35. Regeneration
Regeneration NOT AN EARTHLY CHANGE.—A sculptor may take a piece of rough marble, and work it into the marvelous figure of a man; yet it remains but lifeless marble. A jeweler may take a watch, the mainspring of which is broken; he may clean every wheel, cog, pin and hand, the face and the cases, but, unless the mainspring is rectified, it will all be useless for time-telling. A painter may decorate the outside of a pest-house with the most beautiful colors, but, if he produce no change within, it remains a pest-house still. A pauper might clothe himself with the garments of a millionaire, but a beggar he would still remain. A leper might cover all the spots of his disease with his garments, but, he would be a leper still. So the sinner may turn over a new leaf, and reform in all the externals of his life, but unless he is born again, born of the Spirit, a sinner he still remains.
PROFESSOR AND BOATMAN.—A learned professor, who was being ferried across a stream, asked the boatman: “Do you understand philosophy?” “No, never heard of it.” “Then one-quarter of your life is gone. Do you understand geology?” “No.” “Then one-half of your life is gone. Do you understand astronomy?” “No.” “Then three-quarters of your life is gone.” Presently the boat tipped over, and both men fell into the water. “Can yon swim?” asked the boatman. “No,” replied the professor. “Then the whole of your life is gone,” responded the boatman.
DOCTOR AND PATIENT.—A doctor visiting a patient, said to the sick one: “I want you to tell me what it is, this believing, faith in Jesus, and getting happiness?” The patient replied: “Doctor, I have felt that I could do nothing, and I have put my case into your hands—I am trusting in you. This is what every poor sinner must do in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
INDIAN ON BAPTISM.—Concerning the error of baptismal regeneration, an Indian once said: “The Great Spirit wants clean here (pointing to his heart), never mind face. Jim Beech-tree mad as ever with strong water (or whiskey). Baptize on face do him no good; he old Jim still.”
SUMMERFIELD’S ANSWER.—When the celebrated Summerfield was a young minister, he once met a distinguished doctor of divinity, who said to him: “Mr. Summerfield, where were you born?” “I was born,” said he, “in Dublin and in Liverpool.” “Ah, how can that be?” asked the great doctor. The boy preacher paused a moment, and then answered: “Art thou a master in Israel and understandest not these things?”
NEVER LIVED WITH HIM.—”Is such a man a Christian?” was once asked of Whitefield. “How should I know?” was the reply, “I never lived with him.”
WORKING AT EIGHTY.—Lyndhurst was nearly eighty years of age before he became converted. Desiring to be loyal for Christ, he used to hobble about the lobbies of the House of Lords, watching for an opportunity of bearing testimony for the Master. He would stop and plead with his friends there, while tears bathed his cheeks, and, in a voice tremulous with emotion, plead the Redeemer’s cause. He would say: “My soul is saved, but my life is lost.”
LITTLE GIRL’S DEFINITION.—A little girl, on being asked to tell what it was to live a Christian life, answered: “To live as Jesus would live, and to behave as He would, if He were a little girl and lived at our house.”