guilt, and
a tendency rather to flatter man's character, worship his genius, and
almost deify his powers, lies too much at the root of many of the
views and feelings of our day about religion; and hence there is a
corresponding want of faith in the necessity of that "new life" which
some time or other every one must possess, or in the "supernatural"
means required either for the removal of man's guilt and his
restoration to the Divine favour, or for the renewal of man's nature
and his restoration to the Divine image. There are, in short
very inadequate convictions--if these are brought to a Scripture
test--either as to the state _out_ of which or _into_ which every man
must be brought before he can be saved. But, nevertheless, there are
moral necessities grounded on the character of God as it is, and the
character of man as it is and ought to be, which remain the same in
every age and clime. Some of these necessities are expressed by such
declarations as--"Ye must be born again." "Except ye be converted,
and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven." "If any man is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature."

Yet while conversion is absolutely necessary for every man, we by no
means assert that its inner history must, in each step, be necessarily
the same, though the results must be essentially the same in every
case. The Spirit of God, who works when and how He pleases, may, in
some cases, so work in the soul from its earliest years, that the time
when the seed of a new life entered it, and the process by which it
has gradually increased there, until it now brings forth fruit, are
both unknown. Not unknown is _the fact_ that life is there, for it
is recognised and evidenced by its fruit, but _when_ it began may be
unknown; and the rate or successive stages of its increase may be
equally unknown, or at least unmarked.

This is true in some cases--or, let it be admitted, in many cases,
chiefly among those favoured ones who have been reared from childhood
within the paradise of a truly Christian home,--still, why should
we deny the reality of many conversions on the mere ground of their
suddenness?

We shall not appeal to authentic historical facts to refute the
objection, but simply remind our readers of such sudden conversions as
those of Paul the apostle, the jailer at Philippi, or the thousands on
the day of Pentecost at Jerusalem. Would we be warranted in rejecting
those, because a few