life of love to God as his Father. The Kingdom of God, as far as man is concerned, is a state in which we are in our right relation to Him. All irrational creatures obey God and do His will : the sun runs his course with an exactness and punctuality we cannot rival; the grace and strength of many of the lower animals, their marvellous instincts and aptitudes, are so superior to anything in ourselves that we cannot even comprehend them. But what we have as our speciality is to render to God a willing service; to understand His purposes and enter sympathetically into them. The lower creatures obey a law impressed upon their nature; they cannot sin; their performance of God's will is a tribute to the power which made them so skilfully, but it lacks all conscious recogni- tion of His worthiness to be served and all knowledge of His object in creation. It is God serving Himself : He made them so, and therefore they do His will. So it is with men who merely obey their nature : they may do kindly, noble, heroic actions, but they lack all reference to God; and, however excellent these actions are, they give no guarantee that the men who do them would sympathize with God in all things, and do His will gladly.
^ " In the evening I got into a very interesting conversation with Macleod, the blacksmith of the Pioneer. He is a Scot from Campsie, has a true west country twang, and, like most of our countrymen, is far better informed on many subjects of the highest importance than nine-tenths of those among whom he lives. I found him to be a Christian, and the manner of his calling was one of the most singular that has ever been heard of. He was for some time resting on a righteousness of his own, trusting to a moral life and his general goodness, but frequently with misgivings as to the security of his foundations. At times he felt that the sand on which he was resting was moving. When