El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-01-24

"Man Must Be Born Again ,

again he cannot see the kingdom of
Cod. The following is part OF the
discourse.
So many and so beautiful and 80 far
reaching are the thoughts suggested
by the Sunday School lesson of today,
that it has seemed to me that could
do no better than to choose as my sui
ject the story of Nicodemus and Christ:
The scene presented by the nesting OF
position, their character. their belief,
and their practices; 80 different In
their social ADD financial standing, and
the theme upon which they epake all
form q picture of unusual interest,
Nicodemus was an old gray headed
man, of high social standing, OF In
mense wealth-it is said that he could
have fed the entire population OF Jeru-
salem for 10 years-a ruler OF the Jews,
q: scholar, q man accustomed to re-
ceivipg honor and reverence. Christ
was q young man; his associates were
of the middle class; he was pOOr-so
Door that often he had not sufficient
food, never too much clothing and no
where to lay his head. Yet with all OF
this he was reformer.
And let me say right here that most
reformers come from and most re-
forms begin in the middle aud not In
the upper strata of society. Luther
and Calvin and Wesley and Knox and
Cromwell and John Brown are all ex-
amples of this. Great reforms begun
in the lower strata of society, also
usually fail. Coxey and his army fur
nish q striking example of this.
Christ was more than an ordinary
man. The keen eye of the aged Pha-
risee was not long in detecting this.
So dressed in his accustomed, robes
there il nothing that SO distinguishes
the different classes of people in the
orient as their costumes-"he came to
Jesus" In the public audience he had
doubtless listened to the gracious
words of the master; he had w1tness-
ed some of his works, but his heart had
been stirred. "He came to Jesus"
purely on the intellectual, premedi-
tated cold-blooded proposition. shat
no man can do these miracles that
thou doest except God be with him."
So there are many in our day who II
they ever come to Christ at all must
not wait for their hearts to be touched,
until they can ride in on the waves Of
their emotions; they must come upon
tiOn that His works are beyond, his
life higher, his influence greater that
that of q mere man: they must come
upon the intellectual proposition than
he is the son of God. So Nicodemus
came to Jesus. He felt no doubt that
it was an act of great condescension on
his part to call on the young Galileean.
He wanted conversation with Jesus
but he was afraid of what people would
think of it. So he came by night.
So there are those even in these
days who really believe that they are
comforting q great favor upon the
preacher and upon the church to give
their presence. They forget that it is
1 s%st ' esess or Them. the hut ehq sSas
it is they who need Jesus. Nicodemus
came to Jesus and said, 1--WE know
that thou art q teacher come from
God" A confession not for himself
alone, but for his colleagues, his asso-
ciates, the doctors of the law, the
rulers Of Jerusalem. They knew that
Jesus was the Christ but they would
not accept him. So many now who are
sure of the same thing will not come
not their duty and do 1t not will be
beaten with few stripes. But they
who know their duty and do it not will
be beaten with many stripes.
It was an excellent opportunity for
Christ to gain the favor of the Phari-
sees. But he made it personal mat
ter With Nicodemus, as if he would say,
IL OIL very VIGIL, N1COu0uuS YOUR
intellectual bslief-but one thing lack
est thou. Except q man be born again
he cannot see the kingdom of God"
Here in this private interview be turn
ed the thoughts of Nicodemus to one
of the most important of all questions,
that Of the new birth. He advocated
q doctrine to which Nicodemus with
al his learning and all his social posi-
ton was an entire stranger. No won
der NicOdemus exclaimed, Chow can q
man be born when he is old?" "How
can these things be?'Christ did not at
tempt to explain the process farther
than to liken it to the feshly birth.
"That (which ia bora of the flesh is
flesh; that which is born of the spirit
is spirit" AS by the first birth we
become partakers of human nature; so
by the new we become parts kers of the
divine nature-children of God.
AS by our first birth we receive the
image OF our parents, so by the second
we receive the image of God. AS by
the first birth we are introduced into
the kingdom of nature, SO by the Sec
ond we are introduced into the king
dom of grace. AS by the first we pos
sess all the faculties of manhood in an
embryonic state; SO in the spiritual
birth we have all the essential parts of
the new man in Christ Jesus, tho at
Observation-Disclosures