eart of Nicodemus, though it was night, and
saw what he needed most, and so He made no reply about Himself or His
miracles, but said,

"Verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again he cannot see the
Kingdom of God."

Nicodemus could not understand how a man could be born when he is old,
so Jesus explained that it was a spiritual birth. "That which is born
of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit."
And as the wind softly stirred the leaves of the olive trees above
their heads He said,

"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it bloweth. So is
every one that is born of the Spirit."

Nicodemus had always thought that religion was the keeping of the law
as all Jews were taught by the priests, so he was astonished, and said,

"How can these things be?"

"Art thou a master in Israel and knowest not these things?" said Jesus,
and then He spoke to the soul of Nicodemus of the things of the Spirit
of Heaven--The Heaven in which He already lived,--and of the new
kingdom that had begun on earth.

If you will find what Jesus said to Nicodemus in the third chapter of
John's Gospel you will find among other things these beautiful words,--

"For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life."

Nicodemus found out that life was the breath of God in man, and that by
it man lives. Perhaps he felt it within him as he went down the valley
under the trees and heard the wind among the leaves; and as he came up
the steep way and through the city gate in the silence of the night,
perhaps he resolved to be a disciple of Jesus.

CHAPTER XII.

A TALK ABOUT THE WATER OF LIFE.

After the Passover there were many who had believed in Jesus who wished
to be baptized, and so they went down to Jordan with Jesus and the
disciples, and then the disciples baptized them.

John, who was also baptizing at another point by the river, was told
that Jesus was baptizing and that all men were going to Him. John was
rejoiced at this.

"This my joy therefore is fulfilled," he said. "He must increase, but
I must decrease. He that cometh from heaven is above all."

After this Jesus went back to Galilee, and as He and His disciples went
through the country of Samaria, which lay between Judea and Galilee,
they came at noon near to the li