“I fear I weary you, grandmamma,” said little Emma, as she opened the
room‐door on the following Sabbath, and resumed her accustomed seat by
the good old lady’s side—“I fear I weary you, coming so often to hear
your nice explanations of Bible doctrines; but you have already enabled
me to understand a great deal I never knew before, and have made my
Sabbath evenings so happy!”
“I assure you, you have made me happy too, my dear child,” said Mrs
Allan, wiping the tear that was rolling down her withered cheek. “I can
truly say, I have no greater joy than to talk to you about these
glorious truths. I will soon be in that silent place,” continued she,
pointing, as she was closing her shutters for the night, to the
churchyard, on which the moon was then shining; “but it makes me happy
to think, that when you can hear my voice no more, you will remember,
with joy, the Sabbath evenings we have spent together. Happy, dear Emma,
will it be,” her face brightening as she spoke, “if we meet to speak of
these blessed truths in the better Sabbath in heaven!”
Emma was about to reply, when her grandmother took her by the hand, and
said, with a kindly smile, “Well, dearest, and what would you have me
talk to you about to‐night?”
“You are the proper judge,” replied her little scholar, “as to what will
best follow after the two beautiful doctrines you have last explained to
me, of _Justification_ and _Adoption_. The other day I came to a
difficult word in a book, which, [Sidenote: Of Regeneration.] if it
would not be out of place, I should like to know something about. The
word was _Regeneration_, and”――
“Stay, my dear,” interrupted her grandmother; “that is the very subject
I was thinking of. You could not have named a better; and if you will
give me all your attention, I shall try to open up this great doctrine
to you as simply as I can.
“Do you remember what I told you about _Justification_?—What God does to
the sinner when He justifies and adopts him?”
[Sidenote: Difference between Justification,] “He changes his _state_,”
replied Emma. “He brings him from a _state_ of _wrath_ to a _state_ of
_grace_,—from a _state_ of _condemnation_ to a _state_ of _pardon_.”
“You have given me just the answer I wanted,” said her grandmother—“that
it is a change of _state_ or _condition_. In Justification, from being a
_rebel_, the sinner is pardoned by [Sidenote: Adoption,] his Sovereign.
In Adoption, from being a _prodigal_, he is received back into his
Father’s lost home. Now, dear,” continued she, “did I say that in these
there is produced also any change in _character_?”
“I don’t think so,” replied Emma.
“You are right; and you will instantly see how well it is that I should
speak to [Sidenote: And Regeneration.] you about Regeneration to‐night,
which is the very word which tells about this great change of
_character_ or _mind_, which is as necessary to salvation, as the great
change of _state_ and _condition_ of which I have already spoken. What
is your own idea, my dear child, as to the meaning of Regeneration?”
“Indeed, grandmamma,” replied Emma, “it is such a long and difficult
word, that I am ashamed to tell, though I have often heard it mentioned
in Mr R――’s sermon, I never understood it aright.”
“You should never be ashamed, my dear, to ask those older than yourself
to explain Bible difficulties to you. Many grow up to be big people, in
great ignorance, owing to this false shame.”
“Is it the same, grandmamma,” said Emma, “as _Repentance_? I think I
understand _that_ word better.”
[Sidenote: Bible Terms about Regeneration.] “Yes, my child, there are
many words in the Bible used to denote this same great change, and which
you must often hear ministers speaking about. ‘The _new birth_’—being
‘_born again_’—‘_Conversion_’—‘_Repentance_’—‘_Regeneration_;’ but the
meaning of them all may be summed up in this,—the necessity of a new
heart, produced by the Holy Spirit, who turns the old heart from the
service of sin to the service of God.”
[Sidenote: Necessity of Regeneration.] “But must every one have this
entire change of heart before he can be saved?”
“Yes, dearest, it is a doctrine many don’t like to believe, or to hear
about, because they think it makes the way to heaven too strait and
narrow; but do you remember anything Jesus said about it, when He was
speaking to inquiring Nicodemus?”
[Sidenote: What Jesus says of it.] “Oh, yes,” said Emma, “you have put
me in mind of the verse now—‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God.’”
“You are quite correct,” replied the old lady. “That same blessed
Saviour never spoke an unkind word, and He would never have uttered
this, unless it was a solemn truth, ‘Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye
_must_ be _born again_.’”
“But if the sinner,” asked Emma, “is justified in the sight of God, and
God calls him ‘_not guilty_,’ and _pardons_ him, and says of him there
is _no condemnation_, what more does he require, in order to be saved?”
[Sidenote: A Change of State and a Change of Heart must go together.] “A
great deal more,” replied her grandmother. “Let me ask you,” said she to
Emma, “two questions, which may help to explain the matter to you. If a
king pardoned a rebel, and if that rebel still hated his sovereign, and
sought to kill him, would it be safe for the king to receive the
ungrateful rebel into his palace?”
“No!” replied Emma.
“Or, if a father received back a prodigal son; but if that son
_continued_ prodigal as ever, breaking, with fresh sin, his poor old
father’s heart, and corrupting his other brothers, could that father
permit him to live in his house?”
“No, _surely_,” still replied Emma.
“Well, dearest, what would require to be done to make it safe for the
king to keep company with the rebel he had pardoned; and the father to
take the son to live with him in his own household?”
“If they had changed and better hearts,” said Emma.
“You have just given again the answer I wanted,” said her grandmother.
“I want you to see it is the same with the sinner. God the _King_ has
pardoned the _sinner‐rebel_. God the _Father_ has adopted the
_sinner‐prodigal_; but He never could receive him into His glorious
palace of heaven, unless what?”
[Sidenote: Change of Heart in Regeneration needed for Heaven.] “Oh,
unless his heart is _changed_,” exclaimed Emma. “I understand it now. He
must have a _holy_ heart,—a heart to love God and hate sin. I see quite
well he could not get into heaven with an unchanged heart!”
“Yes, my dear child,” said the other (happy that her little
grand‐daughter was now able to see the meaning of Regeneration); “and
even if the sinner could get into heaven with his sinful, unchanged,
unconverted heart, could he be happy?”
[Sidenote: Heaven a place for holy Hearts.] “I don’t think,” said Emma,
“he could; he would be miserable in that holy place, amid holy angels
and a holy God. I see quite well now the truth of what Jesus says,
‘Except ye be converted, ye cannot enter in the kingdom of heaven.’
“But,” continued little Emma, getting more interested in the subject, “I
should like much to know _how_, and _when_, and _where_ we are
regenerated, and get this new mind.”
[Sidenote: The Agent in Regeneration.] “Like every other thing in
salvation,” replied the old lady, “this great change of heart and life
is the work of God; and though all the glorious Trinity are engaged in
producing it, it is more especially brought about by the agency of the
third person in the blessed Godhead—the Holy Ghost.”
“But how do you know when it takes place?” continued Emma. “Are we aware
of the time when the Holy Spirit works this great change?”
[Sidenote: The Method of Regeneration.] “No,” replied her grandmother.
“You remember how simply and beautifully Jesus speaks of this to one who
was asking about it, and wondering about it, like _you_. That, just as
you cannot tell where the wind comes from—you hear it blowing, but
cannot tell _from where_—‘so is every one that is born of the Spirit.’
That new birth, or change, is wrought silently in the soul. It is like
the little dew‐drops that sparkle in the morning sun, which gather
unseen and unnoticed during the night; or like the Temple of Jerusalem
of old, which was built without any noise of ‘hammer, or axe, or any
tool of iron;’—it rose without din or observation; and this is the case
with every renewed heart when it becomes a ‘temple of the Holy Ghost.’”
“Then it takes a long time, grandmamma, before a sinner’s heart can be
changed?”
[Sidenote: Various Modes of Operation.] “The Spirit of God, my child,
acts _how_, and _where_, and _when_ He pleases. He sometimes converts
and renews, _in a moment_, as He did the thief on the cross and the
jailer of Philippi, or the thousands at Pentecost. Sometimes He does it
_gradually_ (or by _degrees_), as in the case of Nicodemus; and
sometimes, as I trust, my dear Emma, is the case with you, He sanctifies
from infancy, changes the young heart, as He did in the case of Timothy,
and Samuel, and Jeremiah.”
[Sidenote: Am I Regenerated?] “Oh! I am happy to hear you say so,”
replied Emma, “for I was beginning to fear that I had never felt the
Holy Spirit _changing my heart_, and that I must surely be yet
unregenerated and unsaved. Such a thought would be very awful to me.”
“I trust, my dear child,” said her grandmother, “I have good reason to
believe that God, by His grace and Spirit, has ‘turned you from darkness
to light,’ and given you a heart to love Him and serve Him. I wish that
many little children would have such a [Sidenote: Awful Importance of
Regeneration.] _fear_ as you speak of. I wish many, too, would remember
that one little word MUST, and _who_ says it, ‘Ye _MUST_ be born
again!’”
“Dear grandmamma,” said Emma, “I must pray more than I ever have done
for a _clean heart_. I fear, till you have been explaining this to me, I
have thought too much about my sins being washed in Jesus’ blood, and
too little about my heart being changed and made holy by Jesus’ Spirit.
I see that I need both, and will try and pray for both.”
“It is a good resolution, my dearest,” said the other; “and the Great
God, for your encouragement in asking for a change of heart, gives you
in His own blessed Bible both a _prayer_ [Sidenote: A Prayer for it, and
its Answer.] and an _answer_. Give me your Bible,” continued she, “and,
as I feel unable to speak more to‐night, I will mark the two places to
which I refer, and you can take them with you to your own room, and read
them to yourself.”
The good old lady kissed her little grandchild, putting two pieces of
paper at what she had so marked. Emma, saying “Good‐night,” ran
up‐stairs with her Bible in her hand, and, having shut her door, read to
herself, before she knelt down to her evening prayer, these two verses:—
_The Prayer._—“Create in me a clean heart, O God; renew a right spirit
within me” (Ps. li. 10).
_The Answer._—“A new heart also will I give you, and a right spirit will
I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your
flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezek. xxxvi. 26).