Article May 28, 1955 Issue

"YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN"

FLORENCE I. EDWARDS

When Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, Jesus said (John 3:3, 4), "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus, showing his materialistic view of things, replied, "How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" Jesus, recognizing Nicodemus' need for enlightenment, answered: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.... Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again."

Our Master went on to tell him of spiritual, heavenly things which are seen as we are born of the Spirit. The answers which Jesus gave to Nicodemus apply to us all, in that we too must be born again, not of matter, but "of water and of the Spirit," by purification of thought and deed.

In an article entitled "The New Birth" in "Miscellaneous Writings" Mary Baker Eddy says (p. 15): "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." Regardless of where one is in human experience, when he turns to Christian Science he finds that the new birth must be begun and the belief in material life as real rejected. If trained to see things materially, one may find this difficult at first. But as thought is uplifted to receive spiritual ideas, true peace and satisfaction begin to appear. One is inspired to put off dark, negative thinking and to replace it with the positive truths of being. Spiritual things may seem abstract because they are usually thought of as far away and intangible; but as one cultivates the habit of replacing the objects of material sense with spiritual ideas, he finds this work fruitful and the spiritual tangible.

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STUDENT AND SCIENTIST
May 28, 1955
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