Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-01-07
CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR HOUR

| /. There was a man of the Pharisees,
named Nicodemus. ruler of the Jews
| 2 The came to Jesus by night, and
| said unto Him, Rabbi, we know that thou
art teacher come from God; for no man
| can do these miracles that Thou doest, ex-
| cept God be with him.
3. Jesus answered and said unto him.
| Verify, verify, I say unto thee, except
man be born again he cannot see the king
] dom of God.
4. Nicodemus saith unto Him. How can
man be born when he Is old? Can he enter
the second time into his mothers womb,
| and be born?
| 5. Jesus answered Verify verify I say
unto thee, except man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
| kingdom of God
6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh,
| and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
Z. Marvel not that 1 said unto thee, We
| must be born again.
| 8. The wind bloweth where it lsteth, and
| thou nearest the sound thereof, but canst
| not tell whence it cometh, and wither it
! goeth; so is every one that is born Of the
| Spirit.
The Lesson.
| Picture for moment to yourselves the
| preparation, the anxiety, the great joy that
| attend the birth of a little human soul into
| this sinful world and then repeat the
| words: There is joy in the presence of the
angels OF God over one sinner that repent
| eth 1t is possible for us to realize better
| than we do. Gods great plan of salvation;
| to take In the watching and the anxiety of
the angels as they follow. GREATNESS, these
| hayward souls of ours, lest we fail of ever
| being born into the kingdom 1t is quite
possible, too, for us to have a part in this
| loving anxiety. this deep Godlike joy over
lne nlrth or other souls into the promise of
| an eternity with Jesus.
| ana TINS man. Nicodemus who came to
inquire the way into the kingdom so many
years ago was the symbol of all the other
! men who would come after him to learn
Ia
ior all Others, too, even for those who
try 10 climb up some other way. 1t is of
| no use for any one to say that all men
| nave the principle of good in their hearts
| ana that every man is Christian at soul
Jesus himself said I'VE must be born
again, and there is no hope of making
ChrlStlans out of good-hearted, pleasant
! people without it, not even though they
| Keep all the commandments in their way
| II they have not been born again. You
| cannot teach creeping thing to soar like
| the eagle, nor make the eagle creep upon
| the earth. Each animal lives out the ma
ture with which it is born 1t must needs
| be born again in order to change its ma
| ture
| We are born with sinful natures Our
| natural tendencies are away from God We
cannot breathe a holy atmosphere speak
easily in the language of the heavenly
| Kingdom, enjoy the society of God and
| angels, until this nature is taken away
| from US And We cannot do this of our
| selves There lies the mystery We can
II,
not do it of ourselves. We must be
| born of water and of the spirit. The
water symbolizes the washing away of
the sinful nature. the blotting out of
the past, the giving up of sin: and
| the spirit fills us with the new life. 1t
were of no use to fill a sin-defiled soul with
| the spirit, for the sin would soon drive
| the spirit out. 1t would be equally useless
| to purge the soul of sin and leave it empty
| for like the empty house in the Bible seven
! devils worse than the first that were
| turned out would presently enter into it, and
! the last state of the soul be worse than
| the first. The soul must be emptied and
, cleansed and then filled.
| 1t has been said that although ship cam
| not carry itself over the ocean, it yet can
| spread its sails to the breeze and it can put
| itself in the way of the regular winds. 1t
| is with the man who desires eternal life.
| He cannot save himself. He cannot of his
own self be born again when he is old, but
I he can put himself in the way of the regIl-
lar means TO this end. He can, by coming
to Christ, show his willingness to be born
again and submit himself to the workings
of the Holy Spirit. The regular church
services, daily prayer, daily study of tie
Bible, these are some of the regular winds
! that blow heaVenward, and it is in these
| the Spirit works.
Sometimes people are troubled to know
| whether they really have been born again.
! They cannot perhaps look back to any time
| or place when they especially gave them
selves to Jesus, as Nicodemus could remem-
| Der that night when he came to the Master
with his great question. But though man
may not be able to remember the circum-
stances of his birth, he knows he is born by
| the very fact that he is alive and growing.
1t matters little, after all, where and when
the event took place. The fact remains that
| he has been born and is in this world And
so the Christian may know that he has
! passed from death unto life by the evil
dences that he finds in himself of growth.
| If he cloves the brethren, if he longs to
| please Christ, If he hates the sin that he
daily finds in himself if he constantly longs
1 to do better these things may make him
sure that he is alive and that the Spirit has
| breathed upon his spirit
| Just the human child is formed in face
| and spirit like unto it's parents, so the
Christian will bear upon his face and life
the marks of the Spirit and of his washing
from sin. Others will take knowledge of
us that we have been with Jesus as they
did of the disciples of old, because our acts
will bear the form of the heavenly pattern.
Applied Truth.
| There are many of the summer insects
| which are twice-born. first of their insect
| parents, and then of the sun; if the frost
| comes in place of the sun they die. The
! caterpillar has already a life of its own,
| with which, no doubt, 1t is well content,
| but iEclosed in its nature a creeping
| thing it has a capacity for becoming soma
| thing different and higher. 1t may be-
| come moth or a butterfly; but in most
/ the capacity is never developed. They
| cunstances do not favor this development.
| These analogies show how common it IS
| fer capacities of life TO lie dormant: how
common thing it is for a creature in
| one stage of its existence to have capac-
ity for passing into al higher stage-a ca
pacity which can be developed only by
some agency peculiarly adapted to it.
| Ii this then be the line which
| human nature can alone be developed, il
profound harmony with God be that
which alone give permanence and COM
/ pleteness to our nature; II in accordance
| with all that see in the world around
US, some men fail of attaining the end of
| their creation, and lie forever blighted and
| useless, while others are carried forward
to fuller and more satisfying life, we can
| rot but ask with some anxiety to which
| class we belong. Good and evil are in the
| world; happiness and misery, victory and
| defeat do not let US deceive ourselves by
| acting il there were no difference be-
| tween these opposites, or as if it mat
| tered little in our case whether we be-
| longed to the one side to the other 1t
| matters everything. 1t is just the differ
ence between eternal life and eternal death.
! Christ did not come to play with us and
startle US with idle tales. He is the CEN
| ter and fountain of all truth and what