Testament Scripture in the sense of truthful, of sure, of fixed purpose. "I will make with him a covenant in all things ordered and sure;" it is in the original, "I will make with him an amen covenant." And again, "His bread shall be given him, and his water shall be sure;" it is in the original, "And his water shall be amen water;" that is, living water. And hence the word Amen is constantly used in the Hebrew Scriptures to denote what is sure, divine, and living. And the Saviour, therefore, in this passage claims to be the Amen; as He is called in the Apocalypse the Alpha and Omega, the Faithful and True Witness.

"Verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Mark well the importance of this. It was meant to convey a lesson that we very frequently overlook when we read this passage. Thousands think religion means giving up one set of dogmas and adopting another set; laying aside one string of tenets and taking up another. Unquestionably sound truth is essential to Christianity; but mere belief of truth does not make Christian character, though it is the very first step. Nicodemus said, "These miracles prove that thou art a teacher, to teach lessons." Jesus says, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." In other words, essential Christianity is not doing this which we have not done, and ceasing to do that which we ought never to have done; but in being what we have never been, that is born again.

Therefore the Saviour says, it is not, except a man believe this point, and accept that dogma, but "Except a man be born again." Christianity consists in the case of every individual who embraces it, not in the acceptance of dry doctrines with the head, which is very common, and in its place most valuable; but in the acceptance of the Holy Ghost into the heart to transform it by his celestial touch. Man's idea of making a Christian is to give him information that he has not; God's plan for making a Christian is to make him what he is not. And therefore the Saviour turns away this philo

sophical Pharisee from mere speculative questions, and fastens his attention upon the great central truth, which showed that he needed to be something that he was not, not merely to learn something that he knew not. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." We often fancy that all we need is the intellect to be enlightened; the fact is, the heart has more to do with sound belief than the intellect. We find less living and active Christianity in man, because he exercises chiefly his intellect, and far more living Christianity repeatedly in woman, because she exercises the heart more than the head. Where there is a heart wrong, it always distorts, or dilutes, or deadens the convictions of the intellect. It is not so much increase of light that the world needs, good as that is, but increase of grace; in other words, a new heart, that they may even see, what without that new heart they cannot see, the kingdom of God, which is the reign of God over the individual heart and ultimately over the whole earth.

Nicodemus, startled by this home thrust, if I may use the word, for it was eminently so, puts upon the expression "born again," its literal, and physical, construction. It was the carnal heart, in human nature, trying to lead aside from the simplicity of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. Then Jesus answered and said unto him, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." There has been a good deal of discussion about the meaning of this. One party understands it, Except a man be baptized by water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and of necessity therefore, born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. But the difficulty of receiving this, apart from other portions of Scripture, which seem to refute it, is the fact that Christian baptism was not yet instituted. Jesus instituted baptism after His resurrection, when He said, "Go and discipelize all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

Then, what can water mean? My own conviction is that it refers entirely to John's baptism. John was baptizing with water in Ænon, and many came to him to be baptized, and it was called the baptism of repentance; it was preparatory to the baptism by fire at the day of Pentecost. It seems to me, therefore, as if the Saviour meant, If you had accepted John, whom you have repelled, and received his baptism by submitting to the baptism of repentance, you would have been ready to receive what you cannot be saved without—that inner and divine baptism which the Holy Ghost alone can bestow. The other, and the more ordinary interpretation is one that perhaps is as probable; it is that the water here does not mean water used in baptism, but that it must mean the water into which the ashes of the heifer that was burnt were cast, called clean or atoning water. Some of the very

ablest theologians and critics have accepted this view.

But if it even should be said that this water means Christian baptism, which of course I cannot admit, because Christian baptism was not yet instituted; what is the weight of it? "Except a man be born of water;" if that were all, then the extreme high doctrine would be right; but it is, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit." It does not say that the two are inseparable, or never dissociated. Fact shows that men are baptized who have never been regenerated, and that men are regenerated who have never been baptized; and this one fact is conclusive that it cannot mean what is popularly known by the term baptismal regeneration. The Saviour therefore repeats it: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." To show that the Saviour lays the whole stress upon Spirit, and not upon water, He explains it in the next verse: "That which is born of the flesh," that is, every child that is born, "is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit" -He does not say, that which is born of water and the Spirit, but