he will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, _but of God"_ (John 1:12,
13).

God gives all things--sometimes directly, sometimes through an agent.
The Holy Spirit is the agent. "Born of water and the Spirit." But an
agent often works through an instrument. What is the instrument? The
word of God. "Seeing ye have purified your souls in your obedience to
the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the
heart fervently; having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible, _through the word of God_, which liveth and
abideth" (1 Pet. 1:22, 23).

How can the word of God accomplish the new birth? By the only way that
words can accomplish any change--by being heard, understood, and
influencing the life. The Holy Spirit puts himself into the words that
contain his motives, actions and promises. How can this be done! Just as
man does it. Years ago the prophet Mohammed put his spirit into the
words, "There is one God, and Mohammed is his prophet." When a man reads
these words and believes and acts upon them, the spirit of Mohammed
enters into that man and dwells there as long as the man continues true
to those words. The only way to take the spirit of Mohammed out of those
words is to transpose them so they will not say what he said.

George Washington put his spirit into the sentence, "United we stand,
divided we fall." As long as the American people are true to the above
words, the spirit of George Washington will live in them. But make the
same words read, "Divided we stand, united we fall," and the spirit of
Washington is removed from them. The only way to take the Spirit of God
from the word of God is to add to, take from or transpose the Word so
it will not say what the Spirit _said in it_.

"Well," says one, "if we are born of the Spirit operating through the
Word, must we not understand all the Word in order that we may be born
again?" No, the apostle limits the part of the Word we must understand
in verse 25 of this same chapter: "This is the word which by _the
gospel_ is preached unto you." Let us now endeavor to learn how the
gospel produces this change. How is the mind born again! In order to
learn this we must understand what is the normal condition of the mind
of the unregenerate. In general we may say it is in a state of
_unbelief_. Now, the proclamation of the great facts of the death,
burial and resurrection of Christ according to the Scriptures will break
up that