August 2

Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God.

1 JOHN iii. 10.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. — JOHN iii. 6.

"A GREAT and universal proposition, — that which is begotten carries within itself the nature of that which begat it." Christ is teaching Nicodemus the necessity of the new birth. He had been born of the flesh, physically and intellectually developed, socially and even religiously cultivated; but the life he now sought came from another and higher germ. As we cannot cultivate the vegetable into animal, so the physical cannot grow into the spiritual. Each has its own seed and fruit. Christ is the seed of the kingdom. "In him was life; and the life was the light of men." "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."

True piety is more than sentiment or creed; it is life. "Christ in you the hope of glory." Reader, have you been born of the Spirit? "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Light immortal, Light divine, Visit thou these hearts of thine, And our inmost being fill. If thou take thy grace away, Nothing pure in man will stay, All his good is turned to ill.

CASWALL (translated)