conveys this new birth. There is yet one point to be considered
doctrine in Scripture; some part or portion, pressed home upon their consciences by an unseen, secret power, was among the first things which stirred them up to think and examine their ways; some plain declaration flashed across their minds and made them say, "If this be true I shall certainly be lost." Therefore it is, we tell you over and over again, search the Scriptures, search the Scriptures; they are the sword of the Spirit, they are the weapon by which the devil is often driven out; and he who leaves his Bible unread doth plainly not wish to be born again.
Once more. Never are men born of the Spirit without Prayer. I believe there would not be found a single case of a person who had been quickened and made a new creature without God having been entreated of and inquired of before. Either he has prayed for himself, or someone has prayed for him: so Stephen died praying for his murderers, and by-and-by Saul was converted. The Lord loves to be sought after by His guilty creatures; and they who will not ask for the Holy Spirit to come down upon them have no right to expect in themselves any real change.
Such, then, beloved, are the means through which this new birth is generally given. I say generally, because it is not for me to set bounds to the operations of God; I know men may be startled by sicknesses and accidents and the like, but still I repeat that preaching, the Bible and prayer are the channels through which the Spirit ordinarily works. And I say further that in all my life and reading I never heard of a man who diligently, humbly, heartily and earnestly made use of these means, who did not sooner or later find within himself new habits and principles; I never heard of a man steadily persevering in their use who did not sooner or later feel that sin and he must part company — who did not, in short, be-come a real child of God, a new creature.
3. So much for the means through which the Spirit generally conveys this new birth. There is yet one point to be considered
this morning; and that is the particular manner in which this mighty spiritual change doth first touch a person and begin.
Now, on this point I remark, there are great diversities of operations; there is a vast variety in the methods by which the Spirit works, and hence it is that we can never say He is tied down to show himself in one particular way; we must never condemn a person and tell him he is a graceless unconverted sinner because his experience may happen to differ widely from our own.
I would have you note, then, there is great diversity in the time and age at which this change begins. Some few have the grace of God in them from their very in-fancy; they are, as it were, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost from their mother's womb; they cannot so much as remember the time when they were with-out a deep sense of their natural corruption and a lively faith in Christ, and an earnest desire and endeavour to live close to God: such were Isaac and Samuel and Josiah and Jeremiah, and John the Baptist and Timothy. Blessed and happy are these souls; their memories are not saddened by the recollection of years wasted in carelessness and sin; their imaginations are not defiled and stained with the remembrance of youthful wickedness. But few indeed are to be found of this sort. There would be far more, I am persuaded, if infant baptism were not so inconsiderately and lightly regarded (as it too often is) — so scrambled over; but we have no reason to expect the children of unbelieving parents can turn out anything else but unclean and unholy; and when children are brought to the font without real faith and real prayer we have no warrant for supposing the baptism of water is accompanied by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And let me also add that much depends on the education which parents give; and many a one could tell you he got his first impressions of religion from the teaching and example of a father and mother who really feared God.