GEORGE K. To grow better by trying.

JOHN B. He taught him to have faith in God. MR. ALCOTT. You are too general — be particular. JOHN B. When Moses lifted up the serpent, if they had faith, they were not bitten.

WELLES.

He taught that faith in Jesus would make

us go to heaven.

Mr. Alcott here re-read the preceding lesson.

INTERVIEW BETWEEN JESUS AND NICODEMUS.

Before the Vulgar Era, 27. Julian Period, 4740.

Jerusalem.

Regeneration.

JOHN iii. 1-21.

1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

2 The same came to Jesus by night, and - said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

4 Nicodemus saith unto him, Ilow can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?.

5 Jesus answered, 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.

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh: and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen: and ye receive not our witness.

Before the

Vulgar Era, 27. Julian Period, 4740.

Jerusalem.

* Num xxi. 9.

† 1 John iv. 9.

Ch. xii. 47.

12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

14 * And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

16 † For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

JOSEPH. We talked last time of being born spiritually. When the body dies, an angel comes down and takes the body.

MR. ALCOTT.

How does the angel look?

JOSEPH. Like a man and the spirit looks good. MR. ALCOTT. Have the angel and spirit shapes really or does your Imagination give them shapes? JOSEPH. My Imagination gives them shapes. Some spirits are born into Hell.

Type of
Retribution.

MR. ALCOTT.
JOSEPH.

What is Hell?

A great pit, without any bottom, big enough to take in the whole world. Do you mean a real pit, or do you use

MR. ALCOTT.

MR. ALCOTT. Suppose we should kill ourselves; would that make us be born again?

JOSEPH. That would be wrong. We should live and prepare ourselves for being born again when we die.

MR. ALCOTT. And is not this preparation the most important part of being born again?

JOSEPH. Yes.

JOSIAH. Being born again means seeing more and more of God; and I think if we want to be born again, we should not say such a word as Hell; for I do not think it is a proper word to say.

MR. ALCOTT. I use it but seldom; what word would it be better to use than that?

JOSIAH. We could say the place of the wicked.

Naughtiness.

MR. ALCOTT. Is it a place? or is it being naughty? Do you know what naughty means? Naught means, nothing. And when we have wasted the holiness of our infancy, are we not nothing

naught — naughty? Is not naughty a good word for what you mean?

JOSIAH. Yes; and heaven means goodness. And the reason the Spirit goes to heaven, without God's letting us see it, is because God wants us to believe without seeing. But I cannot conceive of any spirit without a shape, Mr. Alcott, can you?

Imaginative

Faith.

MR. ALCOTT. Why, it is true that I seek to put my thoughts into shapes; but there are some thoughts and feelings which I cannot get into shapes or acts; and we must not try to get all our thoughts and feelings into shapes or acts, because we are liable to worship the shapes and habits, and thus become idolaters.

Ideality

of Jesus.

CHARLES. Was not Jesus imaginative? AUGUSTINE. I should think so, by his putting his thoughts into parables and emblems.

MR. ALCOTT. Faith seeks imaginative expression ; it is strong, it strives to enact, shape, dramatize. Faith is a sense of something which the Understanding and Reason have not attained; it is often accompanied with the feeling of awe, a feeling of something above Nature, - a Sense of the Supernatural. There are scenes of Nature which awaken awe — which excite in the mind a thought of something above nature. And there are actions which are accompanied with the same feeling. Have you ever felt it?

Sense of the
Supernatural.

JOSIAH. Once I told a lie, and felt an awe of Conscience. I thought I should be struck dead the next

moment.

CHARLES. I was once in the cemetery of St. Paul's, at a funeral; and the lights in the dark passages, and the distant music, made me feel awe.

JOHN B. I was once at the Catholic Church, at a wedding, and saw the priests and candles, and felt as Charles says.

MR. ALCOTT.

All may rise who remember to have

had this feeling of awe.

(All rose.)

All persons have these feelings sometimes. They are the presence of the supernatural.

(He then read the conversation with Nicodemus, paraphrasing thus:)

"We know you come to teach the supernatural, for you do what is above the natural, &c. Except

Restauration.

you be born of water, temperate, and feel the supernatural, you cannot be one of

my disciples. What is plain to the senses is natural; what is felt only in the Spirit is supernatural. This is mysterious, perhaps, as the wind; you do not understand that, neither do you this; but it is true, &c."

Idea of Spirit

ual Renewal.

Is the birth of the spirit instantaneous, and must we wait till we die for it?

(Several.)

Do you think it is gradual, and may begin while we are in this body?

(Several.)

When do we begin to be born again?

GEORGE K. When we begin to be good.

ANDREW. So I think; but the spirit is not quite born again till the body is dead.

MR. ALCOTT. Is any part of your spirit born again, any faculty?

CHARLES.

Yes; after you left Philadelphia,* my faculties, which you had waked up, grew dim; but since I have come back to your school again, they have brightened up. I think we can be born again when we choose.

AUGUSTINE. I don't; it is God that does it; and we cannot be born again till we die.

NATHAN. We can prepare to have our spirits born again, by learning about God.

MR. ALCOTT. What must our spirits come out of — or rather, what part of our natures must they not go into?

CHARLES. Our appetites and passions.

FRANKLIN. We can choose to free ourselves as soon as we know good from evil; and when we die, we are freed,

* This boy had been under the care of the Editor, during his residence in that city.