Spiritual transformation

“ As we had occasion to see in our last lecture, the fifth day of creation represented that stage of regeneration where, under the influence of a deep faith in the Lord and an earnest love for Him, the beginnings of a truly spiritual life are made. The earth was said to bring forth the living soul as a symbol of the mind making, in a spiritual sense, its first living efforts. In other words, the soul became, in a strict sense, truly living for the first time. ”

“ In our present state, what idea can we form of the condition of the soul, and the mode of its subsistence, when dislodged from the body? Nay, what idea can we form of the natural body developing into the spiritual, and all its rudimental powers unfolding in their perfection? Or, to speak more accurately and more scripturally, what idea can we form of the resurrection body, awaking from its long sleep in the dust, re-organized and re-invested—with new beauties, perhaps new organs, new senses, new faculties, all glorious in immortality? ”

“ So our souls must be altered and changed from their present condition to another condition, and a divine nature, and be made new instead of old—that is, good and kind and faithful, instead of bitter and faithless, and being thus made fit, be restored to the heavenly kingdom. ”

“ Progress — growth and expansion — 'through the increasing ages' is what the soul is capable of and hankers after ; and to stop short of the everlasting is virtually to renounce the eternal God. Here the precept of the wise and the holy, the outcome of profound spiritual experience, corroborates the hopes and the longings of our own souls. ”

“ But it is indispensable to the soul's purification and complete development—indispensable to the unfolding of the highest and noblest life, or to the final victory of the spiritual over the natural man—inseparable from and indispensable to our regeneration. ”

“ But creation is progressive. In this also it is made to typify regeneration. In another parable our Lord has told us how the attainment of the kingdom of heaven, that is, the regeneration of the soul, is a progressive work. It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man—the Lord—took and sowed in the earth—in the human mind; which at first is the least of all seeds, in that spirituality at the beginning of our regeneration is very small, but growing, becomes a great tree, in that as regeneration progresses, we become great in spiritual perceptions, power and goodness. ”

“ When once the inward core of things has been grasped and the transforming experience has occurred, making a new man—freed, illuminated, sin-delivered, with "God the Life of the life and the Soul of the soul" [25] —the outward forms and the external things will fall into the right perspective and will receive their proper emphasis. ”

“ Spiritual development germinates not from seed sown in the soil of earthly hopes; but when these decay, Soul propagates anew the higher joys of Spirit, that have no taint of earth. Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and power. ”

“ Its accomplishment is through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The resuscitation or rebirth of the spirit of man is through the science of the love of God. It is through the efficacy of the water of life. This life and quickening is the regeneration of the phenomenal world. After the coming of the spiritual springtime, the falling of the vernal showers, the shining of the Sun of Reality, the blowing of the breezes of perfection, all phenomena become imbued with the life of a new creation and are reformed in the process of a new genesis. ”

“ The restoring or reviving of the Divine life, in a soul or a Church, is as much a supernatural work. To have the spiritual discernment that can understand the signs of the heavens, and prognosticate the [p184] coming revival, we need to enter deep into God’s mind and will as to its conditions, and the preparedness of those who pray for it or are to be used to bring it about. ”

“ As the regeneration of the soul is first in interest as it respects human welfare, it becomes, therefore, by right of priority, the first spiritual lesson we ought to learn. We would naturally expect to find a statement of its general phases, in the very opening chapter of the Word of God. In this, do we but view the matter aright, we will not be disappointed. The narrative of the Creation is but a parable of the regeneration. The earth is a symbol of the human mind. ”

“ We become regenerate, and thus fulfil the destiny for which we were born, by learning the truths He gives us in his Word and by living in their light. We become spiritual minded by coming into their spirit. ”

“ When a divine spiritual illumination becomes manifest in the world of humanity, when divine instruction and guidance appear, then enlightenment follows, a new spirit is realized within, a new power descends, and a new life is given. ”

“ It must be a process by which there is a constant progressive elevation from the natural to the spiritual; and, as far as possible, from the spiritual to the celestial. On this theme we are furnished with a world of new light in the revelations of the New Church. We there learn that the necessity of regeneration is not grounded solely in the fact, that man, as a fallen being, needs to have restored, by a new birth, the spiritual life which he lost by his apostasy. ”

“ The restoration of pure Christianity rests solely on spiritual understanding, spiritual worship, spiritual power. Ask thyself, Do I enter by the door and worship only Spirit and spiritually, or do I climb up some other way? ”

“ When spiritualization begins, the mind is given a light, and that light invariably leads upward and onward into better things. To spiritualize the mind, the soul must be awakened, and to awaken the soul is to overcome and eliminate the conditions of spiritual death. ”

“ Now, the work of regeneration consists chiefly in bringing the earthly or natural mind into subjection to, and agreement with, the spiritual or heavenly mind; and when this is effected, the Lord's will is done "in earth as it is in heaven." It will be seen, that when there are good and truth in the internal mind—when good is desired, and truth is understood and loved—then in will and in thought, and thence in purpose and intention, man keeps the Divine commandments,—and thus, the Lord's will is done in man's "heaven"—that is, in his internal or spiritual mind. ”

“ Is there not almost everywhere a confession of the lack of spirituality and spiritual power? Let all who long for the coming revival, and seek to hasten it by their prayers, pray this above everything, that the Lord may prepare His prophets to go before Him at His bidding: “Cry aloud and spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression.” Every deep revival among God’s people must have its roots in a deep sense and confession of sin. ”

“ All phases of mind and life and duty have their food, their sustaining truths suited to their form and kind. The higher the phase the more spiritually mature the food, the lower the phase, the more spiritually crude.
Well, we have come to the end of the description of the sixth state of regeneration, as set forth in the parable of creation. The regenerating individual has developed into a true spiritual manhood. The Lord has done the work all the way through; the man has only co-operated. Therefore the expression "And God made" is always used. ”

“ But this abandonment of unholy desire is not a final process, it is the beginning of a regenerative and transforming power which, patiently employed, leads man to the clear and cloudless heights of spiritual enlightenment. ”

“ By the old way you seek to suppress, obey, and conform to the rules of living; by the new way you are first transformed by the Spirit of Truth and thereby strengthened in your inner soul by the constant spiritual renewing of your mind, and so are you endowed with the power of the certain and joyous performance of the gracious, acceptable, and perfect will of God. ”

“ CONVERSIONS AND REGENERATION Conversion seems to me to be largely man's share in the greater fact of regeneration, which is entirely God's work in a human soul.
At a Rescue Mission the theologian could get a new and practical knowledge of the gospel he preaches; the professor of psychology sees how spiritual powers, unseen to mortal eye, can grip the entire machinery of the mind, and by a supernatural application of God's Spirit and the word of God make a man over again.
Hundreds of times have I seen the alchemy of God make men who steal to do God's service ”

“ It is good that regeneration should progress in an orderly way. It is good to gain the knowledges, facts or truths with regard to the Lord, a spiritual world, a spiritual life and other spiritual things, so as to store them away in the memory. ”

“ Is it too unreal a thing to believe that as the material organism is framed and developed in adjustment to the external, natural world, so the spirit is developed by adjustment to the internal, spiritual world; and that the development of man is a perpetual adjustment to the Man in God, the Creator? ”

“ Progress forbids uniformity of type and equality of structure on the spiritual as well as on the physical plane of life. Change and variety of religious feeling are necessary to the evolution of the soul, and should be welcomed as evidence of its growth. ”

“ If we earnestly, continually, and lovingly behold it, the effect will be the changing of our own lives into the same likeness. The transformation is wrought by the divine Spirit, and our part is only to behold, to continue beholding, the blessed beauty. ”

“ We believe that in regeneration a new life principle is begotten in the soul of man by the Holy Spirit, through the Word of Truth, producing a disposition to joyful obedience to Christ and to holy conduct in life. ”

“ To use for a moment the language of mystical theology, conversion, or repentance, the first step towards the spiritual life, consists in a change in the direction of these cravings and desires; purgation or purification, in which the work begun in conversion is made complete, in their steadfast setting in order or re-education, and that refinement and fixation of the most desirable among them which we call the formation of habit, and which is the essence of character building. ”

“ By this incoming spiritual power and life-substance the entire personality of the recipient is affected. The {72} recreative energy which pours in transforms both soul and body. The inner eternal Word of God, who became flesh, acts upon the inner nature of man, so that the believing man is changed into something spiritual, divine and heavenly, and like Jesus Christ, the incarnated Word of God. ”

“ A permanent work, from his point of view, could be accomplished only by the slow and patient development of the religious life and spiritual experience of the people, since the goal which he sought was the formation, not of state-made Churches, but of renewed personal lives, awakened consciences, burning moral passion, and first-hand conviction of immediate relation with the World of Divine Reality. ”

“ Or have we the common sense, the spiritual development and the will to save ourselves? Human nature has changed little during the history of mankind. Our challenge now is to try to develop our spiritual growth so that it will be commensurate with our fantastic material growth. ”

“ For not by vague waves of feeling or by moments of experience which admit no certain measure, no unvarying test, no objective verification, but by an actual change, a cleansing and renewal of our manhood, a transformation which we can mark in human lives and human faces, or trace in that strange trait of saintliness which Christianity has wrought into the rough fabric of human history, may the reality of Sacramental grace be known on earth ”

“ What we are to expect is an awakening of the soul; the rediscovery and rehabilitation of the genuine and indestructible religious instinct. Such a religious revival will be something very different from what we have known under that name. ”

“ What is the state of a soul that is born again; and in what does regeneration consist? In general, we may say, it is that great change by which man passes from a state of nature to a state of grace He was an animal man; in being born again he becomes a spiritual man His natural birth had made him like to fallen Adam—­to the old man, against whom God had pronounced the sentence of death, seeing it is the wages of sin ”

“ It should be viewed not merely as yet another spiritual revival in the ever-changing fortunes of mankind, not only as a further stage in a chain of progressive Revelations, nor even as the culmination of one of a series of recurrent prophetic cycles, but rather as marking the last and highest stage in the stupendous evolution of man’s collective life on this planet. ”

“ Transform our spiritual habits that we may find ourselves able to fix our minds upon things above. Cleanse our hearts by the waters of regeneration, in order that our inclinations may be fixed upon the things that please Thee. Rekindle the fire of our affections, purify the light of our conscience. ”

“ Such a manifestation of Spirit must clearly be made through humanity, at least so far as our own order is concerned: by our redirection and full use of that spirit of life which energizes us, and which, emerging from the more primitive levels of organic creation, is ours to carry on and up—either to new self-satisfactions, or to new consecrations. ”

“ The seven days of creation were thus found to symbolize the seven stages of progress through which man passes in the regeneration. He is born merely natural and at first develops only his natural powers and mind. But it is also designed by his Creator that he shall become spiritual and develop his spiritual powers and mind. This development, always gradual and slow, is called in Scripture the regeneration.
At first, and before regeneration begins, we are in ignorance, or, at least, in non-acknowledgment of spiritual things. A little child knows nothing as to its spiritual nature. ”