men, and especially for inebriates, as the surest hope of a real and
permanent reformation of life. And intemperate men, especially those
who become demented rather than demonized, it is well known, are always
easily moved by religious influences, even when so drunk that they would
wisely be deemed incompetent to execute a will for the disposal of
earthly property, and incapable of giving testimony in a court of law.

"Yet, this idea of a spiritual renovation of the heart, while the head
is too intoxicated to apprehend a moral obligation, is almost beyond
rational belief. It is difficult to conceive that any man, in such a
state of voluntarily-induced imbecility, too drunk to hold intelligent
converse with men, can be competent to transact business with God, to
receive and answer those calls from the Holy Spirit that decide the
eternal destinies of the soul."

And he adds: "We judge instinctively that all men, intemperate or sober,
must work out their own salvation with fear, while God works in them to
will and to do."

This is the key-note to the whole subject of spiritual regeneration. It
is active co-operation; work, conflict, victory; and this down on the
sphere of common life, and in the midst of temptation--not out of the
world, but "in the world;" not something done in and for a man while he
waits in prayer on God, but after he has fought his battle with some
enemy of his soul, and overcome in the strength which God has given him
in answer to prayer. Only they who have fought and conquered can possess
the land and dwell there in safety.


AN UNSOUND AND DANGEROUS DOCTRINE.