All Christians earnestly desire to enter into the kingdom of heaven, or harmony. But how to achieve this divine blessing remains a mystery to many.

Jesus made a profound statement as to how this divine accomplishment may be attained. A wealthy Pharisee, Nicodemus by name, recognized Jesus as the Messiah; but because of his religious and social prestige, he could not bring himself to announce his convictions publicly. This man came to Jesus under the cover of darkness to talk with him concerning spiritual life and the kingdom of heaven. Jesus, perceiving his earnest intent, said to him, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." ^{John 3:3;}

Because of Nicodemus' materialistic and ritualistic background, this was a hard saying for him to understand and accept, and he therefore asked Jesus how a man could be born again when he was old. Jesus' reply was, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." ^{v. 5;}

By this statement Jesus unquestionably was trying to lift Nicodemus' thought to see that the new birth means changing one's mental concepts from matter to Spirit. Being born of water might be interpreted to mean purification of one's thinking; and being born of the Spirit, spiritualization of one's concepts by expressing man's perfection as God's spiritual image and likeness.

This deep and searching truth uttered by Jesus is as puzzling to the worldling of today as it was to Nicodemus. The general acceptance of the world's belief that human existence is constituted of life in matter needs to be corrected by spiritual understanding before life can be comprehended as spiritual. We are greatly blessed and helped in gaining this understanding by the light of reason that Christian Science sheds upon many obscure passages of the Scriptures, thereby enabling us to demonstrate their true meaning.

All students of Christian Science, which was discovered and founded by Mary Baker Eddy, experience each day the demands of the new birth. Sometimes we find, like Nicodemus, that the new birth includes difficult lessons for us humanly. The discipline involved is more than we want to measure up to. But let us not be overwhelmed by arguments of the carnal mind.

When we are working out a problem and the evidence of the senses looms so large in thought that the true perspective is lost, we may cry out, "Oh! if I could only be free from this difficulty; if I could only experience peace and well-being again!" In reality peace and well-being are right at hand to be claimed, for they are the eternal heritage of each of God's beloved children.

It might be well for each one of us to ask himself: "Am I willing to be born anew? Am I willing to share the experiences that forward the new birth? Am I willing to lay down my earthly all to follow in the path of our Way-shower, Christ Jesus, as Mrs. Eddy did?" The health, harmony, and success of our future depend upon our answers.

Why do the facts of spiritual being seem so far removed from our daily experience that we cannot lay hold on them and feel their quickening presence? Perhaps the answer to this question is that we are not willing to experience the new birth. The Bible tells us that we cannot fill vessels already full. Our consciousness must be emptied of material sense testimony and self-will so that Truth and Love may be poured into consciousness.

As a young student of Christian Science I worked and prayed for one year to be willing to lay down my human will in regard to something I earnestly desired to bring to pass. I practically lived with this statement in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy: "Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds." ^{Science and Health, p. 1;} I needed to learn to trust God and to know that no loss could occur while my desires were being "moulded and exalted."

Finally, after many conflicts with self, I was wholeheartedly ready and willing to trust God for the disposal of events. Then the problem was solved in a way according to Principle, which was helpful and uplifting to all concerned and vastly more satisfying than material sense could have ever hoped or planned. I learned a lesson through this experience, and it has been a beacon to me through the years to realize that God has for each of His children a plan and purpose which is superior to our human will and desires.

Let us never be discouraged or depressed in taking the journey from sense to Soul, even if the good we long for is slow in being accomplished. The experience of rebirth is not accomplished in a short space of time, nor can we take the kingdom of heaven by force. The new birth is a gradual surrendering of self and of all that is unlike good. It is a step-by-step process of facing up to and obeying the demands of Principle.

In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says: "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." ^{Mis., p. 15.}

As spiritual baptism and rebirth take place, one loses the false concept of himself as a material, mortal person and gains the true concept of himself as God's perfect image and likeness. In this state of thought one is able to demonstrate in ever greater measure the consciousness of perfect harmony. In the light of the glorious spiritual promises that belong to the new birth, let us be willing to be born anew.