The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-04-11
good works, we are born into the king dom of God.

good works, We are born into the king dom of God
 III. How is a sinner regenerated?
 "The Bible says: John iii:s. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hear est the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spir- | 1t. Tn answer to the question how is the sinner regenerated' we can only say by the Holy Ghost. -
 This new birth. which is. absolutely essential to our becoming the children l Of God, is mystery-a fact revealed and experienced, but not fully explained and l consequently not fully understood. We may know 1t takes place, but how we can never know. We may become exper- mentally acquainted with 1t, and feel its | power in our own souls and see it's eff | fleets in the lives of others, but there is | much about it we can never comprehend How the Holy Spirit operates in the sim ner's heart at all, we will never be able | to explain, but that He does operate in the sinners heart, we may know from | our own experiences, and observing what effect He has on others.
 "The fact that we cannot see the Spirit nor understand the mode of His working in the human heart. should be no hinder ance to our belief in His existence and work. ,ss.
 There are many things we know in this life we cannot explain. The Savior might have selected .any other of the mysteries of nature to illustrate His points, but He takes that which is, above all others, symbolical of the action of the Spirit.
 '"The wind or the atmosphere is abso- lutely necessary and indispensably essen- tial to the existence of physical life. We breathe it into our lungs, absorb 1t Into our blood, and it penetrates every pore of the human body. We are in 1t, and it Is in us. We live in it, move in 1t, and without 1t we cannot exist The at- mosphere to the physical life is what the Spirit Is to the spiritual life. Without the air physical life will cease and with out the Spirit, spiritual life will cease.
 We cannot see the wind. How do we know there is such a thing as the wind? We perceive its existence by a sense of feeling. We feel it when it fans our bod ies. We see its effects when 1t gently waves the grass and agi- tates the leaves of the forest, or when 1t sweeps over the land in a terrific tornado, overthrowing fences and blowing down houses. bending to the earth the lofty pine and breaking in sometimes in the gentle murmur of the whispering zephyr. and sometimes in the mighty roar of cyclone.
 "So. my friends, with the Spirit.
 we cannot see the Spirit. We cannot explain the Spirit. How. then, do we know there is such a thing as the Spirit?
 We feel Him when He comes to our own hearts. We see His effects in the changes He produces in the lives of oth- CTS.
 "one of the great truths aimed to be taught in this lesson is that the Holy Spirit is no more mysterious than nature. If we wilfplly reject and rldicule the workings of the Holy Spirit because they are mysterious, We should also. to be consistent, reject and ridicule the facts of nature.
 Mature is full of mysteries, and we should not. therefore, be surprised to find them also in our Holy religion.
 They do not disprove the truth of re- ligion, but. on the contrary. go to show that the God of nature is also the God of revelation. We are living In the age of God the Holy Spirit. The first age may be designated as the age of God the Fa- their. The second age, as the age of God the Son. The third age as the age or God the Holy Spirit We are dependent on the Spirit for the conversion of sin uers,"