Evening journal., 1911-12-16
REGENERATION
BY The REV. R. [. JACKSON

You are almost always sure of an
intensely interested audience when
you graphically and enthusiastically
sketch the shortcomings of people
who do not happen to be present and
unctuously urge your hearers to do
what they can to reform them. They
viii iile out of your presence, voting
you a great success as a speaker. But
suppose you are really stupid enough
to tell those present of their own
shortcomings and then in a Wild
reckless moment. urge upon them the
necessity of getting reformed: what
are you in their angry eyes but an
animated bundle of impOssibilitiesg
You simply won't do at all.
Well, this is the way of it nova
days. There arc plenty of people who
want the other fellow to be reformed
from head to foot They want him to
be honest where he WIS dishonest; to
be unselfish where he was greedy and
grasping; to be righteous and holy
where he was impure and vicious.
They are for having their fellow
men soundly converted, but when
you suggest to them that they fol-
low suit, it is a horse of a different
color. and a stare with daggers in
Il, is what you get. Any community
can crowd a hall to protest against
certain alleged abuses at the hands
of outsiders, while the local churches
are left to beg for local sinners to
be converted from the error OF their
ways.
Now, have no objections to the
people Of a community wanting to re-
! form all the outsiders they can get
| hold of, but It savours of scurvy hy-
pocrisy when they decline TO regard
themselves as proper subjects tor
some reforming enthusiasts.
The foregoing is to introduce the
Questionable subject of regeneration.
Regeneration is not only unfashion-
able, but according to many. 1t is out
of date. II may do, perhaps, in the
case of the fiotsam and jetsam OF hu-
manity that float in TO a Salvation
Army meeting, but no intelligent,
educated, respectable man nowadays
considers il a necessity in his own
case. Education. invention. and what
not that is gloriously modern, makes
regeneration unnecessary. This iC the
way men feel about IL today. This
way might be we'll termed the mirage
of modernity. The output Of ouI
schools and colleges apart from the
influences of religion is one of self
Fseeking and self-indulgence al
compact. | do not object to education
the more Of it. the better-but
where the possessors, both men ant
women. are lustful, grasping, devil
ishly designing and tyrannical, thel
are a curse to society Such, ever!
community has, md such, stand il
the need of the regenerating power o
the Spirit of God. Jesus Christ old
very respectable and highly-educate'
man that he must be born again. Thi
is what he would tell some of tn
very respectable people of Whining
ton. They must humble themselve
as little children, and open theii
hearts to the incoming of Gods spiri
of regenerating grace. and thereby b
born over so that their seltishness
their self-complacency, their sncb
berry, their conscious or unconsciou
cruelty to their fellow-men and thei
naughty, arrogant attitude toward AL
mighty God may cease.
When Christ said: 'Ye must b
born again." He was imposing NJ
arbitrary obligation upon his hearel
He was simply stating a vital, spirit
ual principle. Being -egenerated /
not satisfying a dogmatic demanl
made by the preachers Of the church
IL is satisfying a demand which is en-
bedded in the very nature of things
II is the inexorable condition of eter
nal life Being born again of tn
Holy Spirit lifts one out Of the spher
Of things perishable into the spher
Of things, Of relations and realities
imperishable. If God has not liftel
you into the freedom and power OF
regenerated life, then, you belon
wholly to an environment which is
tissue of dissolving substances AM
relationships. You do not belong Z
that realm of massive indestructibl
reality in which men become partak
ers with Jesus Christ of the life tina
is life fndaQd tho fifa eternal