St. Paul speaks of what we understand to be the New Birth, as "waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body." The Scripture saith, "The pure in heart shall see God." Nothing aside from the spiritualization, yea, the highest Christianization of thought and desire, can give the true perception of Divine Science, and its results in health, happiness, and holiness. The New Birth is not the work of a moment. It begins with moments,—moments of surrender to God, of childlike trust, and joyful adoption of good, moments of self-abnegation, self-consecration, —but goes on with years of heaven-born hope and spiritual Love.
Time may commence, but it cannot complete the New Birth. Eternity does this, for progress is the law of Infinity. Only from the sore travail of mortal mind shall God be satisfied, and man awake in His likeness. What a Soul-lighted thought is this, that mortals can lay off the "old man," until they reflect only and entirely the Infinite Good that we name God, and arrive at the fulness of the stature of a man in Christ. In mortal and material man, goodness is in embryo. He must, by suffering for sin, be developed into an infant Christian. Feeding at first on the "milk of the word," he drinks in the sweet revealings of a new and more spiritual Life and Love. They nourish his hungry hopes, satisfy more of his immortal cravings. They so comfort, cheer, and bless him, that he says, "In my infancy, this is enough of heaven to come down to earth."
But as Christians grow into the manhood and womanhood of Christianity, they find so much wanting, and so very much requisite to becoming Christ-like, that they say: "The Principle of Christianity is infinite, being God; and this infinite Principle hath infinite claims on man, and these claims are divine, not human."
