May 26

Pot by works of righteousness which we have done.

TITUS iii. 5.

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. . . . Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. — JOHN iii. 3. 5.

THESE wonderful words of the Lord Jesus were spoken to Nicodemus, a Jewish gentleman, a Pharisee, and a ruler and master in Israel, who "came to Jesus at the first by night." Observe closely the four "Amens" which are translated by as many "Verilys" in our English New Testament, "Amen! Amen! I say unto thee." The great Teacher speaks with authority as "the Amen, the faithful and true Witness." Mark the new birth of which he testifies. "Except a man [Nicodemus, or any other man] be born again," — or from above, as the margin reads, — "born of water and the Spirit," whose chosen emblem is the cleansing water. This is God's way of making a sinful man over again, "a new creature in Christ Jesus," with a new heart and a new spirit, "by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Note again the two "cannotts;" "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God;" "he cannot enter the kingdom of God." But by the new birth he becomes the child of a king, "a king and a priest unto God," "an heir of God and a joint-heir with Jesus Christ" to "the kingdom prepared for him from the foundation of the world."

William J. R. Taylor.

Nor alms, nor deeds, that I have done

Can for a single sin atone;

To Calvary alone I flee.

O God, be merciful to me!

CORNELIUS ELVEN.