Alexander Campbell The Christian System Regeneration

We intend an essay full of "the seeds of things." The topic is a common one, a familiar one, and yet it is an interesting one. Much has been said, much has been written upon it; and yet it is no better understood than it ought to be. Few give themselves the trouble of thinking much on the things which they think they understand; and many would rather follow the thoughts of others than think for themselves. Suspense is painful, much study is a weariness of the flesh; and, therefore, the majority are content with the views and opinions handed to them from those who have gone before.

We wish to treat this subject as if it were a new one; and to examine it now as if we had never examined it before. It is worthy of it. Generation is full of wonders, for it is full of God's physical grandeur; yet regeneration is still more admirable, for in it the moral attributes of Jehovah are displayed. But we aim not at a development of its wonders, but at a plain, common-sense, scriptural exposition of its import.

We have not learned our theology from Athanasius, nor our morality from Seneca; and, therefore, we shall not call upon them for illustration, argument, or proof. To the Sacred Records, in which alone Christianity yet remains in all its freshness, we look for light; and thither would we direct the eyes of our readers. It is not the regeneration of the schools - in which Christianity has been lowered, misapprehended, obscured, and adulterated - of winch we are to write; but that regeneration of which Jesus spoke, and the apostles wrote.

A few things must be premised - a few general views expressed - before we, or our readers, are prepared for the more minute details: and, to approach the subject with all unceremonious despatch, we observe, that -

Man unregenerate is ruined in body, soul, and spirit; a frail and mortal creature. From Adam his father he inherits a shattered constitution. He is the child of a fallen progenitor, a scion from a degenerate stock.

Superior to Adam, the exile from Eden, in physical, intellectual, and moral nature, none of his descendants can rise. It is not in nature to improve itself; for above its fountain the stream can not rise.

Cain, the first-born of Eve, was in nature the image and [220] likeness of him that begat him. Education failed to improve him, while Abel, his younger brother, obtained the excellency which faith in God's promise alone bestows. The first-born, it will be conceded, was at least equal to his younger brother; and who can plead that in nature he excels Eve's eldest son?

Man in his ruins is, however, a proper subject of a remedial system. He is susceptible of renovation. Therefore God has placed him under a regenerating economy. This economy contemplates the regeneration of the whole human constitution, and proposes as its consummation the transformation of spirit, soul, and body. The destiny of the regenerate is described by Paul in one sentence: - "As we now bear the image of the earthly Adam, we shall then bear the image of the heavenly Adam."

God's own Son is proposed as a model. Conformity to him in glory, honor, and immortality, as the perfection of the regenerate, is the predestination of him who speaks of things that are not, as though they were.

Regeneration is, therefore, moral and physical: or, in other words, there is now a renovation of the mind - of the understanding, will, and affections - and there will hereafter be a renovation of the body: - "For this corruptible body shall put on incorruption, and this mortal body shall put on immortality."

The renovation of the mind and character is, therefore, that moral regeneration which is to be effected in this life; for which the remedial system, or kingdom of heaven, was set up on earth; and this, therefore, first of all, demands our attention.

Before we attempt an answer in detail to the question, How is this moral regeneration effected? we shall attend to the principle on which the whole remedial system proceeds. The grand principle, or means which God has adopted for the accomplishment of this moral regeneration, is the full demonstration and proof of a single proposition addressed to the reason of man. This sublime proposition is THAT GOD IS LOVE.

The reason and wisdom of this procedure will suggest itself to every one who can understand the views and feelings of all unregenerated men. Man, in a state of alienation and rebellion, naturally suspects, that if he be a sinner, and if God hate sin, he must hate him. As love begets love, so hatred begets hatred; and if a sinner suspects that God hates him, he can not love God. He must know that God loves him, before he can begin to love God. "We," says an apostle, "love God because be first loved us." While alienated in heart, through the native darkness of his understanding, the sinner misinterprets every restraint which God has placed in his way to prevent his total ruin as indications of [221] the wrath of Heaven. His transgression of these restraints, and is consciousness of having defied the veracity and power of God, only increase his enmity, and urged him onward to his apostasy and wanderings from his Creator. The goodness of God, being misunderstood, furnishes to him no incentive to repentance and reformation. Guilt, and fear, and shame, the fruits of his apostasy, becloud his understanding, and veil from his eyes all the demonstrations of benevolence and goodness with which the creation abounds. Adam, under a tree, hiding from God, trembling with fear, suspicious of the movements of every leaf, and covered with shame as with a garment, is both an illustration and proof of these views of the state of mind which obtains in the unregenerate.

Neither the volume of creation, nor that of God's providence, is sufficient to remove from the natural man these misconceptions and the consequent alienation of heart. The best proof that these two volumes can not do this is, that they never have, in any one instance, yet done it. From the nature of things it is indeed evident that they can not do it. The elements are too often at war with the happiness of man. The ever-changing attitude of the natural world, in reference to health, and life, and comfort, render it at best doubtful whether the laws of nature, which ultimately bring man down to the grave, are the effect of benevolence or of malevolence towards mankind. A third volume explanatory of both, and replete also with supernatural developments, is wanting, to furnish the most diligent student of nature and providence with the means of learning the true and full character of him against whom we have rebelled.

That volume is the Bible. Holy prophets and apostles spake as they were moved by the Spirit of knowledge and revelation. Its records, its history, its prophecy, its precepts, its laws, its ordinances, and its examples, all develop and reveal God to man and man to himself.

But it is in the person and mission of the INCARNATE WORD that we learn that God is love. That God gave his Son for us, and yet gives his Spirit to us - and thus gives us himself - are the mysterious and transcendent proofs of the most August proposition in the universe. The gospel, heaven's wisdom and power combined, God's own expedient for the renovation of human nature, is neither more nor less than the illustration and proof of this regenerating proposition.

Thus we hasten to our subject. Having glanced at the great landmarks of the plantations of nature and grace, now that we may, in the light of truth, ascertain the true and heaven-taught doctrine of regeneration, we shall cautiously survey the whole [222] process, as developed by the commissioned teachers of the deep counsels of the only true God.

That certain things, parts of this great progress, may be well understood, certain terms, which we are wont to use to represent them, must be well defined, and accurately apprehended. These terms are Fact, Testimony, Faith, Repentance, Reformation, Bath of Regeneration, New Birth, Renewing of the Holy Spirit, Newness of Life. [NOTE: For Fact, Testimony and Faith, see pp. 110-113]

"All things are of God" in the regeneration of man, is our motto; because our Apostle affirmed this as a cardinal truth. He is the author of the facts and of the testimony which declares them; and, being the author of these, he is the author of all the effects produced by these facts. The Christian is a new creation, of which God is the Creator. The change of heart and of character, which constitutes moral regeneration, is the legitimate impression of the facts or things which God has wrought. The facts constitute the moral seal which stamps the image of God upon man. In the natural order, we must place them first, and, therefore, we must first define the term.

Back to Beginning

REPENTANCE.Repentance is usually defined "sorrow for any thing that is past;" and in the religious vocabulary it is simply "sorrow for sin."

This is one, but it is only one, of the natural effects of the belief of the testimony of God. T

he gospel facts, testimony, and faith contemplate more than this. But yet it is necessary that this point of faith should be distinctly apprehended, especially in this age, when it occupies so large a space in the systems of theology.

Repentance, in our current acceptation, is sorrow for sin; and certainly there is no man who believes the revealed facts found in the testimony of God, who will not be sorry for his sins.

But simple sorrow for the past is but a feeling of the heart; which, unless it excite to reformation or the abandonment of sin, is of no more use than the regrets of Judas after he had sold his Master for fifteen dollars. Repentance must, however, precede reformation; for unless we are sorry for the past, and grieved with ourselves, we will not think of a change of conduct. Repentance is to reformation what motive is to action, or resolution to any undertaking.

It was well for David to resolve to build the temple; and so it is well to form any good design; but much better to execute it. To feel sorry for the poor and the afflicted, and to resolve to assist and comfort them, is well; but to go and do it is better; and, indeed, unless our sorrow for the past terminate in reformation [223] for the future, it is useless in the estimation of heaven and earth; as useless as to say to the hungry, Be filled; or to the naked, Be clothed.

Genuine repentance does not always issue in reformation.

Judas was sorrowful even to death, but could not reform.

Many have been so genuinely sorry for their sins as to become suicides. Speak we of "a godly sorrow"? No: this is not to be expected from unconverted and ungodly persons.

Christians, Paul teaches, when they err, may repent with a godly sorrow; but this is not to be expected from the unregenerate, or from those who have not reformed. It is not, then, the genuineness of repentance that is to be appreciated, unless by genuine repentance is meant more than simple sorrow for the past - unless by genuine repentance is meant reformation. Yet without sincere or unfeigned repentance, there can not be real or genuine reformation.

This leads us to observe, that the only unequivocal evidence of sincere repentance is the actual redress of the injury done; not only acessation from the sin, but a restitution for the sin as far as restitution can possibly be made.

No restitution, no repentance - provided restitution can be made. And I may be permitted to add, that without repentance and restitution, when possible, there can be no remission.

The preachers of repentance - of the necessity of repentance in order to remission - ought to set this matter fairly and fully before sinners. Do they represent repentance as sorrow for the past, and a determination to reform? How, then, will the sinner know that he is sorry for his sins against men, or how will the community know that he has repented of such sins, unless full restitution was made? It is impossible that either the sinner himself, or the community who know his sins against man, can have any certain evidence that he is penitent, unless by making all possible restitution.

Peccator wounded the reputation of his neighbor Hermas, and on another occasion defrauded him of ten pounds. Some of the neighborhood were apprized that he had done both.

Peccator was converted under the preaching of Paulinus, and, on giving in a relation of his sorrow for his sins, spoke of the depth of his convictions, and of his abhorrence of his transgressions.

He was received into the congregation, and sat down with the faithful to commemorate the great sin-offering.

Hermas and his neighbors were witnesses of all this. They saw that Peccator was penitent, and much reformed in his behavior; but they could not believe him sincere, because he had made no restitution.

They regarded him either as a hypocrite or self-deceived; because, having it in [224] his power, he repaid not the ten pounds, nor once contradicted the slanders he had propagated.

Peccator, however, felt little enjoyment in his profession, and soon fell back into his former habits. He became again penitent, and, on examining the grounds of his falling off, discovered that he had never cordially turned away from his sins. Overwhelmed in sorrow for the past, he resolved on giving himself up to the Lord; and, reflecting on his past life, set about the work of reformation in earnest. He called on Hermas, paid him his ten pounds, and the interest for every day he had kept it back; went to all the persons to whom he had slandered him, told them what injustice he had done him, and begged them, if they had told it to any other persons, to contradict it. Several other persons whom he had wronged in his dealings with them he also visited; and fully redressed all these wrongs against his neighbors. He also confessed them to the Lord, and asked him to forgive him. Peccator was then restored to the church; and, better still, he enjoyed a peace of mind, and a confidence in God, which was a continual feast. His example, moreover, did more to enlarge the congregation at the Cross-roads than did the preaching of Paulinus in a whole year. This was, unequivocally, sincere repentance.

This is the repentance which Moses preached, and which Jesus approbated. Under the law, confession to the priest, and the presenting of a trespass-offering, availed nothing to forgiveness without restitution. But the law went into details still more minute than these; for provision is made for the case in which the sinner could not find the person against whom he had sinned. In such a case, the penitent sinner was to seek out the kindred of the injured party, and if he could find any kinsman he was to recompense this kinsman; but if he could not find a kinsman, he must recompense it to the Lord, besides offering his trespass-offering. It was to go into the Lord's treasury. [NOTE: Num. v. 7,8] The principle uniformly, in all cases of sin against man, was, the sinner "shall make amends for the harm be has done, and shall add the fifth part thereto. [NOTE: Lev. v. 16]

If any one suppose that repentance is to be less sincere or unequivocal under the gospel, let him remember that Zaccheus proposed more than adding a fifth; he would restore fourfold; and that Jesus approbated him for so doing. Indeed, John the Immerser demanded fruits worthy of repentance or reformation, and Paul proclaimed that those who turned to God should do works meet for, or worthy of, repentance. [NOTE: Acts xxvi. 20]

]225] "Works worthy of repentance" is a phrase which can be understood in no other sense than those works which make amends for the harm done to men and the dishonor done to God, as far as both are possible. Can any man think that he is sorry for that sin or wrong which he has done, when he makes no effort to make amends to him who was injured in person, character, or property, by it? Works worthy of his professed repentance are wanting, so long as any being whom he has injured in person, property, or reputation, is unredressed to the utmost extent of his ability.

One of our most popular commentators says - and with much truth - "No man should expect mercy at the hand of God, who, having wronged his neighbor, refuses, when he has it in his power, to make restitution. Were he to weep tears of blood, both the justice and mercy of God would shut out his prayer, if he make not his neighbor amends for the injury he has done him. He is a dishonest man who illegally holds the property of another in his hands." [Adam Clarke n Gen. xi. 2]

Every preacher of repentance should insist upon these evidences of sincerity, both for the satisfaction of the penitent himself, and for the good of the community. "Many that believed came and confessed, and showed their deeds; many of them, also, who used curious arts, bringing their books together, burnt them before all; and they computed the value of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver." [NOTE: Acts xix. 18-20] This was making restitution, in their case, as far as possible; and the principle here evinced is applicable in every other case.

But, in pursuing this subject so far, we have passed over the boundaries of repentance, and sometimes confounded it with reformation. This is owing to the licentious use of language, to which modem theology has so richly contributed. We shall, however, redress this wrong, as far as practicable, by a few remarks on

Back to Beginning

REFORMATION.

The word metanoia, used by the sacred writers and heaven-taught preachers of the new economy, as indicative of the first effect of faith, as has been often shown, is different from that which our word repentance fitly represents. It literally imports a change of mind; but, as Parkhurst, Campbell, and many others say, "such a change of mind as influences one's subsequent behavior for the better." "It has been observed by some, and I think with reason, that the former (metanoeo) denotes properly a change to the better; the latter (metamelomai) barely a change, whether to the better or to the worse; that [226] the former marks a change of mind that is durable, and produces consequences; the latter expresses only a present uneasy feeling of regret, without regard to duration or effects: in fine, that the first may be translated into English I reform; the second, I repent, in the familiar acceptation of the words. Now as every one who reforms repents, but as every one who repents does not reform, this distinction is necessary and proper, and there is nothing hazarded, nothing lost, by translating the former, I reform, and the latter, I repent. There is something gained, especially in all places where we have the word in the imperative mood, because then it is of importance to know precisely what is intended. If we are commanded only to change our mind, or to be sorry for the past, we have obeyed when we feel regret; but if more than mere change of mind or regret is intended, we have not obeyed the commandment, until we change for the better. Now, it is we think, very evident from various passages of the sacred writings of the apostles, and from their speeches, that they commanded more than a simple change of mind as respected past conduct, or mere sorrow for the past. Peter commanded the thousands assembled on the day of Pentecost, who had changed their minds, and who were sorry for the past, to do something which they had not yet done; and that something is in the common version rendered repent; and in the new version, reform; and in the old English Bible, amend your lives. The word here used is the imperative of metanoeo. Judas repented, and many like him, who never reformed; and, therefore, it is of importance that this distinction should be kept in view. [See Family Testament, Note 30, page 74.]

Repentance is not reformation, but it is necessary to it; for whoever reforms must first repent. Reformation is, indeed, the carrying out of the purpose into our conduct. But, as reformation belongs rather to another part of our essay than the present, we shall, on the premises already before us, pause and offer a few reflections.

In the preceding definition of words and ideas, it would appear that we have a literal and unfigurative representation of the whole process of what is figuratively called regeneration. For, as we shall soon see, the term regeneration is a figure of speech which very appropriately, though analogically, represents the reformation or renovation of life of which we have now spoken.

That the preceding arrangement is not arbitrary, but natural and necessary, the reader will perceive, when he reflects, that the thing done, or the fact, must precede the report or testimony concerning it; that the testimony concerning it must precede the belief of it; that belief of the testimony must precede any feeling correspondence with the fact testified; and that feeling must precede action in [227] conformity to it. Fact, testimony, faith, feeling, action, are therefore bound together by a natural and gracious necessity, which no ingenuity can separate. And will not every Christian say, that when a person feels and acts according to the faith, or the testimony of God, he is a new creature - regenerate - truly converted to God? He that believes that facts testified in the record of God understands them feels according to their nature and meaning, and acts in correspondence with them - has undergone a change of heart and of life which makes him a new man.

This is that moral change of heart and life which is figuratively called regeneration. We are not to suppose that regeneration is something which must be added to the faith, the feeling, and the action or behavior, which are the effects of the testimony of God understood and embraced; or which are the impress of the divine facts attested by prophets and apostles. It is only another name for the same process in all its parts.

It may also be observed, that numerous figures and analogies are used by the inspired writers to set forth this change, as well as other leading truths and lessons in the Bible. In their collective capacity Christians are called a kingdom, a nation, a generation, a family, a house, a flock, a city, a temple, a priesthood, etc. In their individual capacity, they are called kings, priests, soldiers, citizens, children, sheep, branches, stones, etc. They are said to be begotten, born, regenerated, builded, engrafted, converted, created, planted. Now, under whatever figure they are considered or introduced, reason argues that everything said of them should be expressed in conformity with the figure under which they are presented. Are they called sheep? - then he that presides over them is called a Shepherd; their enemies are wolves and dogs; their sustenance is the green pasture; their place of safety and repose, the sheepfold; their errors are wanderings and strayings; their conversion, a return; and their good behavior, a hearing of the voice, or a following, of the Shepherd. Are they called children? - then collectively they are a family; they are begotten and born again; God is their Father; their separation is an adoption; Jesus is their elder brother; they are heirs of God; they live and walk with God. Are they priests? - Jesus is their High-Priest; the church, their temple; the Saviour is their altar; their songs, their praises, are incense ascending to heaven; and their ablations to the poor, their works of love, are sacrifices most acceptable to God. Are they called citizens? - the church is then the kingdom of heaven; Jerusalem is the mother of them all; formerly they were aliens, and their naturalization is regeneration. Are they called branches? - then Jesus is the true vine; his Father, the vine-dresser; their union with Christ, an [228] engrafting; the discipline of the gospel, a pruning; and their good works are fruits of righteousness.

Thus there is no confusion of metaphor in the Scriptures of truth - in the dialect of heaven. It is the language of Ashdod, it belongs to the confusion of Babel, to mingle and confound all figures and analogies. Hence we so often hear of being born again, without any allusion to a family or a kingdom! Had a modern assembly of divines been employed to accommodate the Scripture style to their orthodox sentiments, we should not have had to read all the Old Testament and all the historic books of the New, to find the subject of regeneration but once proposed to an alien, as the fact is; but then we should have found it in the history of Abel, of Enoch, of Noah, and of Abraham, if not in every section of the law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms. John the Baptist, Jesus, and the holy twelve, would have had it in every sermon; and true faith would have been always defined as the fruit of regeneration.

But Jesus had a kingdom in his eye in his discourse, before he ever mentioned being "born again" to Nicodemus; for unless there was a family, a state, or a kingdom to be born into, it is impossible for any one to be born into it. And if the kingdom of heaven only began to be after Jesus entered into heaven; or if it was only approaching from the ministry of John to the day of Pentecost, then it would have been preposterous indeed - an incongruity of which no inspired man was ever guilty - to call any change of heart or life a regeneration, or a new birth. It is true that good men in all ages were made such by facts, testimony, faith, and feeling, by a change of heart, by the Spirit of God; but the analogy, or figure of being born, or of being regenerated, only began to be preached, when the kingdom of heaven began to be preached and men began to press into it.

We are now, perhaps, better prepared to consider the proper import and meaning of "regeneration" in general, and of "the bath of regeneration" in particular.

Back to Beginning

REGENERATION.

This word is found but twice in all the oracles of God - once in Matthew xix. 28, and once in Titus iii. 5. In the former it is almost universally understood to mean a new state of things, not of persons - a peculiar era, in which all things are to be made new: - such as the formation of a new church on the day of Pentecost, or the commencement of the Millennium, or the general resurrection.

The biblical critics of eminence have assigned it to one or other of these great changes in the state of things. So we use the word revolution, and the phrase the Revolution, to express a change in the political state of [229] things. The most approved punctuation and version of this passage renders it altogether evident that a new era is alluded to. "Jesus answered, Indeed, I say unto you, that at the renovation [regeneration] when the Son of Man shall be seated on his glorious throne, you, my followers, sitting also upon twelve thrones, shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel." This being so evident, and so often alluded to in our former writings, we shall proceed to the remaining occurrence, Titus iii. 5.

All the new light which we propose to throw on this passage will be gathered from an examination of the acceptation of the word generation in the sacred writings. Our reason for this is, that we object to a peremptory decision of the meaning of a word which occurs only in the passage under discussion, from our reasonings upon the isolated passages in which it is found. In such a case, if we can not find the whole word in any parallel passages, the proper substitute is the root or branches of that word, so far as they are employed by the same writers. Moreover, we think it will be granted, that, whatever may be the scriptural acceptation of the word generation, regeneration is only the repetition of that act or process.

After a close examination of the passages in which generation occurs in the writings of the Hebrew prophets and apostles, we find it used only in two acceptations - as descriptive of the whole process of creation and of the thing created. A race of men, or a particular class of men, is called a generation; but this is its figurative rather than its literal meaning. Its literal meaning is the formation or creation of anything. Thus it is first used in the Holy Scriptures. Moses calls the creation, or whole process of formation of the heavens and the earth, "The generations of the heavens and the earth." [NOTE: Genesis ii. 4] The account of the formation of Adam and Eve, and also the account of the creations of Adam and Eve, are, by the same writer, called "The book or record of the generations of Adam." [NOTE: Genesis v. 1] This is the literal import of the word; consequently, regeneration literally indicates the whole process of renovating or new-creating man.

This process may consist of numerous distinct acts; but it is in accordance with the general usage to give to the beginning or consummating act the name of the whole process. For the most part, however, the name of the whole process is given to the consummating act, because the process is always supposed incomplete until that act is performed. For example: In the process of tanning, fulling, forging, etc., the subject of these operations is not supposed to be tanned, fulled, forged, until the last act is performed. So in all the processes of nature in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms - [230] the last act consummates the process. To all acquainted with the process of animalization, germination, crystallization, etc., no further argument is needed. But in the style of our American husbandmen, no crop or animal is made, until it come to maturity. We often hear them say of a good shower, or a few clear days, "This is the making of the wheat or corn." In the same sense it is, that most Christians call regeneration the NEW BIRTH; though being born is only the last act in natural generation, and the last act in regeneration.

In this way the new birth and regeneration are used indiscriminately by commentators and writers on theology, and, by a figure of speech, it is justified on well-established principles of rhetoric. This leads us to speak particularly of

Back to Beginning

THE BATH OF REGENERATION.

By "the bath of regeneration" is not meant the first, second, or third act; but the last act of regeneration, which completes the whole, and is, therefore, used to denote the new birth.

This is the reason why our Lord and his apostles unite this act with water. Being born of water, in the Saviour's style, and the bath of regeneration, in the Apostles' style,

in the judgment of all writers and critics of eminence, refer to one and the same act - viz.: Christian baptism.

Hence it came to pass, that all the ancients (as fully proved in our first Extra on Remission) used the word regeneration as synonymous in signification with immersion. In addition to the numerous quotations made in our Essay on Remission, from the creeds and liturgies of Protestant churches,

we shall add another from the Common Prayer (?) of the Church of England, showing unequivocally that the learned doctors of that church used the words regeneration and baptism as synonymous.

In the address and prayer of the minister after the baptism of the child, he is commanded to say, -

"Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, that this child is regenerate, and grafted into the body of Christ's church, let us give thanks unto Almighty God for these benefits, and with one accord make our prayer unto him that this child may lead the rest of his life according to this beginning."

"Then shall be said, all kneeling, -

"We yield thee hearty thanks, most merciful Father, that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this infant with thy Holy Spirit, to receive him for thine own child by adoption, and to incorporate him into thy holy church.
And humbly we beseech thee to grant that he, being dead unto sin, and living unto righteousness, and being buried with Christ in his death, may crucify the old man, and utterly abolish the whole body of sin; and that as he is made partaker of the death of [231] thy Son, he may also be partaker of his resurrection; so that finally, with the residue of the holy church, he may be an inheritor of thine everlasting kingdom, through Christ our Lord. Amen."

A clear Consience means that we feel no guilt but it means much more. It means:

Suneidesis (g4893) soon-i'-day-sis; from a prol. form of 4894; co- perception, i.e. moral consciousness; - conscience.

Suneido (g4894) soon-i'-do; from 4862 and 1492; to see completely; used (like its prim.) only in two past tenses, respectively mean. to understand or become aware, and to be conscious or clandestinely informed of: - consider, know, be privy, be ware of.

Mandaeands Sabians Iraq Christians

"Sabian" is a word derived from the Aramaic-Mandic verb "Saba" which means "baptised" or "dyed", "immersed in water". "dMandaeans" is derived from "menda" which means in the mandiac language "knowledge".

Thus, "Mandaean Sabians" means those who are baptised and who know the religion of God.

Eusebius, in his life of Constantine, page 628, shows that St. Cyprian, St. Athanasius, and, indeed, all the Greek Fathers,

did regard baptism as the consummating act;

and therefore they call it teliosis, the consummation.

These authorities weigh nothing with us; but, as they weigh with our opponents, we think it expedient to remind them on which side the Fathers depose in the case before us.

By these quotations we would prove no more than that the ancients understood the washing of regeneration, and indeed used the term regeneration, as synonymous with baptism.

But were we asked for the precise import of the phrase washing or bath of regeneration, either on philological principles, or as explained by the apostles, we would give it as our judgment, that the phrase is a circumlocution or periphrasis for water.

It is loutron, a word which more properly signifies the vessel that contains the water, than the water itself; and is, therefore, by the most learned critics and translators, rendered bath, as indicative either of the vessel containing the fluid, or of the use made of the fluid in the vessel.

It is, therefore, by a metonymy, that water of baptism,

or the water in which we are regenerated.

Paul was a Hebrew, and spoke in the Hebrew style. We must learn that style before we fully understand the apostle's style. In other words, we must studiously read the Old Testament before we can accurately understand the New.

What more natural for a Jew accustomed to speak of "the water of purification," of "the water of separation," [NOTE: See Numbers viii. 7; xix. 9, 13, 20, 21; xxxi. 23]

than to speak of "the bath of regeneration"?

If the phrase "water of purification" meant water used for the purpose of purifying a person - if "the water of separation" meant water used for separating a person - what more natural than that "the bath of regeneration" should mean water for regenerating a person?

But the New Testament itself confirms this exposition of the phrase. We find the word loutron once more used by the same apostle, in the same connection of thought. In his letter to the Ephesians,

he affirms that Jesus has sanctified (separated, purified with the water of purification) the church by a loutron of water - "a bath of water, with the word" - "having cleansed it by a bath of water, with the word." [NOTE: Ephesians v. 26]

This is still more decisive. The king's translators, so fully aware that the sense of this passage agrees with Titus iii. 5, have, in both places, used the word washing, and Macknight the term bath, as the import of loutron. What is called the [232] washing or bath of regeneration, in the one passage, is in the other, called "the washing" or "bath of water." What is called saved in one is called cleansed in the other; and what is called the renewal of the Holy Spirit in the one is called the word in the other; because the Holy Spirit consecrates or cleanses through the word. For thus prayed the Messiah, "Consecrate them through the truth: thy word is the truth." And again, "You are clean through the word that I have spoken unto you."

To the same effect, Paul to the Hebrew Christians, says, "Having your hearts sprinkled from a guilty conscience, and your bodies washed with pure water" - the water of purification, the water of regeneration: (for the phrase "pure water" must be understood, not of the quality of the water, but metonymically of the effect, the cleansing, the washing, or the purifying of the person) - "having your bodies or persons washed with pure water," or water that purifies or cleanses.

No one, acquainted with Peter's style, will think it strange that Paul represents persons as saved, cleansed, or sanctified by water; seeing Peter unequivocally asserts that "we are saved" through water, or through baptism, as was Noah and his family through water and faith in God's promise. "The antitype immersion does also now save us."

Finally, our great prophet, the Messiah, gives to water the same place and power in the work of regeneration.

For when speaking of being born again - when explaining to Nicodemus the new birth, he says, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God." May not we, then, supported by such high authorities, call that water of which a person is born again, the water or bath of regeneration?

Back to Beginning

NEW BIRTH.

We have already seen that the consummation of the process of generation or creation

is in the birth of the creature formed.

So it is in the moral generation, or in the great process of regeneration. There is

a state of existence from which he that is born passes;
and there is a state of existence into which he enters after birth.

This is true of the whole animal creation whether oviparous or viviparous. Now the manner of existence, or the mode of life, is wholly changed; and he is, in reference to the former state, dead, and to the new state, alive.

So in moral regeneration. The subject of this great change, before his new birth, existed in one state; but after it he exists in another. He stands in a new relation to God, angels, and men.

He is now born of God, and has the privilege of being a son of God, and is consequently pardoned, justified, sanctified, [233] adopted, saved.

The state which he left was a state of condemnation, what some call "the state of nature." The state into which he enters is a state of favor, in which he enjoys all the heavenly blessings through Christ: therefore, it is called "the kingdom of heaven."

All this is signified in his death, burial, and resurrection with Christ; or in his being born of water.

Hence the necessity of being buried with Christ in water, that he may be born of water, that he may enjoy the renewal of the Holy Spirit, and be placed under the reign of favor.

All the means of salvation are means of enjoyment, not of procurement.

Birth itself is not for procuring, but for enjoying, the life possessed before birth. So in the analogy: - no one is to be baptized, or to be, buried with Christ; no one is to be put under the water of regeneration for the purpose of procuring life, but for the purpose of enjoying the life of which he is possessed.

If the child is never born, all its sensitive powers and faculties can not be enjoyed; for it is after birth that these are fully developed and feasted upon all the aliments and objects of sense in nature.

Hence all that is now promised in the gospel can only be enjoyed by those who are born again and placed in the kingdom of heaven under all its influences.

Hence the philosophy of that necessity which Jesus preached: - "Unless a man be born again,
be can not discern the kingdom of heaven," - unless a man be born of water and the Spirit, he can not enter into it.

Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. Matthew 13:13

And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: Matthew 13:14

Perceive: From Strong's "see" which is derived from g3708 meaning to discern clearly, to attend to, to experience, to perceive.

Peter showed the connection between baptism and becoming a co-perceiver in the kingdom:

The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: 1 Peter 3:21

Suniemi (g4920) soon-ee'-ay-mee; from 4862 and hiemi , (to send); to put together, i.e. (mentally) to comprehend; by impl. to act piously: - consider, understand, be wise

But let no man think that in the act of being born, either naturally or metaphorically, the child purchases, procures, or merits either life or its enjoyments.

He is only by his birth placed in circumstances favorable to the enjoyment of life, and all that makes life a blessing.
"To as many as receive him, believing in his name, be grants the privilege of being children of God, who derive their birth not from blood, nor from the desire of the flesh, nor from the will of man, but from God."

Back to Beginning

RENEWING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

"He has saved us," says the apostle Paul, "by the bath of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that, being justified by his favor [in the bath of regeneration] we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

Thus, and not by works of righteousness, he has saved us.
Consequently, being born of water and the renewing of the Holy Spirit are not works of merit or of righteousness, but only the means of enjoyment.

But this pouring out of the influences, this renewing of the Holy Spirit,

is as necessary as the of regeneration to the salvation of the soul,

and to the [234] enjoyment of the hope of heaven, of which the Apostle speaks.

In the kingdom into which we are born of water, the Holy Spirit is as the atmosphere in the kingdom of nature; we mean that the influences of the Holy Spirit are as necessary to the new life, as the atmosphere is to our animal life in the kingdom of nature.

All that is done in us before regeneration, God our Father effects by the word, or the gospel as dictated and confirmed by his Holy Spirit.
But after we are thus begotten and born by the Spirit of God - after our new birth -

the Holy Spirit is shed on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; of which the peace of mind, the love, the joy, and the hope of the regenerate is full proof;

for these are among the fruits of that Holy Spirit of promise of which we speak. Thus commences

Back to Beginning

THE NEW LIFE.

Newness of life is a Hebraism for a new life. The new birth brings us into a new state. "Old things have passed away; all things have become new," says an apostle: "for if any one be in Christ, he is a new creature." A new spirit, a new heart, and an outward character, corresponding to this change, are the effects of the regenerating process: "for the end of the change," the grand results of the re-medial system, is "love out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and faith unfeigned." "Love is the fulfilling of the whole law," and the fruit of the whole gospel. It is the cardinal principle of all Christian behavior, the soul of the new man, the breath of the new life. Faith works by no other rule. It is a working principle, and love is the rule by which it operates. The Spirit of God is the spirit of love and the health of a sound mind. Every pulsation of the new heart is the impulse of the spirit of love. Hence the brotherhood is beloved, and all mankind embraced in unbounded good will. When the tongue speaks, the hands and the feet move and operate, under the unrestrained guidance of this principle, we have the Christian character drawn to the life. For meekness, humility, mercy, sympathy, and active benevolence are only the names of the various workings of this all renovating, invigorating, sanctifying, and happifying principle. "He that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him."

The Christian, or the new man, is then a philanthropist to the utmost meaning of that word. Truth and love have made him free from all the tyrannies of passion, from guilt and fear and shame; have filled him with courage, active and passive. Therefore, his enterprise, his capital enterprise, to which all others minister, is to take part with our Saviour in the salvation of the world. "If by any means I may save some" are not the words of Paul only, but of every new man. Are they merchants, mechanics, husbandmen? - are they magistrates, lawyers, judges, or unofficial citizens? - are they [235] masters, servants, fathers, sons, brothers, neighbors? - whatever or wherever they may be, they live for God and his city, for the King and his empire. They associate not with the children of wrath - the miser, the selfish, the prodigal, the gay, the proud, the slanderer, the tattler, the rake, the libertine, the drunkard, the thief, the murderer. Every new man has left these precincts; has broken his league with Satan and his slaves, and has joined himself to the family of God. These he complacently loves - those he pities - and does good to all.

The character of the new man is an elevated character. Feeling himself a son and heir of God, he cultivates the temper, spirit, and behavior which correspond with so exalted a relation. He despises every thing mean, groveling, earthly, sensual, devilish. As the only begotten and well-beloved Son of God is to be the model of his future personal glory, so the character which Jesus sustained among men is the model of his daily imitation. His everyday aspiration is -

"Thy fair example will I trace, To teach me what I ought to be; Make me by thy transforming grace, Lord Jesus, daily more like thee."

The law of God is hid in his heart. The living oracles dwell in his mind, and he grows in favor with God as he grows in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ his Lord. As a newborn babe he desires the unadulterated milk of the word of God, that be may grow by it; for as the thirsty hart pants after the brooks of water, so pants his soul after God. Thus he lives to God, and walks with him. This is the character of the regenerate - of him that is born of God - of the new man in Christ Jesus. This is that change of heart, of life, and of character, which is the tendency and the fruit of the process of regeneration, as taught and exemplified by the apostles, and those commended by God, in their writings.

We now proceed to offer a few remarks on physical regeneration, the second part of our subject.

Back to Beginning

PHYSICAL REGENERATION.

Our mortal bodies are apt to feel the regenerating power of the son of God. This is emphatically called "the glory of his power." "The redemption of the body" from the bondage of corruption is the consummation of the new-creating energy of him who has immortality. Life and incorruptibility were displayed in and by his resurrection from the dead. It was great to create man in the image of God - greater to redeem his soul from general corruption; but greatest of all to give to his mortal frame incorruptible and immortal vigor. The power displayed in the giving to the dead body of the Son of God incorruptible glory and endless life is set forth by the Apostle Paul [236] as incomparably surpassing every other divine work within the reach of human knowledge. He prays that the minds of Christians may be enlarged to apprehend this mighty power - that the Father of glory would open their minds, "that they might know the exceeding greatness of his power in relation to us who believe - according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places." Faith in this wonderful operation of God - and hope for the riches of the glory of the inheritance of the saints in light - are in the most powerful principles of action which God has ever planted in the human breast. "This is the transcendent hope of the Christian calling, which imparts such heroic courage to all the saints of eternal renown. This better resurrection in prospect has produced heroes which make cowards of all the boasted chiefs of worldly glory. As the magnetic needle ever points to the pole, so the mind, influenced by this hope, ever rises to the skies, and terminates in the fulness of joy, and the pleasures for evermore in the presence and at the right hand of God.

To raise a dead body to life again is not set forth as more glorious than by a touch to give new vigor to the palsied arm, to impart sight to the blind, or hearing to the deaf; but to give that raised body the deathless vigor of incorruptibility, to renovate and transform it in all its parts, and to make every spirit feel that it reanimates its own body, that it is as insusceptible of decay, as immortal as the Father of eternity, is a thought overwhelming to every mind; a development which will glorify the power of God, as the sacrifice of his Son now displays his righteousness, faithfulness, and love to the heavens and to the earth.

This new birth from the dark prison of the grave is fitly styled "the redemption of the body" from bondage, "the glorious liberty of the sons of God." As in our watery grave, the old man is figuratively buried to rise no more, so in the literal grave, the prison of the body, we leave all that is corrupt; for he that makes all things new will raise us up in his own likeness, and present us before his Father's face in all the glory of immortality. Then will regeneration be complete. Then will be the full revelation of the sons of God.

Immortality, in the sacred writings, is never applied to the spirit of man. It is not the doctrine of Plato which the resurrection of Jesus proposes. It is the immortality of the body of which his resurrection is a proof and pledge. This was never developed till he became the first-born from the dead, and in a human body entered the heavens. Jesus was not a spirit when he returned to God. He is not made the head of the new creation as a Spirit, but as the Son of Man. Our nature in his person is glorified; and when he appears to [237] our salvation, we shall be made like him, we shall see him as he is. This is the Christian hope.

"A hope so great and so divine, May trials well endure, And purge the soul from sense and sin As Christ himself is pure."

Thus matters stand in the economy of redemption. Thus the divine scheme of regeneration is consummated: the moral part by the operation of moral means; the physical part, by the mighty power of God operating through physical means. By the word of his power he created the heavens and the earth; by the word of his grace he reanimates the soul of man; and by the word of his power he will again form our bodies anew, and reunite the spirit and the body in the bonds of an incorruptible and everlasting union. Then shall death "be swallowed up forever." - "Where now thy victory, boasting grave?" But for this we must wait. "We know not what we shall be. - We only know, that when he appears, we shall be like him; that we shall see him as he is.

Back to Beginning

THE USE OF THE THEORY OF REGENERATION.

One would imagine, from the voluminous arguments, debates, and sermons upon the theory of regeneration, that a sound theory was essential to salvation: that it must be preached in every sermon, in order to regenerate the hearers. Nothing can be more preposterous. Who can think that any theory of the resurrection or regeneration of the body can affect the body in the grave? As little can any theory affect the unregenerate, or those dead in trespasses and in sins. A sermon upon regeneration, or upon natural birth, would be as efficacious upon those unborn, in bringing them into this life, as a sermon upon moral or physical regeneration. This explains the fact, that in all the accounts of apostolical preaching to Jew and Gentile - in the extracts of their sermons and speeches found in the New Testament - the subject of regeneration is not once mentioned. It is, in all the historic books of the New Testament, but once propounded, but once named; and that only in a private conference with a Jewish senator, on the affairs of Christ's kingdom. No theory understood or believed by the unregenerate, no theory proposed to them for their acceptance, can avail any thing to their regeneration. We might as reasonably deliver a theory of digestion to a dyspeptic, to cure his stomach - or a theory of vegetation to a scion, to hasten its growth as to preach any view of regeneration to a sinner to make him a Christian.

Of what use, then, are the previous remarks on this subject? I will first candidly inform the reader, that they were not written for [238] his regeneration, either of mind or body; but for the benefit of those who are employed in the work of regenerating others, and for the conviction of such Christians as may have been induced to regard us as aiming at nothing but the mere immersion of persons, as alone necessary to the whole process of conversion or regeneration, in their acceptation of these words.*

The use of theory, if it have any, is as a guide to those who are laboring publicly or privately for the regeneration of sinners. If we have assigned a proper place for facts, testimony, faith, feeling, action, the bath of regeneration, the

[NOTE: *It may again be necessary, in this fastidious age, to remark, that in this essay, in order to disabuse the public mind on our use and acceptation of the term regeneration, we have taken the widest range which a supreme regard for the apostolic style could, in our judgment, allow. While we argue that the phrase bath of regeneration (Titus iii. 5) is equivalent to immersion, as already explained, and as contradistinguished from the renewing of the Holy Spirit, of which the immersed believer is a proper subject; we have spoken of the whole process of renovation, not in the strict application of the phrase, Titus iii. 5, but rather in the whole latitude of the figure employed by the Apostle. It is not the first act of begetting nor the last act of being born, but the whole process of conversion alluded to in the figure of generation, which we have directed the attention of our readers. For, as often before stated, our opponents deceive themselves and their hearers, by representing us as ascribing to the word immersion, and the act of immersion, all that they call regeneration. While, therefore we contend that being "born again," and being immersed, are, in the Apostle's style, two names for the same action, we are far from supposing or teaching that, in forming the new man, there is nothing necessary but to be born.

If any ask why this matter was not fully developed in our first essays on this subject, our answer is, Because we could not anticipate that our opponents would have so resented or misrepresented our views. Were a general asked why he did not arrange all his troops in the beginning of the action as he had them arranged when he triumphed over his enemy, he would reply That the manoeuvres and assaults of the enemy directed the disposition of his forces.

Our opponents contend for a regeneration begun and perfected before faith or baptism -

a spiritual change of mind by the Holy Spirit,
antecedent to either knowledge, faith, or repentance,
of which infants are as susceptible as adults; and , therefore, as we contend, make the gospel of no effect.

By way of reprisals, they would have their converts think that we go for nothing but water, and sarcastically call us the advocates of "water regeneration."

They think there is something more sublime and divine in "spirit regeneration"; and therefore claim the title of orthodox.

This calumny has been one occasion of the present essay, and it has occasioned that part of it which gives the fullest latitude to the term regeneration, which analogy gives to the figure used by the apostle. But when we speak in the exact style of the living oracles on this subject, we must represent being born again (John iii. 5) and regeneration (Titus iii. 5) as relating to the act of immersion alone. See Extra Defended, pp. 24-36.ENDNOTE]

[239] renewing of the Holy Spirit, and a new life, the course is fairly marked out. They are to present the great facts, to declare the whole testimony of God to sinners, in order to their conversion or regeneration. Like Paul, in his account of his labors in Corinth, they must go out, not in the strength of human philosophy, "but declaring the testimony of God," and laying before their hearers "the wonderful works of God."

This is the use, and the only proper use, of sound theory on any subject. It is to guide the operator, not the thing operated upon. I would hope, under the Divine blessing, to be the means of regenerating one person in one year, never once naming regeneration, nor speculating upon the subject, by stating and enforcing the testimony of God, than by preaching daily the most approved theory of regeneration ever sanctioned by any Sanhedrin on earth.*

NOTE: *August 1. - I have just now opened the Cincinnati Baptist Journal of 26th July, from which, I read an approved definition of regeneration. It is orthodox, spiritual, physical, mystical, and metaphysical regeneration. It noted from the "Standard." Regeneration, in the Evangelical Standard, is thus defined:

"Is the sinner active in regeneration? Certainly he is. His mind is thinking, rational principle, which never ceases to act; and, therefore, when the word passive is applied to it, by Old Divines, or by Calvinists, they do not mean that it is literally dead, like inert matter, which requires a physical impulse to put it in motion. They only mean to convey the scriptural idea, that the Holy Spirit is the sole agent in regeneration, that the sinner has no more efficient agency in accomplishing it, than Lazarus had in becoming alive from the dead. Still, they grant that his mind is most active, but unhappily its activity is all against the divine influence; as the Scriptures assure us, unregenerated persons 'do always resist' the strivings of the Spirit. 'Every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually.' 'There is none that doeth good; no, not one.' The sinner, therefore, instead of voluntarily, co-operating with the Holy Spirit, does all he can to resist his divine influence, and prevent his own regeneration, until he is made willing by almighty power."

What a comfortable thing is this theory of regeneration! The sinner's to be regenerated when actively striving against the divine influence. At the moment of regeneration, "he has," in one sense, "no more efficient agency in accomplishing it than Lazarus had in becoming alive from the dead"; and in another sense, he is not passive, but "does all he can to resist the divine influence, and prevent his own regeneration, until he is made willing by divine almighty power." This is Standard divinity; and he that preaches divinity is a pious, regenerated, Regular Orthodox Baptist Christian Minister! Of how much value, on this theory, is all the preaching in Christendom? The Holy Spirit may be busily at work upon some drunken sot, or some vile debauchee, who is as dead as Lazarus on one side, and on the other resisting the Spirit with all his moral and physical energy, up to the moment that the Almighty arm pierces him to the heart with a sword, and makes him alive by killing him!

Continued on bottom of page 240:

The use of theory, if it have any, is as a guide to those who are laboring publicly or privately for the regeneration of sinners. If we have assigned a proper place for facts, testimony, faith, feeling, action, the bath of regeneration, the

The absurdity and licentiousness of such a view of the great work of renovation we had thought so glaring that no editor in the West would have had boldness to have published it. This is proof of the necessity of our present essay, and will explain to the intelligent reader why we have given to the whole process of renovation the name of regeneration, which properly belongs to the last act. ENDNOTE]

With these views, [240] we have, then, offered the preceding remarks; and shall now briefly turn our attention to -

Back to Beginning

THE REGENERATION OF THE CHURCH.

[240] The word regeneration we have found once used in the sense of a new state of things, or of the introduction of a new state of things. [NOTE: Matt. xix. 28] In this application of the word, we would turn the attention of our readers to the necessity of the regeneration of the church.

I speak not of the regeneration of any sectarian establishment. They are built upon another foundation - upon the foundation of decrees of councils, creeds, formularies, or acts of Parliament. But we speak of those societies that professedly build upon the foundation of Apostles and Prophets, without any human bond of union, or rule of life - our brethren of the reformation, now in process.

Should any one imagine that the state of things to which we have attained is the sole or ultimate object of our aspirations or our efforts, he would do us the greatest injury. Societies, indeed, may be found among us, far in advance of others, in their progress towards the ancient order of things; but we know of none that has fully attained to that model. It is, however, most acceptable to see so many societies formed and forming, under the banners of reformation, with the determination to move onwards in conformity to the sacred oracles, till they stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.

Our opponents can not, or will not, understand how any society can be in progress to a better order of things than that under which they may have commenced their pilgrimage. Their sectarian policies were soon formed, and the limits of their reformation were soon fixed; beyond which it soon became heretical to move. The founders of all new schisms not only saw through a glass darkly, but their horizon was so circumscribed with human traditions, that they only aimed at moving a few paces from the hive in which they were generated. A new creed was soon adopted, and then their stature was complete. They bounded from infancy to manhood in a few days, and decided, if any presumed further to advance, they should be treated as those who had refused to move from the old hive. Hence it became as censurable to grow beyond a certain standard, as not to grow at all. This never was our proposition, and never can be our object. We have no new [241] creed to form, no rules of discipline to adopt. We have taken the Living Oracles as our creed, our rules and measures of faith and practice; and, in this department, have no additions, alternations, or amendments to propose. But in coming up to this standard of knowledge, faith, and behavior, we have something yet before us, to which we have not attained.

That we may be distinctly understood on this subject, we shall speak particularly on the things wanting in our individual characters, and of the things wanting in our church order, to give to our meetings that interest and influence which they ought to exert on the brotherhood and on society at large.

It will be understood, that our remarks on the things which are wanting in the disciples are applicable not to every individual, but to the general mass. And, first of all, there is wanting a more general and particular knowledge of the Holy Scriptures than is possessed by a great majority of the reformers. There is, perhaps, wanting a taste or disposition for that private devotional reading of the oracles of God, which is essential to a growth in that knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ which constitutes the most striking attributes in Christian character. We thus reason from the proficiency which is discoverable in the bounds of our acquaintance, which is large enough to afford data for every general conclusion.

To read the Scriptures for the sake of carrying out into practice all that we learn, and to read them for the sake of knowing what is written, are very different objects, and will produce very different results. Their influence on the temper and behavior, in the former case, will very soon become manifest to all with whom we associate; while, in the latter case, there is no visible improvement. David said that he "hid the word of God in his heart," or laid it up in his mind, "that he might not sin against God"; and that he had, "more understanding than all his teachers, because God's testimonies were his meditation."

It will be admitted that the sacred writings of the Apostles and Evangelists of Jesus Christ ought to be as precious and as delightful to the Christian, as were the ancient oracles to the most pious Jew.

Now, as an example of what we mean by a private devotional reading and study of the oracles of Christ, we shall permit a Jew to tell his experience: -

"The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver. With my whole heart have I sought thee; my soul breaketh for the longing that it has to thy judgments at all times.

Thy testimonies are my delight and my counsellors. Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I will keep it to the end.
Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yes, I will observe it with my whole heart.
Make me to go in the path of thy commandments, for [242] in it do I delight.

Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
At midnight I will rise to give thanks to thee, because of thy righteous judgments.

Oh, how I love thy law; it is my meditation all the day! How sweet are thy words to my taste; sweeter than honey to my mouth! Thy testimonies have I taken as a heritage forever,

for they are the rejoicing of my heart. Great peace have they that love thy law - nothing shall cause them to stumble."

These are only a few extracts from one piece, written by a king three thousand years ago. On another occasion he pronounced the following encomium on the testimony of God:

"The law [doctrine] of the Lord is perfect, converting [restoring] the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold - yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb. By them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward."

This fully reveals all that we mean by a devotional private study of the Holy Scriptures. Every Christian who can read may every day thus refresh, strengthen, and comfort his heart, by reading or committing to memory, and afterwards reflecting upon, some portion of the book. He may carry in his pocket the blessed volume, and many a time through the day take a peep into it. This will preserve him from temptation, impart courage to his heart, give fluency to his tongue, and the graces of Christianity to his life.

In this age, when ignorance of the Christian Scriptures is so characteristic, and the rage for human opinions and traditions so rampant, it is a duty doubly imperative on our brethren, to give themselves much more to the study of the book; and then one of them will put a host of the aliens to flight; and, what is still more desirable, he will have communion with God all the day, and ever rejoice in his salvation.

In the second place, there is wanting among disciples, who are heads of families, more attention, much more effort, to bring up their children "in the correction and instruction of the Lord." The children of all disciples should be taught the oracles of God from the first dawning of reason. The good seed should be sown in their hearts, before the strong seeds of vice can take root. From a child Timothy knew the Holy Scriptures, and they were able to make him wise to salvation, through the Christian faith. How many more Timothies might we have, if we had a few more of the daughters of Lois, and [243] a few more mothers like Eunice! Most saints, in this generation, appear more zealous that their children should shine on earth, than in heaven - and that they may be rich here, at the hazard of eternal bankruptcy. They labor to make them rich and genteel, rather than pure and holy: and spend more time in fashioning them to the foolish and wicked taste of polished society, than in teaching them by precept and example the word that is better than gold, and more precious than rubies. Well, they sow damel, and can not reap wheat. They may have a mournful harvest, and years of bitterness and sorrow may reward them for their negligence and error. If only a tithe of the time, and the labor and expense, that it costs to fit a son or a daughter to shine in the middle or front ranks of genteel society, were spent in teaching them to fear God and to keep his commandments, how many more virtuous, solid, and useful citizens - how many more valuable members of the family of God - how many more faithful and able witnesses for the truth of God - would be found in all comers of the land!

Every Christian family ought to be a nursery for God. Their offspring should be trained for the skies. For such are the promises of God, such are the facts on record, and such is the experience of Christians, that every parent who does his duty to his children may expect to see them inherit the blessing. Their didactic labors, aided by their example and their constant prayers, will seldom or never fail of success in influencing their descendants to walk in their ways. The very command to bring up their children in the Lord implies its practicability. And both Testaments furnish us with all assurance that such labors will not be in vain. The men of high renown in sacred history were generally the sons of such parentage. The sons of God were found among the sons of Seth, while the daughters of men were of the progeny of Cain. Abraham was the descendant of Shem; Moses and Aaron were the sons of believing parents; Samuel was the son of Hannah, and David was the son of Jesse. John the Harbinger was the son of Zachariah and Elizabeth; and it pleased the heavenly Father that his Son should be the child of a pious virgin.

But it is under Christ that the faithful are furnished with all the necessary means of bringing up their offspring for the Lord. The numerous failures which we witness are to be traced either to great neglect, or to some fatal notion which paralyzes all effort; for some think that the salvation or damnation of their offspring was a matter settled for all eternity, irrespective of any agency on their part: that some are born "vessels of wrath," and others "vessels of mercy;" and hence the instructions, examples, and prayers of parents are of no avail. Among the descendants of such, it will no doubt often [244] happen that some become vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction, while others become vessels of mercy predestined to glory.

When God gave a revelation to Jacob, and commanded a law to Israel, he gave it in charge that they should "teach it to their children, that they might put their trust in God, and might not be, like their fathers, a rebellious race." The apostles of Christ have also taught the Christians the same lesson. This is our guide, and not our own reasonings. Now, let the disciples make this their business, morning, noon, and evening, and then we shall see its effects.

We are sorry to see this great duty, to which nature, reason, revelation alike direct, so much neglected by many of our brethren - to find among their children those who are no better acquainted with the Scriptures than the children of their neighbors, who believe in miraculous conversions, or think it is a sin to attempt what they imagine to be the work of God alone - never suspecting that God works by human means, and employs human agency in his works of providence and redemption.

I never knew but of a very few families that made it their daily business to train up their children in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, to cause them every day to commit to memory a portion of the living oracles; but these few instances authorize me to think, and to say, that such a course, persisted in and sustained by the good example of parents, will very generally, if not universally, issue in the salvation of their children. And before any one says, I have found an exception to the proverb of Solomon, which says, "Train up a child in the way it should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it," - let him show that his child was "trained up in the way he should go."

In the third place, there is wanting, among the disciples, a stricter regard to relative duties; we mean, not only the duties which justice, truth, and moderation claim; but all relative duties. So long as Christians live after the manner of men in the flesh, according to the fashion of this world, they must, like other men, contract debts which they can not promptly pay, make covenants and bargains, give promises which they can not fulfil, and stake pledges which they are unable to redeem. All this is wholly incompatible with our profession. Such were not the primitive disciples. Skeptics of every name, men of the world, who have ever read the New Testament, know that such behavior is utterly incompatible with the letter and spirit of Christianity. A Christian's word or promise ought to be, and is, if Christ be honored, as solemn and obligatory as any bond. And as for breach of bargain or covenant, even where it is greatly or wholly to the disadvantage of the Christian, it is not even to be thought of - "he changes not, though to his hurt he covenants." How much has the gospel [245] lost of its influence, because of the faithlessness of its professors! Oh, when shall it be again said of Christians in general that 'they bind themselves, as with a solemn oath, not to commit any kind of wickedness - to be guilty neither of theft, robbery, nor adultery - never to break a promise, or to keep back a deposit when called upon?" Pliny writes to the Emperor Trajan that such was the character of Christians A.D. 106-7, as far as he could learn it from those who were not ChristiWere all the common (nowadays rarther uncommon) virtues of justice, truth, fidelity, honesty, practiced by all Christians, how many mouths would be stopped, and how many new arguments in favor of Jesus Christ could all parties find! But, even were these common virtues as general as the Christian profession, there are the other finer virtues of benevolence, goodness, mercy, sympathy, which belong to the profession, expressed in taking care of the sick, the orphan, the widow - in alleviating all the afflictions of our fellow-creatures. Add these virtues, or graces, as we sometimes call them, to the others, and then how irresistible the argument for the divine authenticity of the gospel! Let industry, frugality, temperance, honesty, justice, truth, fidelity, humility, mercy, sympathy, appear conspicuous in the lives of the disciples, and the contrast between them and other professors will plead their cause more successfully than a hundred preachers.

In the last place there is wanting a more elevated piety to bring up the Christian character to the standard of primitive times. We want not fine speeches nor eloquent orations on the excellencies of Christian piety and devotion. These are generally acknowledged. But we need to be roused from our supineness, from our worldly-mindedness, from our sinful conformities to an apostate generation, to the exhibition of that holiness in speech, in behavior, without which no one shall please the Lord. What mean the numerous exhortations of the apostles to watchfulness and prayer, if these are not essential to our devotion to God and consecration to his service?

If our affections are not placed on things above, we are unfit for the kingdom of glory. To see the folly of a profession of Christianity without the power of godliness, we have only to put the question, How is that person fit for the enjoyment of God and Christ, whose heart is filled with the cares, anxieties, and concerns of this life - whose whole life is a life of labor and care for the body - a life of devotion to the objects of time and sense? No man can serve God and Mammon. Where the treasure is, the heart must also be. Thither the affections turn their course. There is no room for the residence of the Spirit of God in a mind devoted to the affairs of this life. The spirit of the policies of this world, and the Spirit of God, can not dwell in the same heart. If Jesus or his Apostles taught any one doctrine clearly, fully, [246] and unequivocally, it is this doctrine: that "the cares of this world, the lusts of other things, and the deceitfulness of riches, stifle the word, and render it unfruitful."

If any one would enjoy the power of godliness, he must give up his whole soul to it. The business of this life will be performed religiously, as a duty subordinate to the will of God. While his hands are engaged in that business which his own wants or those of this household make necessary, his affections are above. He delights in God, and communes with him all the day. A Christian is not one who is pious by fits and starts, who is religious or devout one day of the week, or for one hour of the day. It is the whole bent of his soul - it is the beginning, middle, and the end of every day. To make his calling and election sure is the business of his life. His mind rests only in God. He places the Lord always before him. This is his joy and delight. He would not for the world have it otherwise. He would not enjoy eternal life, if he had it at his option, in any other way than that which God himself has proposed. He accedes to God's arrangements, not of necessity, but of choice. His religious services are perfect freedom. He is free indeed. The Lord's commandments are not grievous, but joyful. The yoke of Christ is to him easy, and his burden light. He will sing, with David, -

"The love that to thy laws I bear

No language can display;

They with fresh wonders entertain

My ravish'd thoughts all day.

"The law that from thy mouth proceeds,

Of more esteem I hold

Than untouch'd stores, than thousand mines

Of silver and of gold.

"Whilst in the way of thy commands,

More solid joy I found

Than had I been with vast increase

Of envied riches crown'd.

"Thy testimonies I have kept,

And constantly obey'd;

Because the love I bore to them

Thy service easy made."

In the same ratio as Christians devoutly study the oracles of God, teach them to their children, practice all relative duties to society at large, and rise to a more elevated piety, they will increase their influence in the great and heavenly work of regenerating the world.

A few remarks on the things wantin

Alexander Campbell, The Christian System, Regeneration