The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1886-03-13

that birth. In other words, that it
is not an accidental but essential
that one cannot be truly converted
unless one experience peculiar
feeling. They thus unconsciously
yield the ground to the infidel. The
infidel says in scorn: ''Ohi religion
is thing of faith and feeling. You
must blindly believe, feel and hope"
To which we reply, nay, but our
faith rests on a reasonable founda
ton; but those who reduce the
birth to new mere feeling cannot
make this reply, they must consist
emily yield their ground to the inf
del. Now, there are different kinds
of feeling, however, and SO we had
better distinguish here between
them. In the first place, there are
sensuous feelings, or, what are
known as animal spirits. Among
the lower animals the blood hound
can be excited, having his feelings
aroused by the scent or taste of
blood, and he can by his bowls and
actions excite his fellow creatures,
though they may not have smelt or
tasted the blood. Now, do not
wish to be misunderstood here, eth
er, for ! am conscious of the fact
that / may offend some good people.
| don't mean to debase man as a
class or as an individual to the level
of the brute, but | do mean to ex-
press an undeniable fact, viz: That
there is far more of the brute nature
in man than many people suppose.
And | maintain that as the lower
animal may be excited by certain
surroundings, so may man. His
emotional nature may be SO worked
upon that he may be deluded into
the belief that it is higher spiritual
nature which is thus affected For
l wish you to reflect, in the second
place, that man has not only an
emotional animal nature-he also
has a spiritual nature-that is to
say, he has an intellect and con-
scious, power to reason and pow
er to know the right from the wrong.
Now, it is to the intellect and to
the conscience that Christ appeals
with these religion has to do-these
must be converted and through them
the animal spirits; this sin-biased
spiritual nature must undergo such
thorough change that it may be
rightly called new birth. And l
fearlessly maintain that excitement
is so far from being conducive to
such change that in fully devel-
oped man or woman, it rather pre-
vents it. Take our Lords teaching
as proof of this. His mode of con-
verting people was not to work upon
their feelings, !. e., upon their ami
NAL spirits, but be appealed to their
reason and conscience. He told
Nicodemus what was necessary to
his salvation, but he did not say to
him, you must experience a curious
feeling or even be conscious, at the
moment, of this new birth. Nay, so
far from it, he said, "The wind blow
eth where it listeth and thou nearest
the sound thereof, but canst not tell
whence it cometh or whittier it goeth,
so is every one that is born of the
Spirit" What could be palmer?
Our Lord here says, to paraphrase
his language. "You cannot tell how
the Holy Spirit regenerates you, how
the new birth is produced, but you
can tell by his good works and words
whether the Spirit has regenera*ed a
man or not"
Now, this is exactly the Church s
position as against certain emotional
religionists. She says, eye must be
born again. i. e. changed in your
mind and heart, your intellect and
dispositions, from state of sinful
nature to state of supernatural
grace, and you must evidence this
change by your good words and
works, but curious feeling, a clear
consciousness of the exact moment
of this new birth is not at all neces-
sary to that birth. Neither are you
obliged to explain how that new
birth is produced; only by their
fruits can you know the trees of
righteousness, the planting Of the
Lord in his vineyard, for the wind
bloweth where it listeth and thou
nearest the sound thereof" but only
the sound, you cannot explain all the
why's and the wherefores of natural
phenomena, much less of spiritual
phenomena. If anyone now should
say that the church does not believe
in most reasonable and scriptural
conversion or regeneration, we must
confess that that one has little power
of weighing evidence. If there are
any persons whose animal nature SC
far preponderates that their spiritual
nature has to be reached through
that animal nature, these are only
exceptions which simply prove the
rule, viz: That a fully developed
man or woman must be converted
by an appeal to his or her intellect
and conscience, and not scared into
religion.
Remember, also, that regeneration
. is not sanctification. All Christian
believe in sanctifcation, and sancti
fication is not the new birth. 1t il
. that holiness without which no maj
t shall see the Lord; it is not the worl
t of day or week or a month, Blu
of years; it is not the one act of tn
Holy Spirit by which the sinner il
: turned from the power of Satan unit
s God, but it is the final result of tn
r Holy Spirits influences upon tn
J. soul; it is perfect holiness in thought
| word and deed, and so we can neve
y be truly sanctified until this 'col
= ruptible shall put on interruption
e and this mortal shall have put o.
8 Immortality"
r Since, then, the new birth consist
r in none of these things, in what doe
$ it consist? Why, regeneration is
8 change of the whole man, in ever
II part and faculty thereof, from
q state of sinful nature to state c
t, supernatural grace, whereby tn
: image of God, that we defaced an
l. lost by our first transgression,
d again in some good measure resto
l, ed" In other words, it is incipier
n l,ou+:Gao+;ov. - Sc tho ov,o n cf IF 4 h