There are two derivatives and express the idea

Psalmist says "God is a rock," he must have meant the granite which upholds the other species and which has three elements, viz., quartz, felspar, and mica, and that these respectively correspond to the three persons in the Trinity. Greek words, gennao and ginomai, with their variations, employed in the New Testament to of Regeneration. In their original use the first word, gennao, more frequently signified, as applied to the physical process, the act of generating, while the second, ginomai, was more generally used to denote the birth; but gradually this distinction grew less and less observable in use. In examining most of the passages where either of these words is used to denote a spiritual idea or otherwise, we cannot discover that either the writers or the translators of the New Testament meant anything different when they use one word from what they would express when they employed the other. Thus in Heb. 11: 23,"By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid," &c.; it is not. ginomai but gennao that is used; and yet it cannot mean when he was generated, but when he was born. So in 1 Pet. 2 : 2,— "As new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word," &c.; it is gennao again; but it must mean born, of course, though ginomai is not chosen. This, without farther illustration, indicates that the New Testament writers use the words interchangeably. Take as an example of translation, 1 John 5:1,—" Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him." Here we have born, begat and begotten; but the original word is the same in all the three cases, and that word is gennao. It is the same word also that is used in the conversation between Christ and Nicodemus, and yet our version invariably reads born again. Besides the Greek word for Regeneration has for its chief element, not gennao but genesis,—a derivitave of ginomai, originally expressive more fully of birth than of generation. All this shows the almost entire synonymousness of the words begotten and born as used in Scripture, when they are applied. to the spiritual nature, and the folly of attempting to engraft a theory of complete correspondence upon the letter of the New Testament.

The only principle which seems to have been adhered to by the New Testament writers in their choice of words when dealing with this subject, is that of making the language conform to the particular aspect of this spiritual work which was the object of attention. Thus when the regenerated are spoken of in connection with the cause, means, or instrument of the work, the word gennao, begotten, is used, as denoting the foreign agency. So Paul speaks of having begotten (gennao) Onesimus in his bonds. "Every one that loveth," says John, "is begotten, (gennuo,) though the translators render it born. "Begotten again," (gennao,) says Peter, "by incorruptible seed, by the word of God;" though the translators have rendered it, born again by the word of God-not a very natural rendering certainly, but one showing how innocent they were of any opinion that ginomai and gennao meant different things. Both terms imply one and the same thing, and that thing is the renewal of the man in righteousness and the development of spiritual life and power.

But how radical a work is effected in the human soul in Regeneration? and by what means and methods is the result produced?

The testimony of Scripture in setting forth the necessity of this work clearly indicates its moral importance. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things have passed away, behold all things are become new." These passages would seem to imply that Regeneration is essential to the possession of God's favor and of all true moral life. And this leads to another question, viz., what are the defects in human character which Regeneration comes to supply? In what consists the disease which the new birth is to overpower or expel? Is it constitutional, hereditary, or acquired? Is it in our organism, our legacy, or our culture? Does the responsibility of it attach to God, to our ancestry, to our contemporaries, or to ourselves? We must know what our deficiencies are before we can comprehend what that provision is which can meet them. Any theory of Regeneration, therefore, will be greatly modified by our theory of sin and depravity. Pronounce human nature uncorrupted, and Regeneration can be only an impulse to quick

en its ascending march; declare it totally depraved, and Regeneration must imply as radical a work as would be necessary to make a spiritual body, meet for heaven, out of the flesh and bones which moulder in the dust of time. Any exposition of Regeneration must want definiteness except as it is based on a plain, tangible theory of man's moral state before the Spirit broods over the soul to warm it into life. In this essay we must almost wholly dispense with proof and illustration, and simply lay down the theses which constitute the framework of the theory.

1. Human beings are under no necessity of sinning in such a sense as to incur guilt. They may be unable, through ignorance, to avoid violating law; but guilty violations must rest on a conscious and voluntary rejection of duty. No moral being is necessitated to do wrong,—the impossed necessity would imply that the moral element was lost or had never been possessed. To cherish and exercise a dutiful spirit is every man's prerogative, and whoever should do it continually would be accepted of God.

2. Such a being-i.e. a dutiful,obedient being--would absolutely. require for his moral improvement and spiritual life and growth, nothing but knowledge, and what stands often in the place of it, viz., faith in the truth which cannot yet be wholly comprehended. We do not say that nothing else could benefit such a being; for holy impulses from without himself might quicken his pace, enable him to overcome evil influences and temptations without using up so much time or energy; but if the heart were set on duty, if the purpose bent itself always in the direction of obedience, the reception of sufficient light to enable the traveller to see the path would guarantee its prosecution. Spiritual life—by which is meant the experiences resulting from the soul's real fellowship with God—would be a constant fact in such a being; the kingdom of God would be within him.

3. In no proper sense would such a being need Regeneration. Never dead in trespasses and sins, there could be no new birth. Being always in Christ, there could be no rendering all things new as the result of an entrance into the relation. The general sentiment of Christendom attributes to the angels just such a moral life and state as this, and whether there be or be not dis

cernible any human beings of this chara ter, does r t affect the principle.

4. Those statements of Christ, therefore, which insist on the radical and universal importance of Regeneration, must be un derstood as corresponding to the actual facts in human character and experience, rather than as the exhibition of an abstract principle. As a fact, men sin; they consequently suffer whatever injury results to their character and standing, and whatever dis arrangement disturbs the harmony of their moral powers; and so they are to find restoration only by means of Regeneration. Of however many persons it may be affirmed that they have gone out of the way and ceased to do good, of so many may it also be said except they be born again they cannot see the kingdom of God. But whoever lives a true, spiritual, obedient life can say, when others tell of the price by means of which they attain the freedom of spiritual children, "But I was free born."

This point, then, is reached; viz., that, notwithstanding all the disabilities of every sort suffered in consequence of Adam's sin, or in consequence of the sin of our entire ancestry, each human being has the power of obedience in his own individual nature and capacities. Adam's probation did not deprive us of ours. His failure did not cheat us of the trial, nor absolutely doom us to failure. He sustained no such representative relation as that his act became ours; his fall did not doom us to helplessness; his guilt did not put us under condemnation. The son does not bear the iniquity of the father-the sire can make no scapegoat of his child, nor divide with him the responsibility of his own criminal act. Each man acts for himself. His birthright is freedom; his heritage a Canaan of spiritual abundance. Duty is no mocker when it speaks to him solemnly from within and without; and God's fellowship is no tantalizing Hesperides which recedes from him the faster he approaches its shore of beauty. His divinely appointed tasks may be wrought out; his joyous soul-rest as pictured by his imagination and sought by his craving desires may become a glorious daily fact. God deals deceptively with no man ;-the inner prophecy of our faith and hope may meet a fulfilment.

By all thi it is not meant that we suffer no unwelcome and serious results in consequence of membership in a corrupt race. Along with our moral inheritance that makes communion with the skies our privilege there comes a current of evil influence which has been swelled and strengthened by the tributaries from a hundred generations. Not only docs God speak to us the eternal and glorious verities of heaven, but the voices of an ever-increasing company of lying teachers blend about us in a mighty tone, as if to drown the lofty utterance. The tables of the Decalogue are all scrawled over with maxims of expediency that half hide the original inscription. While God has kept the moral scales in the hand of conscience, the pampered passions, that pull down on the one side for victory, have waxed more fat and heavy. All about us still rise the altars before which meditation would take us to worship; but custom,growing more and more tenacious and powerful, clamors loudly for homage. One generation heats up its passions by indulgence, till they scorch and blight the whole soul and burn off the garment of flesh prematurely; and then that terrible heat causes evil tendencies to vegetate all too soon in the souls of the offspring. These are our disadvantages, felt by many, sincerely mourned over by a few. The hereditary and other relations to the past thus put added weights upon us, make our ordeal the more severe, the gauntlet to be run the more trying. But these bonds, thus uniting the race, are mercifully framed and attached. Not only can faith believe in their wholesomeness, but reason can measurably apprehend their value. While they may be made the occasions and instruments of evil, they are indispensable conditions of many forms of good. But of this we cannot stop to speak.

But no man need despair of himself. He may conquer yet; and the victory may have added glory because it is the fruit of a well fought battle. His foes are not more than his helpers. He is never conquered till he capitulates. And just so far as his unfavorable circumstances call for the ampler provision,-when the external foe is so mighty that the old methods and means of repulsion fail to afford him a fair field,--he will find new aids offering themselves. When the human power gives way and