or old, male or female,
one who has lived an outwardly moral or immoral life,) who believes
that the poor, despised Jesus of Nazareth, of whom we read in the New
Testament, was the promised Christ or Messiah, such a one is no
longer in his natural state, but is born again, is born of God, is a
child of God. The question therefore is, Do you believe that Jesus,
who was born at Bethlehem, and crucified under Pontius Pilate, is the
promised Saviour, the Messiah, the one for whom the Jews were to
look? If so, you are a child of God, else you would not believe it.
It is given unto you to believe it. Millions may SAY that Jesus is
the Saviour, the Messiah, but none BELIEVE it except the children of
God. It proves me to be a child of God that I believe it; to none
besides is it given to believe it, though millions might say so.

Perhaps you say, I do not feel that I am born again, born of God, and
I have therefore no enjoyment.

Answer. In order that you may have the enjoyment, which is the result
of the knowledge that you are a child of God, that you are born of
God, or born again, you must receive God's testimony. He is a
faithful witness, He speaks nothing but the truth, and His
declaration is, That every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ
is born of God. If you receive this testimony of God, you, to whom by
grace it is given to believe that Jesus is the Christ, cannot but be
happy, from the fact that God Himself says, that you are His child.
But if you will wait till you feel that you are a child of God, you
may have to wait long; and even if you felt it, yet your feelings
would be worth nothing; for either it might be a false feeling, or,
though it were real, it might be lost the next hour. Feelings change;
but the word of God remains unalterably the same. You have, then,
without having had a dream about it, without having had a portion of
the word in a more than usual way impressed upon your mind concerning
the subject, without having heard something like a voice from heaven
about it, to say to yourself: If I believe that Jesus is the promised
Messiah, I am a child of God. And then, from a belief of what God
declares in this passage concerning you who believe that Jesus is the
Christ, even that you are His child, spring peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost.

Answer 2. In Galatians iii. 26, it is written: "Ye are all the
children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." The question here again
is: Do I believe in the Lord