The First Sphere of Regeneration

“He that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And He delivered him to his mother.” — LukKs vii. 15.

$6 E delivered him to his mother.” Is it

not a lame and impotent conclusion! Would you not have expected that if a man were raised from death to life it would be for the sake of entering into higher spheres! We hear of men every day raised from death to life, or, as we say, “regenerated”; and we always take it for granted that when the new life has come it will soar up in Elijah’s chariot, will leave the old things behind. But are we right in taking this for granted! Why should not the new life rather be given to fill the old sphere better! Have any of us, when we are dead in trespasses and in sin, been adequate to what we call the lower sphere! Do you think an unregenerate man is well fitted for

the domestic duties of this widow’s son at

Nain! Certainly not. Such a man will be no more at home in the family of earth than in the family of heaven. When Christ infuses new life into a man it is not to do new work. The old work has not been properly done. It is not as if he were too advanced for his present school and had to be promoted to a higher school. He has not been up to his village school; it has been beyond him. He has never been able to fulfil the domestic duties of the Nain household. It is to help him to fulfil these duties that the new life comes. Doubtless it has larger spheres beyond; but this is its opening sphere. LElijah’s chariot must not begin by bearing him up; it must bear him round. It must go over the old circle where he used to walk with tottering steps. and work with feeble hands. It must first let him down at his own door. He must enter the old home with a new spirit. He must resume the household task with a fresh heart. He must do by the will what he had tried to do by the law. Truly it is a grand saying that when Jesus had raised the young man “He delivered him to his mother”!

Lord, it is not for new work I want Thy Spirit. I do not seek loftier spheres. I want to revisit the old scenes. If Thou wilt open a new lens in the eye, the things I should like first to see are the former things. I should like to go back to the haunts of early days. I should like to find new beauties in the old flowers, fresh lights in the familiar faces. I would not be transplanted to the stars till I had seen the earth. May Thy Spirit lead me back — back to what once was my wilderness! May it lead me to the ancient pastures with a restored soul! May it deliver me again into the ties of human relationship — into the family circle, the home duties, the domestic round! May I, like Lazarus risen from the dead, resume my place at the social board — dispense, with heavenly hand, the hospitalities of earth! Let me weave by the light of Eternity the garments which I wove by the light of Time! — only when I am raised into newness of life shall I do the work of the village of Nain.