and the divine, saying: "It is the Spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth nothing." And then he adds: "The words which I
have spoken unto you are spirit and life." As God in creation breathed
into man the breath of life and he became a living soul, so the Lord
Jesus by the word of his mouth, which is the breath of life, recreates
man and makes him alive unto God. And not life only, but likeness as
well, is thus imparted. "So God created man in his own image; in the
image of God created he him," is the simple story of the origin of an
innocent race. Then follows the temptation and the fall, and then the
story of the {106} descent of a ruined humanity: "And Adam begot a son
in his own likeness, after his image."

And yet how wide the gulf between these two origins. The notion is
persistent and incurable in the human heart, that whatever variation
there may have been from the original type, education and training can
reshape the likeness of Adam to the likeness of God. "As the twig is
bent the tree is inclined," says the popular proverb. True; but though
a crooked sapling may be developed into the upright oak, no bending or
manipulation can ever so change the species of the tree as to enable
men to gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. Here again the
dualism of Jesus Christ's teaching is distinctly recognized. "A good
tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit." And what is the remedy for a corrupt tree? The
cutting off of the old and the bringing in of a new scion and stock.
The life of God can alone beget the likeness of God; the divine type is
wrapped up in the same germ which holds the Divine nature. Therefore
in regeneration we are said to have "put on the new man who is renewed
in knowledge _after the image of him that created him_" (Col. 3: 10),
and "which _after God_ hath been created in . . . true holiness" (Eph.
4: 24).

In a word, the lost image of God is not restamped upon us, but renewed
within us. Christ our life was "begotten of the Holy Ghost," and he
became {107} the fount and origin of life henceforth for all his
church. This communication of the divine life from Christ to the soul
through the Holy Spirit is a hidden transaction, but so great in its
significance and issues that one has well called it "the greatest of
all miracles." As in the origin of our natural life we are made in
secret and curiously wrought, much more in our spir