CHAPTER I. THE SPIRITUAL AND EXPERIMENTAL CHARACTER OF THE ATONEMENT: INEXPLICABLE TO THE UNREGENERATE MIND. THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. ii. 14. By no stronger argument does the truth of God establish the Divinity of its origin, than, that to all save the regenerate, it is a sublime mystery. Not only the great principles of truth are inexplicable, but the hidden and transforming operation of that truth upon the mind,—the alarm, the contrition, the joy, the hope, the varied and often conflicting emotions which are its proper results, all, are perfectly unintelligible. The life of God in the soul, the mode of its communication, the peculiarity of its actings, and the source of its nourishment, are incomprehensible. To such an unregenerate individual, spiritual truth has no attraction. There is neither admiration of its external form, taste for its intrinsic excellence, sympathy with its holy revelations, nor love for its adorable Author. Is this a hard saying? We fear not to assert, that to a mind on whom the renewing influence of the Holy Ghost had never passed, the great mystery of godliness is invisible. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." If we are to understand our Lord, whose words we quote, to mean by "the kingdom of God," (as the same phraseology in parallel passages would seem to decide,) not strictly the kingdom of glory and purity in which Jehovah reigns with an immediate and majestic presence, but distinctly and emphatically that spiritual empire which Christ came to establish among men, then it is as true as the testimony of Jesus can make it, that until a man is regenerated, or born from above,—until he is the subject of a new spiritual creation, the truth of God he cannot see. It requires no laboured process of reasoning to establish the proposition, so simple and self-evident is it-things that are spiritual can only be discerned by a mind that is spiritual. For instance, there is a beautiful and perfect symmetry in the vast structure of God's truth. Each doctrine and precept has its proper and appro priate place. Now how is this symmetry to be seen;-how is this harmonious relation and nice adjustment of each part to the whole, to be ascertained by a mind not only morally blind to the truth, but all whose faculties are warring against it? As well may you pour tones of delicious music on the ears of the deaf, or floods of brilliant light on the eye-ball of the blind, and expect to awaken corresponding sympathy in the soul, as that spiritual truth when brought in contact with carnal mind," will produce conviction in favour either of its excellence or its beauty. Of the law of God, -the great asserter and defender of the holiness of God, it is totally ignorant; what then does it know of sin? Of sin,-the transgression of that law, its great aggravation, its moral turpitude, it is as equally insensible; what then does it know of sin's wonderous Sacrifice? And, being ignorant of Christ, what does it know of God? We repeat the observation then, in order to impress it upon every mind, that the supreme excellence, and perfect harmony which pervade the entire revelation of God, can only be discerned by a spiritual eye. And all this process, be it known-this heart to love the truth, this mind to investigate its nature, this eye to trace its proportions and its beauties, is the production of God Himself. Expanding this thought yet further, we would dare assert, painful as it may be to the minds of many whose eye may trace this page, that he alone is a truly confirmed believer in a divine revelation, who is a true experimental believer in the Atonement of Christ. We are prepared to admit that, there are individuals who have closely investigated and accurately weighed the external and historical evidences in corroboration of the truth of Christianity, and who, upon the conviction produced by those evidences, have received it as a system from God. And yet there is a species of evidence, the nature of which they may have never examined, and the force of which they may have never felt. The evidence to which we allude, is the evidence of experience, for in the striking language of God's own truth, "he that believeth hath the witness in himself." The Spirit of God breaking, humbling, healing the heart; taking His own truth and transcribing it upon the soul; witnessing, sealing, sanctifying; opening the eye of the soul to the holiness of God's law, to its own moral guilt, poverty, helplessness, and deep need of Christ's blood and righteousness, thus leading it to rest on Him as on an all-sufficient Saviour, thus producing righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost;"this is the truth experienced-this is the religion of the heart-and all other religion, beautiful as may be its theory, and orthodox as may be its creed, is nothing worth! Without this experience there is no true belief in God's Word. The revelation of God asks not for a faith that will merely endorse its Divine credentials. It asks not merely that scepticism will lay aside its doubts, and receive it as a Divine verity; it asks, yea it demands, more than this ;-it demands a faith that will fully, implicitly, practically receive the momentous and awful facts it announces. A faith that brings them home with a realizing power to the soul, and identifies it with them. A faith that believes there is a hell and seeks to escape it a faith that believes there is a heaven and strives to enter it. A faith that credits the doctrine of man's ruin by nature, and that welcomes the doctrine of man's recovery by grace. In a word, a faith that rejects all human dependence, and accepts as its only ground of refuge, "the righteousness of Christ, which is unto all, and upon all them that believe." O this is the true faith of the gospel! Have you it reader? Let us for a moment glance at the different reception of God's truth by a renewed mind. To such an individual there is glory, harmony, and excellence in spiritual truth. Every part to him is precious. No portion undervalued. In what |