Some are born of _blood_. Such may be those who adhere to a certain church, and hold certain articles of faith without examining the Word, because their father and mother and other _blood_ relatives held the same, lived and died in that faith, and lie buried in the churchyard where they worshiped. Some are born of _the will of the flesh_. Such may be those who make a profession of religion; but because they cannot have their own way in everything, and take the _lusts of the flesh_ with them under the cloak of a Christian profession, they either forsake the people of God entirely or else never come into their number. Some are born of the _will of man_. Such may be those who suffer themselves to be influenced by others; coaxed, persuaded, nor even induced by the promise of reward, to join a certain church and worship in a certain way, because it is fashionable and in good style. Some _are born of God_. Such are those who out of an honest heart bring forth the fruit of the Spirit unto perfection. Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, shows the striking contrast between the fruit of man's fleshly, sensual or animal nature and that of his spiritual or renewed nature. The first he calls THE FLESH; the last, THE SPIRIT. Man's spirit is what is born again. In one place he designates the new birth as "being renewed in the _spirit_ of the mind." In another place as "dead to the world, but alive unto God." The prayer of such is: "Lord, what wouldst THOU have me to do?" Finding a clear answer to this prayer in the Word of Truth, they are willing to follow its leadings. They descend into the baptismal wave "for the remission of sins." They go into the house of God and are not above stooping to wash one another's feet. They eat the Lord's Supper. They commune with him in the emblems of his broken body and shed blood. They continue to walk as nearly as they can in all the commands and ordinances of the Lord blameless. The difference between the present and future state of the man who lives after the flesh and that of the man who lives after the spirit is very sharply marked in many places in Paul's writings, in words that cannot be easily misunderstood. He uses such language as this: "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds [lusts] of the body, ye shall live." "To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." "He that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God,"--which is the new birth,--"is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." All these quotations are in perfect accord with our Lord's closing words to the Sermon on the Mount: "Every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: ... and it fell: and great was the fall of it."