Editorial May 31, 1913 Issue

REGENERATION

Annie M. Knott

All earnest students of Christian Science are aware of an ever-deepening sense of gratitude to Mrs. Eddy for her wonderful work in opening up to them the spiritual treasures of the Bible, and showing them how to avail themselves of these divine provisions for man's health, holiness, and happiness. Many of those who come to Christian Science have had in their earlier years a religious training and know, some more and others less, of the essentials of Christianity as these are popularly believed in. Prominent among these doctrines is that of regeneration, or the new birth, upon which Christ Jesus laid such emphasis in his memorable interview with Nicodemus. This man, who evidently had a sincere desire to know the truth, began by speaking about Jesus' "miracles," to which the Master responded by saying in substance that no one could understand these deep questions except he were "born again," and this, according to the great Teacher, involved the understanding which calls for a complete separation between the flesh and Spirit and spiritual things.

At this point it may be well for each to ask himself just what regeneration means to him, not as a religious dogma, but as a spiritual process and influence in his daily living, for this is the only criterion by which we can test ourselves, including our religious views. In the first chapter of John's gospel we read that those who are born again "become the sons of God," and we may well pause before the high significance of this statement, especially when we are told that such are born, "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." St. Paul dwells much upon this topic, and reminds us that it calls for the putting off of the old man with all his fleshly desires, and he goes on to say, "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ"—a high demand, surely!

All who have become in any degree conscious of what regeneration means, cannot fail to find wonderful help and enlightenment in the study of the article entitled "The New Birth," in Mrs. Eddy's "Miscellaneous Writings." It may be truly said that all who honestly seek moral and physical healing in Christian Science, prove for themselves in some degree the absolute correctness of the teaching found therein, for the proofs follow each other in mental uplifting, in moral purification, and in the healing which Paul characterizes as "the redemption of our body." The article is indeed a divinely inspired message to this age, and it has aroused thousands who were in doubt and darkness because they were seeking regeneration by a partial and half-hearted acceptance of the Saviour's teachings; in other words, by refusing to give up the fleshly concept of man and to accept the spiritual as the eternal fact which alone expresses God and His likeness. Our Leader here tells us that "the new birth is not the work of a moment. It begins with moments, and goes on with years; moments of surrender to God, of childlike trust and joyful adoption of good; moments of self-abnegation, self-consecration, heaven-born hope, and spiritual love" (p. 15). On the same page we find an earnest plea for "the spiritualization—yea, the highest Christianization—of thought and desire;" and this is never lost sight of by those who are grasping the great realities of being in Christian Science.

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