THE new birth, or spiritual progress, is illustrated in Scripture by the purity and innocency of a little child. In the tenth chapter of Mark's Gospel is recorded the story of Christ Jesus blessing little children; and it was during this incident that he uttered the luminous words, "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." When illustrating spiritual growth, the Master laid stress on the necessity for purifying human consciousness.
Perhaps there is no question in regard to the new birth in the Scriptures which is more concisely put than that pertaining to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, who when Jesus had said to him, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," sought information of Jesus in the following words: "How can a man be born when he is old?" To this inquiry the Master replied, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." The adult steeped in a knowledge of the world's evils cannot gain the purity of childhood through any belief in so-called material law. His nature can be transformed only through learning the temporal and unreal nature of evil and realizing the allness of God's spiritual creation. When the Master said, "Ye must be born again," he referred to the regeneration of human consciousness.
Mrs. Eddy has written an article entitled "The New Birth," which begins on page 15 of "Miscellaneous Writings"; and near the beginning of this article she writes: "The new birth is not the work of a moment. It begins with moments, and goes on with years; moments of surrender to God, of childlike trust and joyful adoption of good; moments of self-abnegation, self-consecration, heaven-born hope, and spiritual love."And a little farther on she says, "What a faith-lighted thought is this! that mortals can lay off the 'old man,' until man is found to be the image of the infinite good that we name God, and the fulness of the stature of man in Christ appears." The new birth begins with a knowledge of what constitutes God's spiritual idea, man.
