of sin-because they believe not on Me; the Comforter will convince the world of righteousness— because I go to the Father; the Comforter will convince the world of judgment-because the prince of this world is judged (is cast out) for, for this purpose was I manifested that I might destroy the works of the devil. In the light of this connection the whole passage may be treated in free paraphrase thus: When the Comforter is come He will convincingly refute the world's theory of wrong-doing by showing God's idea of sin as proved by the shedding of My blood, which blood the world has trampled under foot and accounted an unholy thing; in future when men want to know what sin really is (not merely in its accidental expression but in its essence) they will see God's revelation and estimate of it in My cross. When the Comforter is come He will convincingly refute the world's theory of righteousness, which relates wholly to appearances, and is more or less a successful adaptation of expedients, and this He will do by taking up and continuing My work which I now lay down that I may go to My father. I have spoken the word, I have also shown the example ; now a great spiritual process must set in, and My outward and visible work must receive spiritual illumination and exposition. When the Comforter is come He will convincingly refute the world's theory of judgment, which is founded upon the most obvious differences only, and has no reference to those deep spiritual elements and facts which underlie and account for all human conduct; He will show

the meaning of My temptation, the purport of My answers in the wilderness, and the discriminations with which I startled the men of My day-such as preferring the publican to the Pharisee, and the mites of the widow to the gold of Dives: all this He will do, and then will be seen that My work is not the broken column which it now appears to be, not a failure, not a humiliating overthrow, but the beginning of a kingdom fair as the sun and everlasting as the heavens.

This conviction is being wrought out by many instrumentalities; as, for example, by the wise exposition of the living Word; by loyal obedience to the statutes and ordinances of Jesus Christ; by holy and unblamable lives, whereby ungodly men are silently rebuked and instructed; by startling developments of spiritual power by which the people are now sobered by great fear and anon made glad with sure and exultant hope; by good coming out of evil; by sudden and terrible reproofs of powers haughty and defiant in their self-sufficiency; by the honour of methods and plans thought to be feeble and useless; -in all these ways, and in others many and wonderful, a great work of spiritual conviction is proceeding in society, and is showing itself in the higher legislation and the keener discipline of mankind.

Such work is necessarily slow in its progress. Conviction is probably the slowest of all work. By its very nature it is both negative and positive; that is to say, it has to penetrate error and prejudice, and actually to destroy them, before it can begin its con

structive processes. This is the very force of the word λeyxos as employed by our Lord in this passage, a word which involves condemnation, remorse, penitence, and better-mindedness and health of soul. Work of this kind is not to be done in a day, or if so done it may be as quickly overthrown. The kingdom of heaven is in nowise to be hurried in its construction, and inasmuch as it is the highest of all kingdoms it is the least susceptible of impatient influences. It resents them. For a time, godly labour will seem to disappear in nothingness, and to leave the labourer without reward or joy; but afterwards there will come up signs and tokens which cannot be mistaken for aught but the hire and honour of those who do well. Sin, righteousness, and judgment, are not to be seen objectively, or the work would be easy enough; they must be revealed subjectively, in much painfulness, self-accusation, and controversy of heart, for thus only can they become part of our very consciousness and live for ever amidst the ruling memories of human life. Jesus Christ commits His great work to the ages, and to the ministry of the Eternal Spirit, assured that in the long run the world will trace its true ideas of sin, righteousness, and judgment, to the Golgotha of His sorrow and the Olivet of His ascension. "He that believeth shall not make haste." "Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die." Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."

IX.

REGENERATION.

ACCORDING to the gospel of St. John, our Lord taught the doctrine of regeneration at an early period in His ministry. It is remarkable, as illustrative of a point insisted upon at the beginning of this essay, that this fact should have been noticed by John alone, showing, as it does, the intensity of his spiritual nature. The narrative given in the third chapter is evidently written con amore, being, as to its tone and purpose, quite in the vein of John's own sympathies and aspirations. It is certainly made clear that our Lord attached primary importance to the doctrine of the second birth, and that He identified it with the special function of the Holy Spirit. What, then, is this new birth,— this being born again, or born from above?

Regeneration, as our Lord explained it, was evidently a novel doctrine to Nicodemus. "How," said he, “can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Considerable light is thus thrown upon the intellectual character of Nicodemus: he was a master without mastery, a Horeb without a burning bush, a fact of which our Lord availed Himself in an argumentum ad hominem which must have

had a humiliating effect upon the ruler in Israel. When physical facts are set forth as the types of spiritual realities, the success of the figure depends upon the intellectual constitution of the student. One mind reasons upwards, another downwards; so whilst one man seeks the theology of a flower, another is content simply to know its botany. Nicodemus had only one idea of birth, and with all the simplicity of ignorance he instantly applied it to the kingdom of heaven. It would seem as if our

Lord always used what we (mistakenly) call common words in their primary signification, and that consequently there was frequent confusion between Him and His hearers. For example: "I will give living water," is an expression which was taken to mean water out of the well; "Beware of the leaven of Herod," was regarded as a reference to ordinary bread; "Be born again," was considered as limited to physical generation. What if our uses of these words should be but secondary and relative, and if a reproof of their misapplication should come from heaven? Our sense of the term "water" or "bread" may be but a convenient misuse of words whose meaning points towards the most solemn necessities and desires of life; in that case we become the offenders by materialising and limiting words current as between the highest spiritual experiences throughout the universe. We say that when our Lord said "bread" in the instance just quoted He was speaking figuratively; why may not our use of the word "bread" be figurative? Who