caught their unwelcome
sound.

Mark the change in that man!

The wife now watches at the door with a gladsome smile to greet his
return. The children, who once in their rags trembled with fear, now
clean and wholesomely clad, and gay with laughter, gather at his
knee, the moment he enters his home. He is himself well dressed. He
holds his head erect, his eyes, no longer bloodshot, meet your gaze
with frank and open glance. His tones are soft and modulated, his
speech gentle. The Bible, the one book he always hated, is his
constant study. His mouth once filled with cursings that might well
have chilled the blood to hear, now give utterance to the voice of
prayer and earnest thanksgiving. The church he never entered and
always avoided has become the centre around which the best
activities of his life are continuously moving. He who was once
shunned, despised and feared, is now honored and respected of all.

The man has been transformed.

Those who saw him in former days and see him now might in all reason
ask, "Is this he, or some other man?"

It is both he and yet another man. The same person, but possessing
another character.

What is the secret of it all?

Let the answer be graven on every heart. He has received a new life,
a new, a pure, a holy and spiritual life. He has received that life
from above, from the second Adam, the Lord in heaven. He is now a
twice-begotten man.

And herein is the glorious, distinctive feature of Christianity in
so far as it touches a human soul.

To that soul it brings the good news that a new generation is
possible; the good news that any human being may start over. The
good news that, no matter how much you may be handicapped by your
original genesis; no matter what the terrific law of heredity may
have transmitted to you, you may be generated again. In a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, you may have a genealogy that shall carry
your name above the proudest of earth; a genealogy by the side of
which the bluest blood of most ancient kings shall be as the palest
and poorest of plebeian stuff. This Gospel of Christianity brings
the good news that you may receive from the throne of God life from
God, as directly as did Adam when God breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life and man became a living soul. In an instant you may
be recreated morally and spiritually, and have in you all the assets
which, when fully capitalized by the grace of God, shall insure your
sonship